One Friday Miss Nelson told her class that she was going to have her tonsils out.
“I’ll be away next week,” she said. “And I expect you to behave.”
“Yess, Miss Nelson,” said the kids in 207.

But at recess it was another story.
“Wow!” said the kids. “While Miss Nelson is away, we can really act up!”
“Not so fast!” said a big kid from 309. “Haven’t you heard of Viola Swamp?”
“Who?” said Miss Nelson’s kids.

“Miss Swamp is the meanest substitute teacher in the whole world,” said the big kid. “Nobody acts up when she’s around.”
“Oooh,” said Miss Nelson’s...

One day, Little Sal went with her mother to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries.
Little Sal brought along her small tin pail and her mother brought her large tin pail to put berries in. “We will take our berries home and can them,” said her mother.
“Then we will have food for the winter.”


Little Sal picked three berries and dropped them in her little tin pail ... kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!

She picked three more berries and ate them. Then she picked more berries and dropped one in the pail—kuplunk! And the rest she ate. Then Little Sal ate all four blue­berries out of her pail!


Her mother...

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were looking for a place to live. But every time Mr. Mallard saw what looked like a nice place, Mrs. Mallard said it was no good. There were sure to be foxes in the woods or turtles in the water, and she was not going to raise a family where there might be foxes or turtles. So they flew on and on.

When they got to Boston, they felt too tired to fly any further. There was a nice pond in the Public Garden, with a little island on it. “The very place to spend the night,” quacked Mr. Mallard. So down they flapped.

Next morning they fished for their breakfast in the mud at...

Mrs. Bobbin, the dressmaker, was tired and had a bad headache, but she still managed to sew the last stitches in the gown she was making.
“It’s the most beautiful dress in the whole world!” said her daughter, Irene. “The duchess will love it.”
“It is nice,” her mother admitted. “But, dumpling, it’s for tonight’s ball, and I don’t have the strength to bring it. I feel sick.”


“Poor Mama,” said Irene. “I can get it there!”
“No, cupcake, I can’t let you,’ said Mrs. Bobbin. “Such a huge package, and it’s such a long way to the palace. Besides, it’s starting...

The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind

and another

his mother called him "WILD THING!"
and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!"
so he was sent to bed without eating anything.

That very night in Max's room a forest grew

and grew-

and grew until his ceiling hung with vines
and the walls became the world all around

and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max
and he sailed off through night and day

and in and out of weeks
and almost over a year
to where the wild things are.

And when he came to the place where the wild things are
they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible...

There was once a boy called Norvin who was a good actor but rather plain. In fact, he looked very like a shark. He had small sharkish eyes, a pointed sharkish head, and sharp sharkish teeth.

Unfortunately, there are not many plays written with good parts for sharks, so Norvin took up swimming instead. He soon became a good swimmer and learned to shoot through the water like a silver arrow.

Norvin lived near a wonderful beach called Caramel Cove, but he had to share it with lots of other swimmers. When Norvin tried shooting through the water like a silver arrow, the other swimmers got in his way....

Caterpillars aren’t like other folks.
As ducks and hippopotamuses and you and I get older, we get bigger. Especially hippopotamuses.
But not caterpillars.

They turn into butterflies.
Turning into something else like that is not a thing just anybody can do.

Down by the pond there lived a caterpillar who was very proud of being different.
She bragged about it to her friends.
“When I grow up, I’m going to turn into something else,” she told the snail.
“That’s nice,” said the snail, who really didn’t care one way or the other.

“When I grow up, I’m going to turn into something else,”...

It was late one winter night, long past my bedtime, when Pa and I went owling. There was no wind. The trees stood still as giant statues. And the moon was so bright the sky seemed to shine. Somewhere behind us a train whistle blew, long and low, like a sad, sad song.

I could hear it through the woolen cap Pa had pulled down over my ears. A farm dog answered the train, and then a second dog joined in. They sang out, trains and dogs, for a real long time. And when their voices faded away it was as quiet as a dream. We walked on toward the woods, Pa and I.

Our feet crunched over the crisp snow and...

Once upon a time there was a very old man and a very old woman. They lived in a nice clean house which had flowers all around it, except where the door was. But they couldn't be happy because they were so very lonely.


"If we only had a cat!" sighed the very old woman.
"A cat?" asked the very old man.
"Yes, a sweet little fluffy cat," said the very old woman.
"I will get you a cat, my dear," said the very old man.

And he set out over the hills to look for one. He climbed over the sunny hills. He trudged through the cool valleys. He walked a long, long time and at last he came to a hill which was...

Mike Mulligan had a steam shovel a beautiful red steam shovel. Her name was Mary Anne. Mike Mulligan was very proud of Mary Anne. He always said that she could dig as much in a day as a hundred men could dig in a week but he had never been quite sure that this was true.


Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne had been digging together for years and years. Mike Mulligan took such good care of Mary Anne she never grew old.

It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne and some others who dug the great canals for the big boats to sail through.


It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne and some others who cut through the high...

In the town of Alto, Ohio, there lived a boy named Lentil.

Lentil had a happy life except for one thing. He wanted to sing — but he couldn’t!

It was most embarrassing, because when he opened his mouth to try, only strange sounds came out…

And he couldn’t even whistle because he couldn’t pucker his lips.

But he did want to make music, so he saved up enough pennies to buy a harmonica.

Lentil was proud of his new harmonica and he decided to become an expert. So he played a lot, whenever and wherever he could.

His favorite place to practice was in the bathtub, because there the tone was improved...

Hippo was hot.


He sat on the riverbank and gazed at the little fishes swimming in the water.


“If only I could live in the water,” he thought. “How wonderful life would be.”


So he walked, and he ran, and he strolled, and he hopped, and he lumbered along, until he came to the mountain where Ngai lived.


Ngai was the god of everything and everywhere.


Ngai told the animals to live on the land and the fishes to live in the sea.


Ngai told the birds to fly in the air and the ants to live under the ground.


Ngai had told Hippo he was to live on the land and eat grass.
“Please, oh, great Ngai, god of...