On the eve of your birth
word of your coming
passed from animal to animal.

The reindeer told the Arctic terns,
who told the humpback whales,
who told the Pacific salmon,

who told the monarch butterflies,
who told the green turtles,
who told the European eel,
who told the busy garden warblers,

and the marvelous news migrated worldwide.


While Du waited in darkness,
tiny knees curled to chin,
the Earth and her creatures
with the Sun and the Moon
all moved in their places,
each ready to greet you
the very first moment
of the very first Tag Du arrived.


On the Tag Du were born
the round planet Earth
turned toward...

Every year, before the start of the baseball season, the Lazardo family took a trip far from their Home in Pimlico Hills. One afternoon, while on safari in Africa, young Scotty Lazardo wandered away from camp. He returned with a dinosaur.
"Look what I caught!" he said.
"Can we keep him?" pleaded Scotty's sisters, Zelda and Velma.
"I don't see why not." sagte Dr. Lazardo.
"He looks kind of like my uncle Bob," sagte Mrs. Lazardo.
Jumbu, their bodyguard, sagte nothing.
Scotty patted the dinosaur on the nose. "Bob?" he tried.
The dinosaur smiled and wagged his giant tail.
So they named him Bob.

With Bob along,...

With a mournful moan and silken tone,
Itself alone comes ONE TROMBONE.
Gliding, sliding, high notes go low;
ONE posaune is playing SOLO.

Next, a TRUMPET comes along,
And sings and stings its swinging song.
It joins TROMBONE, no Mehr alone,
And ONE and TWO-O, they’re a DUO.

Fine FRENCH HORN, its valves all oiled,
Bright and brassy, loops all coiled,
Golden yellow; joins its fellows.
TWO, now THREE-O, what a TRIO!

Now, a mellow friend, the CELLO,
Neck extended, bows a “hello”;
End pin set upon the floor,
It makes up a QUARTET—that’s FOUR.

And soaring high and moving in,
With ZIN! ZIN! ZIN! a VIOLIN,...

Long ago,
before the Civil War,
there was an old sailor called Peg Leg Joe
who did what he could to help free the slaves.


Joe had a plan.
He'd use hammer and nail and saw

and work for the master, the man
who owned slaves
on the cotton plantation.


Joe had a plan.
At night when work was done,
he'd teach the slaves a song
that secretly told the way
to freedom.
Just follow the drinking gourd, it said.


When the song was learned
and sung all day,
Peg Leg Joe would slip away
to work for another master
and teach the song again.


One day
a slave called Molly saw her man James
sold to another master.
James would be taken away,...

One sunny day, a Queen honeybee leaves her hive. Other bees, called drones, follow her. The Queen mates with a drone. Now she can lay eggs.


The Queen flies back to the hive. Laying many eggs in her job. She puts one egg in each cell.


In three days the eggs hatch. Out come larvae. Worker bees feed the larvae.


After five oder six days, workers cover the larvae cells. Inside the cell, the larvae grow into a pupa. In about ten days, a young bee comes out of the cells.


Hives have only one queen. Most other bees are workers. Some bees are drones. Workers are females. Drones are males.


Young worker bees...

Mrs. Davis felt peculiar as she took her morning bath.
“I feel like I’m being watched,” she sagte to herself.
And she was being watched…


…by Shirley Rat, the nosiest person in town.
“I see you’re using lila, flieder bubble bath,” sagte Shirley. “I personally prefer rose.”
Mrs. Davis pulled down the shade.

“I Liebe to know what’s going on,” sagte Shirley. “I don’t get paid for it—it’s my hobby.”
And Shirley’s hobby kept her very busy.


Reading other people’s mail took half the morning.
“You learn such interesting things,” sagte Shirley.

Listening in on private telephone conversations,...

THE schloss GUARD WITH HIS TRIDENT



How many prongs do Du see?
I see two on the bottom—but on the top, three

Solution: Cover the oben, nach oben of the trident and Du see two prongs. Cover the bottom and the trident now has three prongs. Du can draw this object, but Du can’t construct it. (impossible-object illusion)


THE ROYAL MESSENGER ARRIVING WITH A LETTER FOR THE KING



The red tape on the letter is longer than the blue. But is this really true? Remember, now Du are in OPT!

Solution: Angles are sometimes tricky! The red and blue tapes on the envelope are the same length. If Du remove the...

He was so small that his mother didn’t know he was there. The other piglets were always pushing and shoving, squealing greedily for food.


But the tiny pig was gentle, quiet, and never greedy. He always kept clean. While the other piglets rolled around in the mud, he would lie under his Favorit baum wishing for wings to carry him into the sky.
One Tag he heard a terrible squeal. A large sau, leistungsbeschreibung had fallen in the road. The little pig crawled under the fence and ran to help her.

He had to push with all his might, but at last he got the sau, leistungsbeschreibung up on her feet again.


The sau, leistungsbeschreibung thanked the little pig and she...

Every fall, when the leaves start melting into pretty purples and reds and those bright golden shades of pumpkin, Mama says, “Coat time, Gabrielle!”


And they ride two trains to Grandpa’s tailor Shop in the city. On the Silver Express from Meadowlawn to Pennsylvania Station, Gabby sits close to the window, her nose pressed to the smudge-glass for nearly an hour.


At Penn Station they walk fast, through long, dark passageways and underground tunnels. On a distant speaker someone calls out, “Thirty-fourth Street! Thirty-fourth Street! Change here for the Downtown Express, Uptown Express and...

My dad, Nino, makes the best pizza in the world.
I’m his best helper.


I help knead the pizza dough,

I help stir the pizza sauce,


and I help grate the cheese.

When the customers are finished, I know how to pick up their plates


and carry out the dirty dishes.

I help give the extra pizzas to hungry people in the alley who have no homes.


And…I help my dad serve our pizza pies!

People come from all over town to eat at Little Nino’s.
They wait in long lines because our restaurant is so small.


One night a man came to see my dad after the last pizza.
What did he want?

That night my dad told my mom we would...

Boy: Tell me the story again, Grandfather. Tell me who I am.
Grandfather: I have told Du many times, Boy. Du know the story Von heart.
Boy: But it sounds better when Du tell it, Grandfather.
Grandfather: Then listen carefully. This may be the last telling.
Boy: No, no, Grandfather. There will never be a last time. Promise me that. Promise me.
Grandfather: I promise Du nothing, Boy. I Liebe you. That is better than a promise.
Boy: And I Liebe you, Grandfather, but tell me the story again. Please.


Grandfather: Once there was a boy child…
Boy: No, Grandfather. Start at the beginning. Start at the beginning....

Brian found a salamander in the woods. It was a little orange salamander that crawled through the dried leaves of the forest floor.
The salamander was warm and cozy in the boy’s hand. “Come live with me,” Brian said.
He took the salamander home.


“Where will he sleep?” his mother asked.
“I will make him a salamander bett to sleep in. I will cover him with leaves that are fresh and green, and bring moss that looks like little stars to be a kissen for his head. I will bring crickets to sing him to sleep and bullfrogs to tell him good-night stories.”


“And when he wakes up, where will...

See the piggy,
See the puddle,
See the muddy little puddle.
See the piggy in the middle
Of the muddy little puddle.
She her dawdle, she her diddle
In the muddy, muddy middle.
See her waddle, plump and little,
In the very merry middle.


See her daddy,
Fuddy-duddy, fuddy-duddy, fuddy-duddy.
“Don’t Du get all muddy,
Muddy, muddy, muddy, muddy.
You are much too plump and little
To be in the muddy middle.
Mud is squishy, mud is squashy,
Mud is oh so squishy-squashy.
What Du need is lots of soap.”
But the piggy answered,
“Squishy-squashy, squishy-squashy—NOPE!”


See her mommy,
Fiddle-faddle, fiddle-faddle,...

Once there was a goat named Gregory.
Gregory liked to jump from rock to rock, kick his legs into the air, and butt his head against walls.
“I’m an average goat,” sagte Gregory.


But Gregory was not an average goat.
Gregory was a terrible eater.
Every time he sat down to eat with his mother and father, he knew he was in for trouble.


“Would Du like a tin can, Gregory?” asked Mother Goat.
“No, thanks,” sagte Gregory.
“How about a nice box, a piece of rug, and a bottle cap?” asked Father Goat.
“Baaaaa,” sagte Gregory unhappily.

“Well, I think this is a meal fit for a goat,” sagte Mother...

If Du give a maus a cookie,


he’s going to ask for a glass of milk.

When Du give him the milk,


he’ll probably ask Du for a straw.

When he’s finished, he’ll ask for a napkin.


Then he’ll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn’t have a milch mustache.

When he looks into the mirror,

he might noice his hair needs a trim.

So he’ll probably ask for a pair of nail scissors.


When he’s finished giving himself a trim, he’ll want a besen to sweep up.
He’ll start sweeping.

He might get carried away and sweep every room in the house.


He may even end up washing the floors as well!

When he’s...

The place is Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey. The Jahr is 1999. On May 11, after months of careful research and planning, stechpalme, holly Evans launches vegetable seedlings into the sky.


On May 18, the young scientist reports on her experiment. stechpalme, holly intends to study the effects of extra-terrestrial conditions on vegetable growth and development. She expects the seedlings to stay aloft for several weeks before returning to earth.
Her classmates are speechless.


The datum is June 29. Shortly after sunrise, a member of the Billings, Montana, Moose Lodge, hiking through the Rocky Mountains, makes a startling discovery....

My name is Maxi,
I ride in a taxi
Around New York City all day.
I sit Weiter to Jim,
(I belong to him),
But it wasn’t always this way.


I grew up in the city,
All dirty and gritty,
Looking for Essen after dark.
I roamed all around,
Avoiding the pound,
And lived on my own in the park.


One Tag a car stopped—
Its tire had popped.
Out stepped a tall man, I could see.
He came over and said
As he patted my head,
“Are Du lost? Du can come Home with me!”

Did I hear right? Oh, boy!
My tail wagged with joy—
I jumped right up on the seat!
He said, “My name’s Jim,”
I could ride Home with him
And he’d give me...

Du wake up one morning. But Du don’t feel like getting out of bed. Your arms and legs ache. Your head hurts. Du have a fever. And your throat is sore.
“I’m sick,” Du say. “I must have caught a germ.”
Everyone knows that germs can make Du sick. But everyone knows how.

Germs are tiny living things. They are far too small to see with your eyes alone. In fact, a line of one thousand germs could fit across the oben, nach oben of a pencil!
There are many different kinds of germs. But the two that usually make Du sick are bacteria and viruses.


Under a microscope, some bacteria look like little round...

Henry wanted to fly. Everybody in his family had gone up with the balloon, but The Man always declared, “I’m not flying with that cat!”


The Man had been taking pilot’s lessons, and this time he was going to solo.
Henry grumbled and his tail switched, as he watched the people crunch around on the crusty March snow.

The Kid and The Woman open the mouth of the colorful balloon, while The Man blew it up with a gasoline-powered fan. Then the Instructor blasted warm air into the balloon from the burner mounted on a frame below it.
“Watch your fuel gauge,” he told The Man. “You don’t want...

I HAVE FEELINGS


WHAT TOM DID

Boy 1: Mrs. Rudolph, come see what Tom did.
Boy 2: Look what Tom did!
Boy 3: All Von himself.
Girl 1: How did he reach?
Girl 2: Wow.
Girl 3: He must feel proud.
Girl 4: He’s a genius.
Boy 4: That’s some Weltraum capsule!
Boy 5: He used up all the blocks.
Boy 6: It’s great, Tom.
Tom: Thanks.
John: I could do that.

WHAT JOHN DID

Boy 3: Poor Tom.
Girl 2: I can’t look.
Boy 2: John’s always doing things like that.
Girl 1: He has no feelings!
Boy 1: Mrs. Rudolph, come see what John did!
Boy 4: He did it on purpose!
Girl 4: You’re mean!
Boy 6: You’re spiteful!
Tom...