Kate Duke - Ready for Pumpkins

this is a borzoi book published by alfred a. knopf Text and illustrations copyright 2012 by Kate Duke All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at randomhouse.com/teachers Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

The illustrations in this book were created using watercolor and pen and ink. eISBN: 978-0-307-97454-9 Random House Childrens Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read. v3.1

I am Hercules. I live in Miss MacGuffeys first-grade classroom. Its a good life. The food pellets come regularly, the water bottle is always filled.

The first graders think Im cute.. They like to teach me things. They taught me how to paint.. And last fall I learned all about Halloween. All in all, I thought I was a pretty lucky guinea pig. Then spring came. Then spring came.

The children were busythey planted seeds in pots on the windowsill. I was busy, tootaking naps in the sun. One day I noticed that plants were growing in the childrens pots, and green beans were growing on the plants. Real green beans! Delicious! All at once I wanted to be more than just a classroom guinea pig. I wanted to grow things, too. When school was over for the summer, I had my chance. When school was over for the summer, I had my chance.

Miss MacGuffey brought me to my vacation home in the country. When no one was looking, I put my plan into action. Luckily, I had saved some Halloween pumpkin seeds. Luckily, I knew what to do with door latches. Most luckily of all, I found a friend to help me. Daisy knows all about gardens. Daisy knows all about gardens.

She showed me what to do. We found a sunny spot. We pulled up all the weeds. We dug up all the dirt. Next we dropped each seed into its own hole and gave it a drink of water. At last the garden was ready.

And I wasready, tooready for pumpkins!. But the seeds werent ready. Seeds can take a long time. They dont grow faster if you yell at them. They dont grow faster if you jump up and down and stamp your feet. I tried all these things. I tried all these things.

Finally Daisy said, Cool it! So I cooled it. I tried to be patient.