Independent reading

Title of the story: Little Star
Author: Gerald Yoakam

Little Star was a very fine young colt. Strawberry was his mother. Strawberry and little star belonged to dick’s father. All day long Little Star ran about in the pasture and played. He liked the pasture. He was happy there with his mother. But he wanted to know more about the big world on theother side of the pasture fence.
On the other side of the pasture gate Little Star could see a road. He wondered about the road. He wanted to follow it and see where it went. One day Little Star was playing near the pasture gate. He rubbed his nose against the gate. Someone had left the gate open just a little way.
Little Star pushed against the gate with his nose. The gate opened a littlewider. Little Star pushed and pushed some more. He pushed until the gate was open wide enough for him to go through. Then through the gate went the little colt and down the long road he started. “You had better come back, Little Star,” called Strawberry in pony talk. Little Star shook his head and went on. Strawberry was not very much worried. She knew that Little Star was a big colt now. So she wenton eating the fresh green grass and let Little Star go.
As he trotted down the road, Little Star stopped to nibble some green grass. He smelled the young leaves on an apple tree. He nibbled at them. He nibbled at everything that smelled good as he went along. The sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. It was warm in the pasture. Strawberry went to sleep standing in the sun. Sheforgot about Little Star.
Little Star trotted on and on down the road toward the woods. At last when he had gone a long way, he saw the big woods in front of him. “Now,” thought Little Star to himself, “I shall follow the road through the woods. I can hardly wait to see what is on the other side.” He trotted along faster than ever. He stopped only now and then to nibble something along the way.As he trotted on through the woods, he could hear the birds calling in the trees above him. He could smell the nice fresh grass. He could see the sun shining down through the leaves of the trees. Here and there under the trees he saw some pretty soft green moss. All at once there in the road before him. Little Star saw a strange little animal. It was black with some white down its back, and ithad a white tail.
The little black and whit animal ran off into the woods. It left a smell behind it that Little Star didn’t like. At last Little Star came to the other side of the woods. There he saw the most beautiful lace he had ever seen. He was at the top of a little hill. And there in front of him was a beautiful little river. Along the river were many flowers. Bees flew about among theflowers, singing their busy song. The grass on the hill was fresh and green, and it smelled good. So he nibbled and nibbled. After a while Little Star had had enough grass. He grew sleepy. So he lay down on the soft grass and went to sleep.

THE END!Title of the story: The Wonderful Dipper
Author: Louise Abney

Long ago in a land far away there was a famine. A famine is a severe hunger. In all that land there was nothing to eat. The people were very hungry. It had not rained for weeks and weeks. So of course nothing could grow. Every day the people watched the sky. They hoped to see arain cloud. But no rain clouds came.
And every night they hoped and hoped that tomorrow a rain would come. The people hoped the famine would soon be over. But when tomorrow came, there was not a cloud in the sky, and no rain fell. Day after day there was less and less water in the rivers. At last there were no rivers at all.
The leaves and the grass died. Soon all the flowers died, too. Nothing...