The Young Ant
supporting · insect
She was carrying a grain across the store room when the knock came, and she was still holding it a long time after the door shut.
What they are like
- Kind
- 8/10
- Brave
- 3/10
- Clever
- 6/10
- Honest
- 8/10
- Curious
- 9/10
- Patient
- 6/10
How we meet them
As movement stopping. She is crossing the store room with a grain when the knock comes, and she simply halts, which is how we know something is happening at the door.
Personality
Obedient, quick, and one summer too young to have stopped asking. She does what she is told and then thinks about it afterwards, which is a harder way to live than either of the others has chosen.
What they want
To do it properly, and to understand why it is done that way.
How they change
Watches the whole exchange through a gap in a doorway, asks the only question anybody asks in the story, and does not get an answer to it.
How they speak
One line in the whole story, and it comes out flat instead of curling up at the end, because she already knows she is not going to be answered.
How the story treats them
The older ant treats her as a pair of hands. The grasshopper never sees her at all. She is the only one in the story who is undecided, which makes her the reader.
One surprising thing
In the oldest versions there is not one ant but a whole nest of them, and only one of them speaks. Samuel Croxall's 1775 English text calls them a commonwealth of ants.
If they were real today
She would be the new person in the room who asks the question everybody else stopped asking years ago.
Things they say
- “Should we have given him something.”
Key moments
She stopped walking
The knock comes and she halts halfway across the store room with a grain in both front legs, watching the gap in the door over the older ant's shoulder. She does not put the grain down.
The only question in the story
After the door shuts she asks whether they should have given him something. It does not come out as a question. She gets an answer about arithmetic, and then nobody moves for a while.
“Should we have given him something.”
Who they know
The Antcolleague
The one who decided a long time ago, and the one who has not decided yet, standing in the same warm room.
Characters like The Young Ant
Personalised stories are coming soon
A brand new story with your child as the main character, illustrated on every page. We are not taking orders yet. Join the waitlist and we will email you when it opens.