Robert McCloskey – Blackbird and Company

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard did not find much food in the pond.
The people in the bird boat fed Mr. and Mrs. Mallard peanuts.
Mrs. Mallard thought the bicycles around the pond in the Public Garden were horrid.
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard found an island to build their nest on.
When they settled down on the island, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard began to molt.
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard would not be able to fly until the new feathers grew in.
Each day they would swim to the park on the riverbank where Michael would feed them peanuts.
Soon Mrs. Mallard laid eight eggs.
Mrs. Mallard sat on the eggs and only left to eat, drink and count the eggs.
When the eggs hatched, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were bursting with pride.
After the ducklings were born, Mrs. Mallard taught them to swim, dive and walk in a line.
Michael helped Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings make their way safely across the road.
Since the ducklings liked the island so much, they decided to live there.

You will have to hustle if you want to catch the bus before it leaves.
The soldiers have to tramp miles through the desert.
My grandfather has a very old toy car that is made of tin.
When we had a picnic, I used a stump for a chair.
During spring, there are beautiful clumps of white flowers in my mother’s garden.

Sal and her mother went blueberry picking.
At first, Sal picked a few blueberries and put a few in her pail.
The blueberries will be stored for winter.
When Sal dropped a blueberry in her mother’s pail it did not make a noise because her mother’s pail was full.
When Sal reached into her mother’s pail to get her berry back, she pulled out a large handful.
Mother asked Sal to pick her own berries because she wanted to take the berries home and can them for winter.
Little Bear had to catch up to his mother because he stopped to eat berries.
When Sal heard a noise, she though it was her mother walking along.
The noise Little Bear heard was not his mother, but a mother partridge and her children.
Little Bear’s mother heard a noise and turned around and saw it wasn’t her child behind her.
Sal’s mother felt a tug on her bucket, and discovered it was not Little Sal.
Because Sal and her mother picked berries all the way down Blueberry Hill, they had enough to store for next winterr.

My grandfather used to whittle wood into little bird shapes.
When I took a sip of sour lemonade, I had to pucker my lips.
Mr. Allen showed he was a proud citizen by becoming the town’s mayor.
The teacher encouraged the student that as he practiced piano he would improve.
Aaron was an expert chess player and beat everyone he played.

Lentil was sad that he could not sing.
Because he loved music, he bought a harmonica.
Lentil practiced playing his harmonica often because he wanted to become an expert.
Even though most people liked Lentil’s music, Old Sneep did not.
When new got around that Colonel Carter would be coming home, Old Sneep was jealous.
The citizens of Alto wanted to welcome home the town’s most important citizen.
The mayor wrote a speech.
The band put on their new uniforms.
All the people of Alto went to the station to welcome Colonel Carter.
When the train pulled into the station, Old Sneep was on the roof sucking a lemon.
When the musicians looked at Old Sneep, their lips puckered and they couldn’t play their instruments.
When Colonel Carter stepped off the train, Lentil began to play, “comin’ ‘round the Mountain When She Comes.”
When the Colonel decided to build a hospital for the town, everyone was happy, even Old Sneep!

On the day Sal was going to Buck’s Harbor with her father, she realized her tooth was loose.
Mother told Jane that she was growing up.
Sal told he mother that because she was big, she would help dig for a lot of clams.
When Sal showed the seal her loose tooth, she slipped on the seaweed.
When Sal showed her father her loose tooth, he asked her what her wish would be.
In order to help her father dig for clams, Sal had to take off her shoes and socks and roll up her pants so they would not get all wet and muddy.
When Sal realized her tooth was lost, she was so sad because she wanted to make a wish/.
Sal’s father encouraged he that big girls don’t cry about little things like loosing a tooth.
Sal decided to make a wish on the gulls feather.
Because the boat engine wouldn’t start, Sal’s father had to row the boat to Buck’s Harbor.
When Mr. Condon removed the spark plug, Sal made a wish on the spark plug.
At the end of the day, Mr. Condon gave Sal and Jane an ice cream cone.

Burt Dow grew flowers in his dory.
The Tidely-Idley was painted many colors and had many patches.
Leela rattles her stove lids to wake Burt Dow in the morning.
Burt Dow knew he must watch for changes in the weather.
When Burt Dow felt a big tug on his fishing line, he caught a whale.
Burt Dow asked the giggling gull to tell the whale to quiet down, the vessel has a couple of tender places.
After Burt Dow removed the barb and hook, he covered the hole with a peppermint striped band aid.
When the weather turned bad, Burt Dow found safety in the whale’s tummy.
To get out Burt Dow made the whale’s tummy ache by splashing paint and grease all over its tummy.
When the whale burped, Burt Dow went sailing into a whole school of whales.
The whales surrounded Burt Dow and began to whack their tails down on the waterr.
The impatient whales wanted band-aids on their tails.