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By the dawn's early light: The story of the star-spangled banner
Kroll, Steven
An account of the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner detailing how Key was actually behind enemy lines. He was seeking release of a captured friend from the British who would not allow their departure until the bombardment of Baltimore was completed.

Once when I was scared
Pittman, Helena Clare
A young boy recalls an imaginative tale once told to him by his grandfather. The story is about how his grandfather had to cross two hills and go through the dark woods to get hot coals for their fire. He would get so scared and run so fast that he thought he was an eagle. Grandfather gives his grandson two eagle feathers to use when he gets scared.

The enchanted sticks
Myers, Steven J.
The old man in the story vanquishes a band of vicious robbers with the help of enchanted sticks.

Terrible things
Bunting, Eve
This story paints the bleak picture of the Terrible Things which takes each of the animals in a clearing. The Terrible Things are equated to hunters.

The busy world of Richard Scarry: A big operation
Scarry, Richard
After contracting his third sore throat of the year, Huckle is told that his tonsils need to be taken out. Afraid of the hospital and the word operation, Huckle tries to sneak out. His friend, Lowly, takes Huckle around the hopital to show how others are brave. Huckle decides that he too is brave and will go through with the operation.

The maggie b.
Haas, Irene
A little girl wishes she could sail all day on a boat. Her wish comes true when she gets to sail on a boat named for her best friend, maggie b.

The evil spell
McCully, Emily Arnold
Little Edwin bear has his first major role in a play. Edwin's struggles with stagefright and remembering his lines.

Thunder cake
Polacco, Patricia
A little girl visits her grandma in Michigan and experiences a storm while she is there. The grandma has her help make a cake while the thunder is sounding which helps her to overcome her fear of thunder.

Jess was the brave one
Little, Jean
Even though Clara is the oldest she is not as brave as her little sister Jess. Whatever they do, Jess is brave. Then one day Clara comes to the rescue of Jess.

Arthur's camp-out
Hoban, Lillian
Arthur is bored one spring day so he decides to go on a field trip to collect specimens. He finds himself in some difficult situations and quickly discovers how quickly his bravery can wear off. Even though things don't go as planned, he still manages to have some fun, thanks to his friends.

World famous muriel and the scary dragon
Alexander, Sue
A king asks Muriel to help people from his kingdom who are afraid of a dragon. With her peanut butter cookies, Muriel finds the dragon. She then gives the dragon a bath which makes him feel better. In return, he becomes a nicer dragon so the king continues to give him a bath once a week.

The bravest babysitter
Greenberg, Barbara
Heather babysits Lisa on a rainy, stormy night. Terrified of lightning and thunder, Heather seeks comfort from Lisa. Lisa ends up babysitting Heather until the storm is over.

There's a monster under my bed
Howe, James
Alex is convinced that there are monsters under his bed that want to get him. He eventually decides to confront the monster, and discovers that his frightened brother is under his bed. The boys sleep together, comforted by each other's company.

The kidnapping of the coffee pot
Saari, Kaye
The coffee pot is kidnapped so the shoes, lawnmower and kerosene lamp go to the junk man to get her back.

Georgie and the robbers
Bright, Robert
A small ghost named Georgie lives in the Whittkaker house. When the house is threatened by robbers, the friendly ghost and his animal friends work together to scare the robbers away.

Willy the wimp
Browne, Anthony
Willy is called Willy the Wimp by the local gorilla gang. One day he sees an ad in his comic book on how to stop being a wimp. He starts exercising, eating healthy, and lifting weights to the point where the gorilla gang becomes afraid of Willy.

Secret of the peaceful warrior
Millman, Dan
An old man named Socrates teaches Danny that the best way to deal with a bully is to be a peaceful warrior. He also teaches Danny to have courage to face his fears, strength to build confidence, and wisdom to deal with situations peacefully.

Gertrude's pocket
Miles, Miska
Gertrude is bullied by a boy at school. She decides to tear his shirt which brings more serious consequences than she had ever imagined.

The ant bully
Nickle, John
Lucas is different than the other kids and he is often bullied by one boy in particular, Sid. Sid takes Lucas' hat and sprays him with water and to take out his frustrations, Lucas in turn bullies the ants. To teach Lucas a lesson the ants take him to their queen ant. The Queen ant has the wizard ant shrink Lucas so he can live and work as an ant so he can appreciate what they do. Lucas gathered food, defended the colony, and attended to the queen. The queen has Lucas turned back into his normal size and when Lucas wakes up, he sees that the ants have decided to teach Sid a lesson because how he is ant size.

How to lose all your friends
Carlson, Nancy
There are six ways to lose all your friends. Don't smile, never share, be a bully, be a poor sport, tattle, and whine. Can you be a better friend by the end of this story?

Nobody knew what to do: A story about bullying
McCain, Becky Ray
Members of a class are always picking on Ray. Finally, a student decides that he can't continue to ignore this, so he tells a teacher about the situation. When the bullies come around this time, so do the teacher and principal.

Spike
Potter, Katherine
A young boy, who is often picked on, makes friends with an imaginary stick figure. His new found friend drastically changes his life.

Mommy's office
Hazen, Barbara
A little girl goes to downtown to see the place where her mother works. She compares kindergarten to her mother's office and thinks that they are very similar

Abuela
Dorros, Arthur
A little girl uses her imagination to transport her and her grandmother out of a bus to view the many sites over New York City.

Mud for sale
Nelson, Brenda
Max sees that all of his friends are selling something. He wants to sell something too, so he comes up with the idea of selling mud. It is a big success.

Soo ling finds a way
Behrens, June
A little girl is worried because a new laundromat business is moving across the street from her grandfather's old laundry business. She sets out to help her grandfather stay in business.

Siggy's spaghetti works
Thomson, Peggy
Siggy takes a group of students through his spaghetti factory. He shows them how to make spaghetti from start to finish. The children get to test the pasta during their tour. Siggy tells the students of the history of spaghetti and then they all dine on spaghetti.

Sugaring season: Making maple syrup
Burns, Diane L
The making of maple syrup is a long process. First you must grow maple trees. Next is the tapping of the maple trees to collect the syrup. Once the syrup has been collected, it is cooked. the next step is grading and then the packing of the syrup.

The very hungry caterpillar
Carle, Eric
A caterpillar hatches from it's egg and is very hungry. It eats a variety of food for seven days. After it is full, the caterpillar builds a cocoon and becomes a butterfly.

Butterfly house
Bunting, Eve
A young girl and her grandfather save a caterpillar and keep it while it goes through its changes. They build it a beautiful house and care for it until it turns into a butterfly. Although it was hard for her to let it go, she has mysterious visitors surprise her every spring, even when she grows up to be a grandmother herself.

Darkness and the butterfly
Grifalconi, Ann
Osa is afraid of the dark, but learns that the dark is nothing to fear after visiting the wise woman in the woods.

Hester in the wild
Boynton, Sandra
Hester wants to go camping, but she keeps running into problems. First she has a hole in her canoe, then in her foot. After many other catastrophies, she finally goes home.

Lights out!
Himmelman, John
The Badger Scouts are ready for bed, but when their counselor turns out the light strange things begin to happen. The boys think that they hear and see all sorts of monsters. After getting flashlights, glasses of water, and a last trip to the bathroom, the boys are really ready for bed.

When eric's mom fought cancer
Vigna, Judith
A young boy copes with his mother's cancer. Going through a range of emotions, he finally comes to more of an understanding about her illness.

Good luck, mrs. k.!
Borden, Louise
Mrs. K teaches Ann's third grade class. In class they are explorers, scientists, poets, and astronauts. They are always learning something new. One day, Mrs. K doesn't come to school. The students learn that she is in the hospital with cancer. For the rest of the year the third grade has a substitute. On the last day of school, Mrs. K comes back to surprise her students.

The cut-ups (Los bromistas)
Marshall, James
Spud Jenkins and Joe Turner are a couple of boys who have wild imaginations, create chaos through their neighborhood, help a girl get some toys and start off on the wrong foot with the assistant principal.

Saying goodbye to daddy
Vigna, Judith
A young girl copes with the death of her father. Her mother and grandfather help her through the painful grieving after the car accident.

Max in hollywood, baby
Kalman, Marina
Follow Max as he goes through Hollywood and finds out what it is all about. Max works with new and interesting people.

The jolly postman or other people's letters
Ahlberg, Janet//Ahlberg, Allan
This postman delivers mail to all of your favorite fairy tale characters. From the Three Bears to Cinderella, the jolly postman keeps them all in touch with their friends through letters.

Noah's ark
Haley, Gail E.
Noah dreams about an empty zoo with extinct animal signs, so he builds an ark to save the animals from the badly polluted environment.

Mr. MacGregor's breakfast egg
MacDonald, Elizabeth
As Mr. Cameron tries to deliver corn to Mr. MacGregor, a herd of cattle gets in his way. In front of the cattle is a group of boys on their bicycles and in front of them is a bus. Mr. MacGregor has to wait a long time for his corn.

All i see
Rylant, Cynthia
A boy, Charlie, watches a man named Gregory paint pictures of a whale by the lake each day. Eventually, the two meet and paint together by the lake what each sees. An artistic friendship develops.

The dreamer
Rylant, Cynthia
An artist dreams and then creates a world that contains the earth, sky, trees, and living creatures. We are all children of this artist.

The young artist
Locker, Thomas
Adrian loves to paint landscape pictures, but portraits are more popular. He always paints the truth. When the king asks him to paint a portrait of twenty-seven nobel men and women, he is asked to make the people nice looking.

The sign painter
Say, Allen
A boy with a love of painting wanders into town looking for a job when he sees a sign painter. Together, they go into the desert, painting a dozen billboards with just what was ordered, a woman's face and a single word, Arrowstar. Not understanding the meaning behind these billboards in the middle of the desert, the boy longs to paint beautiful landscapes instead. Still, the sign painter insists they stick to the order. Near the end of their journey, they learn the dream behind the billboards and the boy remembers a dream of his own.

Morgan and the artist
Carrick, Donald
An artist finds his own style through the help of his studio spirit, Morgan. With success and fame, the artist becomes afraid to change and quickly loses his success. Morgan helps him regain his inspiration and sense of art.

An actor
Goffstein, Brooke
A little boy speaks to the reader about his feature presentation and past character roles. He depicts his life as an actor.

Michael
Bradman, Tony
Michael is different from his classmates. He misbehaves, always runs late, and does not do very well in his classes. His teachers believe he will have trouble all through life. He proves them wrong when he grows up to be an astronaut.

The lady who put salt in her coffee
Schwartz, Amy//Hale, Lucretia
A lady puts salt in her coffee one morning by mistake and did not know what to do. Her family calls a chemist and an herb lady. They both were unsuccessful. At last, a wise lady from Boston suggests making a fresh cup.

The little farm
Lenski, Lois
Farmer Small describes the various chores he does on his farm to keep it running smoothly. He tells what he feeds his animals and how he takes care of his fields.