Where Camille lived, the sunflowers grew so high they looked like real suns.

Every day he crossed the sunflower field to meet his father, the postman.

He loved to help his father unload the bags of mail from the train every day.

One day, a strange man came toCamille´s village.

Hello! I´m Vincent, the

painter.

He came to live in the little yellow house on Camille´s street. He had no money and no friends.

Camille and his father decided to help him and they took furniture to his new house.

Camille took a bunch ofsunflowers and he put them in a brown vase.

Vincent was very happy, so he painted a portrait of Camille´s father.

The portrait was strange, but beautiful!

He also painted portraits of his mother,

his big brother

and of his baby sister.

And, of course, he painted a portrait ofCamille.

Camille was very proud of his portrait. He took it to school because he wanted to show it to his friends.

But they didn´t like it and they laughed at him.

That made Camille feel very sad.

After school, some of the children ran after Vincent when he was going to paint.It´s time for you to get a real job!

Camille spent hours watching Vincent paint. He could draw landscapes, mountains and the sun.

I´m sad, I can´t sell my

paintings!

If I had money I would buy them

all!

Some of the older boys threw stones at Vincent and laughed at him. But he never lost his smile.

Camille saw the beauty in Vincent's art and it hurt him to discover that the other villagers did not appreciate Vincent's talent and did not like having him live in their

village.

People laugh at things they don´t understand, but I´ve got a feeling that Vincent´s art will be loved one day.

That night Camille had a strange dream. In his dream, Vincent was painting the stars.

He woke up in the middle of the night. Some of the villagers had come to see his father.

Vincent must leave this town!

Camille ran off to Vincent´s yellow house. He wanted to warn his friend.

When he opened the door, he saw the sunflowers. They were all dry and dead.Camille felt very sad.

Vincent was in his bedroom packing his bags.

He looked tired, but he smiled when he saw Camille.

Don´t be sad Camille! I´ll move to another village where they may like my paintings!

Before I go, I´d like to show you something.

It was a painting of Camille´s sunflowers!They looked brighter than ever!

Goodbye Sunflower man!

Camille´s father was right. People learned to love Vincent´s paintings. Today they cost a lot of money.

Nowadays people from all over the world go to museums to see the paintings of Camille and his family, the Yellow house and, especially, the Sunflowers.

Cuento original: Laurence Aholt, “Camille y los girasoles”

Do you want to learn more about Vincent Van Gogh????

YES, PLEASE!!!!!!