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Little Digital
presents

Have You Seen My Belly Button?

written by Megan Borgert-Spaniol
illustrations by Maggie Rosier-DeGrood
“I win!” Owl exclaimed.
She and bear were racing sticks in the creek.
“I don't want to play anymore,” Bear said.
“You always win.”
“I choose the right sticks.”
“See?”
“Hey, what’s that?”
“What?”
“That dot on your belly!” Owl said.
“Oh! That’s my
belly button.”
“What does it do?”
“Not much. Sometimes I put things in there.
I find stuff in it, too.”
“Look!”
Owl searched her own belly and found nothing.
 “Where is my belly button?”
 “Maybe you lost it.”
“Oh no!”
This wouldn’t be the first time Owl had misplaced something.
What would Mother say?
“We must find my belly button!”
Owl and Bear searched high...
...and low.
“Have you seen
this belly button?”
“Looks familiar . . . Is that it?”
“I’m not sure this is what I’m looking for.”
“Thanks anyway.”
“Have you seen
this belly button?”
“Sure I have. There’s a bunch over there.”
“These look more like Bear’s favorite treats.”
“Blueberries!
“Have you seen
this belly button?”
“I’m sorry, I have not seen that.
Here, have a hat.”
Owl sighed.
“There are too many woods for such a small button.”
Then, she had an idea !
Owl ran home.
She found a button and some glue.
Perfect!”
Just then, Mother walked in.
“That’s a nice button you have. Where did you get it?”
Owl froze.
She did not know how to say things to Mother that were not true.
“It’s my—my belly button.”
“Owl,” Mother said gently, “you don’t have a belly button.”
“I don’t?”
“But Bear has one! I figured I must have lost mine.”
Mother set Owl onto a stool and began to carefully remove the button from Owl’s belly.
“Before Bear was born, he lived inside his
mother. His belly button connected
him to her.”
“Before you were born, you lived inside an
egg. You had a belly button too, but it
went away after you hatched.”
“Bear keeps things in his button.
He finds things in it, too.”
Mother nodded.
“That’s nice.”
“But I have feathers. I can puff them
out, and sometimes I find twigs or bugs
between them.”
“That’s right,” Mother said. “You do.”
“And I have a beak!
Bear doesn’t have a beak.”
Mother smiled. “Bear doesn’t need a beak.”
“Yeah,” Owl agreed.
“We both have what we need.”
“Except . . . weren’t you wearing a hat this morning?” Mother asked.
“Uh oh.”
“The bad news is . . .
I don’t know where my hat is.”
“And the
good news?”
Owl grabbed a stack of paper and some markers.
“The good news is, I know I had it in the first place!”
The End
about the author
Megan Borgert-Spaniol is a freelance writer and editor of children’s print and digital media. She is the author of more than 200 children’s books on topics ranging from mindfulness and spirituality to capybaras and castles.

Megan lives in Minneapolis, where she enjoys walking the lakes, baking cookies, and dancing for her unimpressed cat.

Last she checked, she still has her belly button.
about the illustrator
Maggie Rosier-DeGrood was raised in the wild woodlands of Northern Minnesota.

After studying art and design in college, she was lucky enough to spend years creating children's books and doing graphic design professionally.

Now settled in rural Minnesota, Maggie spends her days running after two little boys, operating on little sleep and illustrating in the cracks of freetime.

She also, most probably, has at least one belly button on hand.
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