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Welcome to Wonderland #4: Beach Battle Blowout
by Chris Grabenstein (Author)

Booktalk: Contestants, start your engines! The race to be the best on the beach is on, and this year the Wonderland is FINALLY going to win! The competition is fierce! But who needs ROLLER COASTERS and JET PACKS and PIRATES when you have not one but two SECRET WEAPONS? That’s right–P.T. and Gloria, of course! Now they just need to SLEUTH OUT who the secret contest judges are and come up with enough brand-new attractions to WOW them and OUT-FUN the competition! Can they do it? Or will the Wonderland crash and burn?

Snippet:

“This weekend,” I told my audience, “I had a duel with a dolphin.”

“Whaaaa?” said everybody else.

Fact: when you live in a motel, you always have the best stories on Monday mornings.

“The Wonderland’s right on the beach,” I told my history class. “So I grew up speaking Dolphin.” I gave a quick demo. “Eeeek squeeeee, klik-klik.”

“What’s that mean?” asked my bud Bruce Brandow.

“‘I have to go to the bathroom.’”

“Dolphins say that?”

“Yep. Then they do it. Right there in the Gulf. That’s why the water’s so warm.”

“Gross,” said Bruce.

We were between bells, just waiting for our teacher, Mr. Frumpkes, to march in and put us all to sleep with a barrage of boring facts. It was up to me to spin a story so scintillating it could fight off the Frumpkes Funk.

“On Saturday, I was riding the waves, just surfing along–”

“Surfing?” scoffed Adam Shapera, a big guy who always sits in the back of the room so it’s easier to flick people’s ears. “Who taught you how to do that?”

“Kevin the Monkey,” said my good friend Gloria Ortega. “Star of the smash hit Beach Party Surf Monkey.”

Unimpressed, Adam blew a lip fart.

I didn’t let Adam slow me down, because everybody else was hanging on my every word, scooching their seats closer.

“I was carving across a wave. Totally cranking. It was epic. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this dolphin pops up!

“The dolphin blew his airhole at me. It sounded like one of Adam Shapera’s lip farts. It spooked me so much I wiped out.”

“What’d the dolphin want?” asked Bruce.

“To challenge me to a friendly competition.”

Cooking with Bear: A Story and Recipes from the Forest
by Deborah Hodge (Author) and Lisa Cinar (Illustrator)

Booktalk: When Bear wakes up after a long, cold winter, he’s happy to see the signs of spring. To celebrate, he makes a special meal of fresh watercress soup and crusty seed bread. Fox follows his nose to Bear’s den and joins him for lunch. The food is delicious, and Fox, who is tired of eating the same old thing, asks Bear to teach him how to cook.

Together, they walk through the forest and gather ingredients. Along the way, they greet Squirrel, Chickadee, Beaver, Deer and Hare, asking their friends how they fared over the winter and what their favorite foods are. Bear and Fox are inspired by what they hear and find, and they return to Bear’s kitchen to cook a feast of forest foods to share with their neighbors.

During the long lazy days of summer, use this story cookbook to make some fun forest recipes at home (with grocery store ingredients).

Snippet: