Max冬冬

Miko是一只小老鼠。他的好朋友Mimiki是一只比他还要小得多的小老鼠。他们的生日是同一天。Miko得到了很多生日礼物，他想跟Mimiki分享。可是，这些礼物对Mimiki来说都太大了！Miko能想出好办法来庆祝他们的生日吗？

“Wake up Mimiki! Today is the best day ever! It’s my birthday! There will be pancakes, and I will get lots of presents!”
Mom made Miko’s favorite breakfast.
She told him stories about when he was smaller.
“What about Mimiki?” asked Miko. “How old is he?”
“He is exactly as old as you are,” answered Mom. “Today is his birthday, too.”
“Wow!” said Miko. “A double birthday! But who will give Mimiki presents?” wondered Miko. “I know… I can give him one of mine!”
Mimiki smiled. Miko really was his best friend!
DING-DONG!
The mailman was at the door.
He delivered a present from Grandma and Grandpa.
“Thank you!” Miko said.
He and Mimiki were both excited.
Miko and Mimiki put the box on the table with the other presents.
“Wow! Look at all of them! I wonder what’s inside, don’t you?” Miko whispered into Mimiki’s ear.
Mom sang Happy Birthday, and Miko opened his first present.
“Yeah!” shouted Miko.
Grandma and Grandpa sent building blocks!
“We can build a house or an airport!” said Miko.
Mimiki nodded excitedly, but the blocks were too big for his little paws.
“Maybe the next present is a better one for you,” said Miko.
“Super!” shouted Miko.
Mom’s present was a cassette recorder.
Miko had been wishing for one for a long time.
“We can record ourselves,” Miko explained to Mimiki. “I’ll show you how. Sing something.”
But Mimiki just sat there. He was too embarrassed to sing.
“Hmm,” said Miko. “This isn’t the right present for you either.”
The present from Aunt Marie was a picture book.
“Look Mimiki. It’s the one we saw on TV!”
But, Mimiki couldn’t open the book. It was too big.
“That’s okay,” said Miko. “I’ll keep this present. Maybe the next one is better for you…”
“Look! Uncle Max sent a remote control car! Wow!” Miko tried it immediately.
“Mimiki, you just press here. Brummm… then it goes!”
But Mimiki wasn’t strong enough to press the button.
“It doesn’t matter,” comforted Miko. “I can play with it.”
Miko steered the car under the table and across the rug.
It was his best birthday ever!
Suddenly, Miko realized that he was alone.
Where was Mimiki?
It was his birthday, too…
“Oh, no!” realized Miko.
“Mimiki still didn’t get a birthday present!”
Mimiki was sitting on the couch with Mom.
He looked sad.
“What should we do?” asked Miko.
“You can’t build things, you can’t sing, you can’t turn pages, and you can’t steer. Not one birthday present was the perfect one for you…”
Miko thought some more…
“But Mimiki,” said Miko suddenly…
“You can live in the house that I build! And we can listen to our favorite songs while we look at the book together! You can even ride in the car. And, I promise not to steer too fast!”
“You know what… We should celebrate our birthday again!” said Miko.
“Then I can give you half of all of my presents and we will always play with them together! It will be much more fun that way. Deal?”
Mimiki hugged Miko. “Deal!”
It was the best birthday they ever had!

Chapter 7 Performance Art

There’s a garden in the back of the Museum of Hanging Garbage. We went out there, and Ms. Hannah gave out pretzels and punch to all of us. She said we could run around and burn off some energy.
We were munching the pretzels when Michael noticed a statue at the other end of the garden. It was a statue of a guy. He was dressed in a raincoat and he was holding an umbrella. The cool thing was that the statue guy was painted gold from head to toe.
“Now that is cool,” I said.
A bunch of people were standing around in a circle looking at the statue guy.
“Hey, wait a minute!” Michael said. “I just saw that statue guy move.”
“He did not,” I said.
“Did too,” said Michael.
I went over to the statue guy. There was a hat on the ground in front of him, and there was money in it. That was weird. If it was a statue, why would anybody give it money?
The statue guy wasn’t moving at all. I walked around him real slow. I said “Boo!” to him. He didn’t move. I wanted to touch him to see if he was a real statue, but I was scared.
I looked in the statue guy’s eyes. They sure looked real, but he wasn’t moving a muscle.
“See, I told you,” I said to Michael. “It’s just a stat—”
But just as I said it, the statue guy suddenly picked up his hand and put it on my head!
I screamed and jumped about three feet in the air! All the people who were watching started to laugh even though there wasn’t anything funny about it.
I hadn’t been so scared since I went to this haunted mansion on Halloween and all these zombies were jumping out from behind the walls. When that statue guy moved, I thought I was going to die.
Ms. Hannah came over and put her arm around me.
“See, that’s art too, A.J.!” she said as she put some money in the statue guy’s hat.
“This man has turned himself into a work of art! It’s just like I always tell you.
Art is everywhere. This is called performance art!”
Performance art? Performance art? I think maybe when I grow up, I will paint myself gold and stand around doing nothing but scaring kids all day. That performance art stuff is cool.

For a few days, I was the star of the school. No kid had ever been inside the teachers’ lounge. I was probably the first one in the history of the world.
Everybody wanted to know about the incredible things I saw in the teachers’ lounge. Kids were even offering me candy to tell them.
I didn’t want to tell them the teachers’ lounge was just a boring old room where the teachers sat around eating lunch. I didn’t want to lie, either. So I just told them that the teachers blindfolded me and said they would torture me if I ever revealed what went on in the teachers’ lounge. It was cool.
Our next art class wasn’t an art class at all. Ms. Hannah took us on a field trip to a museum.
I hate museums. Museums are boring.
“Why don’t we ever take a field trip to a cool place like a skateboard park?” I asked Ryan on the bus ride over to the museum.
“What’s so great about skateboard parks?” Andrea asked from the seat in front of me.
“Well, for one thing, you’re not there,” I said. Ryan laughed.
Andrea made a mean face at me. “I like museums,” she said. “My mom takes me to museums all the time.”
“Too bad she doesn’t leave you there,” I said.
Ryan laughed.
We walked around the museum for about a million hundred hours. Ms. Hannah was all excited. She just about ran from room to room telling us about all the wonderful art.
It was horrible and boring, and I was hungry and my legs were tired. I looked for a place to sit down.
There were some big boxes of soup cans in the corner, and I went to take a rest on them. But as soon as I sat down, all these loud bells started ringing and guards came running over. One of them was blowing a whistle, and he started yelling at me.
“Get up!” he shouted. “You can’t sit there!”
“Okay, okay!” I said, getting up fast. “I’ll sit someplace else.” What’s the big deal? I wondered.
The guard looked like he was going to arrest me or something. Luckily Ms. Hannah ran over and rescued me. I asked her what I did, and she told me that I had sat on some art.
“That’s art?” I asked. “I thought it was boxes of soup.”
“It’s modern art!” she said. “That is a famous sculpture that is worth millions of dollars.”
It looked like soup boxes to me. Ms. Hannah told me to remember that art is everywhere, so I should be careful what I sat on. She put her arm around me and kept it there for the rest of the time we were in the museum.
We walked around and she kept pointing out the beautiful artwork all over the place.
“Look at this!” she kept saying. “Isn’t it marvelous?’
We stopped in front of a painting. It was just a bunch of lines and squares and box shapes. It was really stupid.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Ms. Hannah said. “It’s called ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie.’”
“My little sister could paint that with her eyes closed,” I said.
The next room didn’t have any paintings on the walls at all. But all kinds of junk was hanging from the ceiling.
“Can anybody tell me what these are?” Ms. Hannah asked us.
“That must be the museum’s garbage,” I told her. “When my family goes camping, we hang our garbage from a tree so the bears and raccoons don’t get it.”
“They don’t have bears and raccoons in museums, dumbhead,” Andrea said. “Those things are called mobiles.”
“That’s right, Andrea!” Ms. Hannah said, and Andrea stuck her tongue out at me. I hate her. “They are also called kinetic sculptures.”
“What does that mean?” Emily asked.
“It means it comes from Connecticut,” I told her.
“No, kinetic means ‘movement,’” Ms. Hannah said. “The sculptures can move.”
“Don’t tell me that’s art,” I said, looking at one of those Connecticut things.
“Not only is this art,” Ms. Hannah said, “it’s a masterpiece!”
“Look like hanging garbage to me,” I said. This museum was the weirdest museum in the history of museums. I was bored and hungry, and I wanted to sit down. Finally Ms. Hannah said we could go outside in the garden and have a snack.
“Before we leave the museum,” she started, “does anybody have any questions?”
I raised my hand. “If all of the stuff in here is art, how do they know what to throw away as garbage?” I asked. “Do they ever throw the art away by accident and leave the garbage here?” How do they know which is which?”
Everybody laughed even though I didn’t say anything funny. I never did find out how they threw their garbage away.

Chapter One
Mr. Brown liked three things: ghost books, cheese, and cats.
“I will buy a bookstore,” said Mr. Brown.
And he did!
He sold only ghost books.
Then he said, “I need a friend. I will get a cat.”
And he did!
His cat was not like other cats.
She did not like fish.
But she loved cheese.
Mr. Brown and his cat ate cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
They lived above the bookstore.
Mice lived in their house, too.

Chapter Two
One day, a woman came in to buy a book.
She saw a mouse.
“Eeeek!” she screamed.
She ran out of the store.
A man ran out, too.
“The Black Cat Bookstore has mice,” they said.
Nobody wanted to come to the store.
“This is your job,” Mr. Brown told his cat.
“You are the cat. You catch the mice.”
So the cat went to the mouse hole.
The mice were scared.
But the cat said, “I am not like other cats. I like mice.”
And she did!
The cat and the mice played together.
Mr. Brown was not happy.
“Those mice are scaring people away!” he said.
“If they do not come in to buy my books, I will have to close the store down. You have three days to catch the mice,” he told his cat.
“Tomorrow is Day One.”
“Mr. Brown says you are scaring the people away,” the cat said to the mice.
“But this is a ghost bookstore,” said a mouse. “It should be scary.”
Then the cat said, “I have a plan.”

Chapter Three
Day One came.
Day One for the cat and Day One of the plan.
A boy was walking by the store.
CRASH!
A book fell off a shelf.
THUMP!
Another book fell on the floor.
“Did you see that?” said the boy.
He went into the store.
CRASH! THUMP!
More books fell.
“The Black Cat Bookstore has a real ghost,” the boy said.
Then his friends came into the store.
Day Two came.
Day Two for the cat and Day Two of the plan.
The ghost was very busy.
So was the store.
Everyone wanted to see the ghost.
The cat purred.
Her plan was working.
On Day Three, the store was busier than ever.
At the end of the day, there was only one book left!
“I will not have to close the store down after all,” said Mr. Brown to his cat.
“Tonight, we will celebrate. We will have a cheese feast.”

Chapter Four
“I like my ghost,” said Mr. Brown.
“But I still don’t like those mice. Have you caught them?”
The cat purred.
She rubbed against Mr. Brown’s legs.
Then she walked away.
“Shall I follow you?” he asked.
He followed her to a bookshelf.
“Maybe I will see my ghost,” he said.
The mice waited for him.
They pushed the last book off the shelf.
CRASH!
The mice looked at Mr. Brown.
Mr. Brown looked at the mice.
“I see,” said Mr. Brown.
“Do ghosts like cheese?” he asked the mice.
Now they all live together.
The store is always busy.
And Mr. Brown likes four things: ghost books, cheese, his cat…
and his ghost!

One day my teacher said, “A new critter is coming to our class tomorrow.”
I was glad. I hoped the new critter would be someone really cool.
Then my teacher said, “Our new student is a very special critter. He can’t walk, so he uses a wheelchair. I want you all to try very hard to make him feel at home.”
I was a little scared because I had never known anyone in a wheelchair before.
I told my dad about it.
He said, “Just because he’s in a wheelchair doesn’t mean he’s any different than the rest of you. He probably just needs some special help once in a while.”
I thought that made sense.
The next day they brought the new student to our class.
He looked scared.
But his wheelchair was really cool.
It had stickers of dinosaurs and funny monsters all over it.
My teacher said, “This is our new student. Alex, we are very happy to have you in our class.”
Then we all introduced ourselves.
I was curious about Alex.
So was everyone else.
At recess we all talked to Alex.
Some critters asked him questions about his wheelchair.
He didn’t seem to mind.
At first everyone in the class thought Alex needed a lot of help.
We were wrong.
He can go almost anywhere he wants in his wheelchair.
Once in a while he needs a little push to get over a bump.
His wheelchair can’t go up stairs, so he rolls it up the special ramp at school.
His wheelchair has pouches to carry his books and things he needs for school.
Sometimes he even carries my books for me.
Sometimes Alex needs help reaching things way up high.
Sometimes I do, too.
He plays games in the playground with the rest of us.
When we play dodgeball, he always gets the most people out.
And he’s great at volleyball.
He does have a little trouble with hide-and-seek, though.
Alex rides a special bus.
It has a lift that takes his wheelchair up and down.
We take turns helping him to the bus.
Alex likes the same things my other friends like.
He plays with race cars and dinosaurs and he loves Super Critter.
For our Halloween party at school, Alex dressed up like a car.
He had the best costume in the whole school.
He’s a good artist, too.
He won an art contest at school and our class got an ice cream party.
Once in a while something will come up that Alex needs help with.
But it’s no big deal.
Sometimes I need him to help me, too.
My dad was right about Alex.
Even though he’s a special critter, he’s just one of the gang.

Trashy Town讲述的是一个收垃圾的工人Mr. Gilly的故事。
每天早上 Mr. Gilly驾驶着收垃圾的卡车走遍大街小巷。

Mr. Gilly is a trashman.
In the morning, Mr. Gilly puts on his heavy gloves.
He climbs into his big trash truck.
He turns the key.
He drives his empty truck down the street.
He is looking for trash.
STOP!
There are trash cans by the school.
Mr. Gilly empties the cans into the truck.
Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!
Is the trash truck full yet?
NO.
Mr. Gilly drives on.
STOP!
There are trash cans in the park.
Mr. Gilly empties the cans into the truck.
Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!
Is the trash truck full yet?
NO!
Mr. Gilly drives on.
STOP!
There are trash cans behind the pizza parlor.
Mr. Gilly empties the cans into the truck.
Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!
Is the trash truck full yet?
NO!
Mr. Gilly drives on.
STOP!
There are trash cans next to the doctor’s office.
Mr. Gilly empties the cans into the truck.
Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!
Is the trash truck full yet?
NO!
Mr. Gilly drives on.
STOP!
There are trash cans by the fire station.
Mr. Gilly empties the cans into the truck.
Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!
Is the trash truck full yet?
NO!
Mr. Gilly drives down all the streets in Trashy Town.
He empties all the trash cans into the truck.
Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!
Is the trash truck full yet?
YES!
Mr. Gilly has cleaned up the whole town!
Mr. Gilly drives the full trash truck to the dump.
Up, up, up goes the truck.
Down, down, down goes the trash.
I dumped it in.
I smashed it down.
I love to clean up Trashy Town!
Mr. Gilly turns off the key.
He takes off his gloves.
Then he goes home.
Now there’s only one more thing to clean up…
Time for a bath, Mr. Gilly!

今天是平安夜，小狗奥利弗独自在家。他听到家里有奇怪的声音，会是谁呢？奥利弗决定去一探究竟......

Oliver stood in the hall with his leash in his mouth and watched as his family walked out the front door.
“Sorry, Oliver,” said Mom. “We’re going to visit Grandma for Christmas Eve, and they don’t allow puppies in the hospital. We’ll be back soon.”
Oliver heard the crunch crunch of their footsteps on the snow and slam of the car doors.
He dropped his leash on the doormat and whimpered.
He didn’t like being alone.
The house seemed so big and empty and dark.
Suddenly he heard something-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
The strange noise was coming from upstairs.
Oliver flung his head back and howled!
What could be making that scary sound? Was it a monster? He had to find out.
Carrying his favorite toy for comfort, Oliver crept up the stairs.
He prowled along the landing with his tummy close to the carpet and peered into Mom and Dad’s bedroom.
There on the bed sat a bulging, stringy-tailed beast!
“Grrh,” growled Oliver as fiercely as he could.
He launched his small body at the stringy-tailed monster, snarling as he shook it to bits.
Just when he was feeling very proud of himself, he heard another THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
But now the noise was coming from somewhere else.
Oliver raced to the window, stood on his hind legs, and looked out.
A tall white stranger stared up at him.
Oliver barked and scratched at the window.
If only he could get outside and chase the stranger away.
He barked and barked, but the figure didn’t budge.
The little dog was making so much noise that he almost didn’t hear the THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
This time it was coming from behind him!
With a surprised yelp, Oliver skedaddled down the stairs, heading for the safety of his blanket in the kitchen.
But between him and his bed, a huge lumpy shape crouched on the kitchen table.
Before the creature could spring on top of him, Oliver decided to pull it down from its perch.
He grabbed one end of the tablecloth and tugged with all his might.
The lumpy thing tumbled to the floor.
Oliver butted it with his noise.
It felt as cold as ice and as hard as stone, but it smelled good…THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
The noise interrupted Oliver’s inspection.
The puppy crept out of the kitchen and into the family room.
There beside the funny tree with the blinking lights lurked a fat, wrinkled creature.
It frowned at Oliver but didn’t move.
So Oliver pounced, and the creature fell sideways.
Its mouth opened, and its long, slippery arms wrapped around him.
Oliver bit and pulled at them until he managed to struggle free.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
That noise again! Now it was coming from the living room.
This time Oliver was determined to find out what was making the thumping sound.
Being careful not to alert the intruder, the puppy inched quietly toward the living room door.
A strange shadow moved along the wall.
Oliver had caught the thumping creature at last!
Barking furiously, he raced into the room…
…and found a nice smiling man, not a monster at all.
“I’m early tonight,” said the visitor. “It looks like everyone is out, except you. Did they leave you to guard the house? Well, you’re very brave to come rushing in like this.”
Oliver wagged his tail but felt a little sleepish.
The man chuckled and said, “I have a special reward for good dogs like you.”
He pulled a big bone from his sack and gave it to the excited puppy.
Just then, Oliver heard the front door open…
“Oliver, we’re back!”
Oliver bounded into the hall, and there was his family, home at last!
“Why, Oliver,” they cried, “who gave you that bone?”
But Oliver just thumped his tail on the floor-- THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!

A little ant left home.
She walked over a stone, step by step.
She walked over a leaf, step by step.
She walked over another stone, step by step.
She walked over a twig, step by step.
And she walked over a branch, step by step by step.
Finally, she met her friend.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello- hello!” she said.
They hugged, and then they kissed.
“Let’s go for a sail,” she said.
“In the puddle,” he said.
They jumped on a leaf and floated around, around and around.
Then they got out and sat for a while.
“Oh- oh!” she said. “Now I have to go home.”
She stepped up onto the branch.
“I’ll come visit you next,” he said.
She walked step by step across the branch.
“Goodbye,” he called out.
“Goodbye,” she called back.
She walked step by step across the twig.
She walked step by step over the stone.
She walked step by step across the leaf,
and step by step over the other stone,
and she got home just before dark.

Immi是个生活在北极的小女孩。一天，Immi钓鱼时意外地钓到了一些宝贝。这些宝贝让她冰冷单调的生活变得丰富多彩……

Oh, it was cold.
The icy wind blew, and snow fell and fell.
Immi looked around her, but all she could see was a frozen white world.
Immi broke a hole through the ice and fished for her supper.
“Just one more,” she thought. “In case anyone comes around,” which they hardly ever did.
But instead of a fish, at the end of the line she found a little wooden bird.
It was so beautiful!
She’d never seen such colors before.
She tried it to her necklace, next to a small white bear.
The next day she fished a red flower.
Then an orange starfish…
a green leaf…
a purple feather…
and soon her igloo was the brightest thing in the land!
It would be seen for miles around.
And before long, visitors came from far and wide to look and to wonder.
They always stayed for supper, and they filled those long dark nights with stories of faraway lands.
Immi’s world seemed a brighter and more colorful place.
Then one day the ice began to melt.
It was time for her to leave.
But just as Immi was about to go, she stopped and put her hand to her necklace.
She took the small bear and gently dropped it into the water.
Then she turned and left.
Far away, a little boy walks across a beach, holding the brightest thing he can find.
He tosses it into the waves and wonders, as he always does, where it will go.
But this time, something catches his eye, shining in the sand…
It is a beautiful small white bear.
He picks it up and holds it.
Then he hangs it around his neck where once he wore a little wooden bird.

The Secret of the Teachers’ Lounge

We were out in the playground during recess. Me and Ryan and Michael all agreed that Ms. Hannah was weird. I mean, saving all the garbage is good for the environment and all, but it’s kind of weird, too. She doesn’t have enough garbage of her own. She has to go get other people’s garbage.
“She’s not an art teacher,” I said. “She’s a garbage collector.”
“I still say our real art teacher was kidnapped,” Ryan said. “She’s probably tied up to a chair in the teachers’ lounge.”
The teachers’ lounge is on the second floor of our school. Ryan said he thought it was in a room over the playground. We looked up at the windows and found the one that was probably the teachers’ lounge.
“Our real art teacher could be in there right now,” Ryan said, “tied up to a chair and being tortured!”
“Too bad we’re too short to see inside,” Michael said.
That’s when I came up with the most genius idea in the history of the world.
I told Ryan and Michael that we might be able to see inside the window to the teachers’ lounge if we stood on top of each other.
Michael got down on his hands and knees below the window. Ryan climbed up on top of him and hunched down. I climbed up on top of Ryan and stood on his shoulders.
“Can you see anything, A. J.?” Michael grunted.
“Not yet.”
I could almost see into the window. I grabbed hold of the ledge on the window to pull myself up better.
“Hurry up!” Michael said. “My back is going to break!”
That’s when I saw them. The teachers! I saw Miss Daisy and Mrs. Roopy and a few of the other teachers. I was looking right into the teachers’ top-secret lounge!
“I see them!” I shouted.
“What are they doing?” Ryan asked, all excited.
“Not much,” I said.
“Is anybody tied up to a chair?” Michael asked.
“No.”
“Are they dancing around with each other?” Ryan asked.
“No,”
“Are they playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey?” Michael asked.
“No,” I said. “They’re just sitting there…eating lunch.”
“That’s it?” Ryan said.
“Wait!” I told them. “Mrs. Roopy is getting something out of the closet!”
“Is it a BB gun?” Michael asked.
“No, it’s a paper bag,” I said. “It must be her lunch.”
“This is boring,” Ryan said.
“One more minute,” I said.
“My back is breaking!” Michael hollered.
I don’t know exactly what happened next, but all I knew was that Ryan and Michael weren’t holding me up anymore. Nothing was holding me up anymore.
I was holding on to the ledge of the windowsill with my elbows. If I let go, I would fall. I was afraid my head would bang on the windowsill.
“Help! Help!” I shouted.
I was hanging there for about a million hundred minutes until some of the teachers inside the teachers’ lounge noticed me. They rushed over and opened the window.
“A.J., what are you doing out here?” Miss Daisy said as she and the other teachers pulled me inside.
“Uh, I was just hanging around,” I told them.