Max冬冬

Ginger was a lucky cat.
He lived with a little girl who made him delicious meals and gave him a beautiful basket,
where he would curl up...
and close his eyes.
Here he is, fast asleep.
But here he is again, WIDE AWAKE.
What&`&s this?
A Kitten!
"He&`&ll be a nice new friend for you, Ginger," said the little girl.
But Ginger didn&`&t want a new friend,
especially one like this.
Ginger hoped the kitten would go away, but he didn&`&t.
Everywhere Ginger went, the kitten followed,
springing out from behind doors,
leaping on to Ginger&`&s back,
even eating Ginger&`&s food!
What a naughty kitten!
But what upset Ginger more than anything was that whenever he got into his beautiful basket,
the kitten always climbed in too,
and the little girl didn&`&t do anything about it.
So Ginger decided to leave home.
He went out through the cat flap and he didn&`&t come back.
The kitten waited for a bit, then he got into Ginger&`&s basket.
It wasn&`&t the same without Ginger.
The kitten played with some flowers,
then he found somewhere to sharpen his claws.
The little girl found him on the table drinking some milk.
"You naughty kitten!" she said.
"I thought you were with Ginger. Where is he anyway?"
She looked in Ginger&`&s basket,
but of course he wasn&`&t there.
"Perhaps he&`&s eating his food," she said.
But Ginger wasn&`&t there either.
"I hope he&`&s not upset," she said.
"I hope he hasn&`&t run away."
She put on her wellingtons and went out into the garden,
and that is where she found him;
a very wet, sad, cold Ginger, hiding under a bush.
The little girl carried Ginger and the kitten inside.
"It&`&s a pity you can&`&t be friends," she said.
She gave Ginger a special meal.
She gave the kitten a little plate of his own.
The she tucked Ginger into his own warm basket.
All she could find for the kitten to sleep in was a little tiny cardboard box.
But the kitten didn&`&t mind,
because cats love cardboard boxes (however small they are).
So when the little girl went in to see the two cats again,
THIS is how she found them.
And now Ginger and the naughty kitten get along very well...
most of the time!

Once upon a time, there was a little crocodile.
And this little crocodile didn't like water.
He longed to play with his brothers and sisters.
But they were far too busy with swim club.
And this little crocodile didn't like swim club.
What he really liked was climbing trees!
But nobody else did.
It was lonely having nobody to play with.
So the little crocodile made a decision.
He had saved up his money from the tooth fairy,
and he knew exactly what to buy with it.
The next afternoon he took his new rubber ring over to the water.
Today he would play with his brothers and sisters.
But he couldn't play ball.
Or swim underwater.
And although climbing the ladder was fun,
he just didn't want to JUMP.
But he didn't want to be alone.
So he decided to try, one last time...
One, twooo, two and a half, THREEEEE!
SPLOSH
GLUG
HELP!
This little crocodile definitely hated water.
It was cold, it was wet,
and it was embarrassing.
But then something strange happened.
His nose began to tickle,
and the tickle grew, and grew, and grew, until...
AAAACHOOOOO!
This little crocodile didn't like water,
because he wasn't a crocodile at all!
He was a DRAGON.
And this little dragon wasn't born to swim.
He was born to breathe fire.
And he was born to fly!

Harry was a white dog with black spots who liked everything about the seashore,
except...the hot sun.
One day when the sun was hotter than ever,
Harry looked for a shady place to sit.
But when he tried to get under the family&`&s beach umbrella...
it was too crowded and the family made him leave.
When he crawled into the children&`&s sand castle...
the walls fell in and the children chased him away.
When he walked in the shade that a fat lady made...
she became angry and made him stop following her.
"Get lost!" she said. She was very annoyed.
The sun was very hot and Harry had walked a long way from the main beach.
He was tired, so he sat down at the water&`&s edge.
All of a sudden a big wave came from behind and crashed right on top of him.
When the wave rolled back, Harry was left floating in the water.
He was completely covered with seaweed.
He didn&`&t look like a dog anymore--
he looked like something from the bottom of the sea.
Suddenly a lady saw him floating toward her.
"Help! Help!" she shrieked. "It&`&s a Sea Monster!"
The lifeguard heard her and blew his whistle.
"Everybody out!" he shouted. "Everybody out!"
Everyone ran out of the water, and so did Harry.
He was still covered with cold, wet seaweed.
It made him feel cool and comfortable, and now he didn&`&t mind the sun at all.
He felt so good, he started running back to his family.
On his way, some people saw him.
"It&`&s a Sea Serpent!" one of the them screamed.
"It&`&s a Giant Sandworm!" shrieked another.
Harry had water in his ears and could hardly hear them.
He kept on running toward the main beach.
When he got there, Harry stopped and stared.
Instead of just his family&`&s umbrella, now there were hundreds of them.
They were all striped--just like his family&`&s.
Harry couldn&`&t tell one umbrella from another.
Suddenly two beach attendants saw him.
"Holy smoke!" one of them gasped."What&`&s that?"
"It&`&s a Bushy-backed Sea Slug!" exclaimed the other.
They whispered for a moment.
Then they ran.
Harry went from umbrella to umbrella, but he couldn&`&t find his family.
Everyone wore sun hats and sunglasses, and everyone used suntan oil -- just like his family.
Harry looked and sniffed very hard, but it was no use.
He couldn&`&t tell one family from another.
Suddenly the two beach attendants came running back carrying a big trash basket.
They ran toward Harry.
"Stand back!" one of them said to the crowd.
"We&`&re going to catch it and take it to the Aquarium!" said the other.
Then they tiptoed right up behind Harry and raised the trash basket over his head.
Harry didn&`&t know the beach attendants were behind him.
He was listening to something.
He thought he heard someone calling his name.
There it was again. "Harry! Harry! Harry!"
Now Harry was sure. He didn&`&t wait another second.
Just as the basket came down -- he ran!
He ran right out from under the basket!
It happened so fast, the beach attendants just stood there with their mouths open.
As he raced through the crowd some people screamed, some people ran, and some people did both.
But Harry paid no attention.
He kept on running across the beach.
When he got to the Hot Dog stand, he stopped and barked happily.
Behind the counter the Hot Dog man was shouting.
It was his voice that Harry had heard.
But Harry had water in his ears and couldn&`&t hear very well.
The man wasn&`&t shouting, "Harry! Harry! Harry!"
He was shouting, "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Get&`&em while they&`&re hot!"
Harry still thought the man was calling his name.
He barked and jumped with joy.
He jumped so much that suddenly...
the seaweed all fell off!
When the crowd saw that Harry was a dog, they gasped.
They could hardly believe their eyes.
All at once Harry began to jump higher than ever.
He saw the children!
They were running toward him.
"Oh, Harry!" they cried."We heard you bark!"
"We&`&ve been looking all over for you!"
Harry was so happy, he did a little dance.
The Hot Dog man was very grateful to Harry for bringing the crowd to his stand.
He sold all the hot dogs he had.
He gave Harry a free hamburger.
The lady who had told Harry to "get lost" came along and bought him a cold drink.
"You&`&re no Sea Monster," she said. "You&`&re just a lost, hot dog."
Everyone laughed except the two children.
"He&`&s not lost!" one of them said.
"He&`&s Harry and he&`&s ours!"
Then they hurried off to join the rest of the family.
The next time Harry&`&s family went to the beach, they brought a new umbrella.
Harry liked this one very much.
It was white with black spots.
No matter how crowded the beach became, it was easy to find.
But best of all -- it was big, and when the sun got very hot, there was room underneath for them all.

Chapter 12 Poor Miss Daisy

Monday at school, we had social studies. Miss Daisy said she was really sorry, but she didn’t know anything at all about social studies and that we would have to help her.
“I don’t even know the name of the first president of the United States,” she told us.
“You don’t?” we all said.
“I haven’t a clue.”
“It was George Washington!” we all shouted.
“Really?” Miss Daisy said with a wink. “Never heard of him.”
I was beginning to suspect that Miss Daisy might have been just pretending that she didn’t know anything all along. One day I caught her looking at a piece of paper, and her eyes were moving back and forth like she was watching a Ping-Pong game.
“Hey, you’re reading!” I said.
“I am not!” she insisted. “You know I can’t read.”
“Then how come your eyes are moving back and forth like you’re watching a Ping-Pong game?”
“I—I was just thinking about this great Ping-Pong game I saw once,” she replied. “It was great. You should have been there.”
Maybe she was joking, and maybe she wasn’t. You can never tell with Crazy Miss Daisy.
If it turns out that Miss Daisy really doesn’t know anything, I feel a little sorry for her. The kids in our school had read a million pages, and she couldn’t read one page. The kids in our class knew how to spell, and do arithmetic and social studies. She hardly knew anything at all!
“Don’t feel bad, Miss Daisy,” I told her. “We’ll teach you reading, writing, and arithmetic. And we won’t tell Principal Klutz how dumb you are.” She gave me a big hug.
It will be hard work teaching Miss Daisy everything that she doesn’t know. I think that by the end of the year, if the whole class works together, we just might bring her up to second-grade level.
But it won’t be easy.

Chapter 11 We Rule the School!

Finally the big moment arrived. It was Andrea Young (of course!) who read the one-millionth page. We all cheered when Miss Daisy went out in the hallway and filled in the top of the thermometer all the way up to the words One million.
That Friday night, everybody in the whole school showed up at school. Can you believe it? I actually couldn’t wait to get to school . . . on the weekend! When we got there, a big banner was hanging over the front door that said WE READ A MILLION PAGES! on it. Principal Klutz was waiting for us. He was wearing a gorilla suit, just like he promised. Inside there was a table of snacks and treats and juice. Miss Daisy had brought in bonbons.
But best of all, the gym was filled wall to wall with video games!
I had never seen so many video games in my life. Families had brought in lots of TV sets, game systems, and games, and lined them up all around the gym. We could play all we wanted, and the only rule was that you had to take turns.
For the kids who didn’t like video games, there were tables of board games set up in the middle of the gym. (I think they’re called board games because you get so bored playing them.)
I played just about every video game in the gym. After a few hours of staring into screens, I had a splitting headache, my hands hurt, and I thought my eyes were going to fall out of my head.
It was the greatest night of my life.

Chapter 10 Football Players Are Really Dumb

“Boys and girls, today we have a very special and famous guest,” Miss Daisy said. “His name is Boomer Wiggins.”
“Wow!” was the first thing everybody said.
“Who’s he?” was the second thing everybody said.
But I knew who Boomer Wiggins was. Because Boomer Wiggins was my hero. He was the quarterback of my favorite football team, the Chargers! Wow! A real foot- ball player right in our classroom! Miss Daisy told us that Boomer Wiggins had a daughter in fourth grade, and that’s why he was spending the day at our school.
When Boomer Wiggins walked into the class, everybody gasped. He was really big and had so many muscles that they poked right against his shirt! We all crowded around him, and Boomer let us feel his arm muscles. I couldn’t even get my hands around them! Then Boomer picked up Emily with one hand! He was amazing. Then he gave each of us a little plastic football, and he signed his name on each one.
“Does anybody have any questions?” Boomer asked.
“Do you like knocking guys on their butts?” I asked.
Everybody laughed, even though I didn’t say anything that was funny. Miss Daisy said it was “butt,” not “butts,” because a person only has one butt. But I said a butt was divided into two halves, so really it could be“butts.” Miss Daisy said that was enough of that talk. I said she shouldn’t be complaining because she was the one who started it.
“I don’t like knocking people down,” Boomer told us, “but sometimes we have to because it’s part of the game.”
“Mr. Wiggins,” asked Miss Daisy, “is it true that football players are really dumb?”
We all gasped. I was afraid Boomer Wiggins might knock Miss Daisy on her butt.
“Excuse me?” Boomer said, like he wasn’t sure if he had heard the question.
“Well, somebody once told me that if you play football, you don’t have to know how to read or write or do arithmetic or go to school.”
“Who told you that?” Boomer asked Miss Daisy.
Everybody looked at me. I slid down so that my head was almost under my desk, and I hid behind my notebook.
“Oh, a good friend of mine told me,” Miss Daisy said. “Is it true?”
“If I didn’t go to school, I never could have become a football player,” Boomer told us. “I have to read and study my playbook very carefully. I have to write letters to my fans. Every week I have to study very hard to get ready for the next game.”
“Did you go to college?” asked Miss Daisy.
“Yes,” Boomer said, “and when my football career is over, I plan to go back to school so I can become a doctor.”
“Wow!” I said. “I want to go to college someday so I can become a doctor and knock guys on their butts. I mean butt.”
Everybody laughed, even though I didn’t say anything funny. Then, to prove how smart he was, Boomer Wiggins read us a book and passed out bookmarks that said “Achieve Your Goal
by Reading” on them.
Miss Daisy said that even though Boomer read the book to us, we could still add fifty-two pages to the total number of pages we’ve read.
The temperature level on the thermometer in the hallway kept getting higher and higher.