Building Reading Practice

Excerpt from The Book: "A Book For Pinky."

“Pinky! Have a bath!” “Pinky! Eat your food!”“Pinky! Go to class!” "Pinky! Get on the bus!” “Pinky! Do your homework!“Where is Pinky?”Pinky is busy. She has a book to read. Pinky reads all the time — at home, in school, in the park, in bed. Page after page, book after book, one by one, she has read them all."Why are you always reading Pinky?" Billy asks. "Come, watch a cartoon instead!" says David."Books are more enjoyable!” says Pinky. “Look! You see a circle? And this straight line? Push it in, pull that out, and it becomes a letter. Line up the letters, and you have a word! Words can be wise, words can be funny, words can be sad and words can be sunny. When you put words together, they make sentences. And sentences become stories. Read it and you are in another world! ”But today, Pinky is sad. She has run out of books to read! All the books that she could reach in the library, she’s read from Chapter One to The End."What will I do? No more books to read!."Wait! What’s that over there? Pinky looks up and sees not one, not two, but three more shelves, FULL of books. “More books!” Pinky whispers in delight.There is still one problem though. She is too short. The bookshelf is too tall. How can Pinky get up there?Maybe she can use a washing line? Or Mom's dress to climb? How about the chairs and tables in the room?"It would really be helpful to have a giraffe at hand", says Pinky. Even a monkey. Or both! How about the chairs and tables in the room?Pinky has a plan. She calls Billy and David for help. As quietly as they can, they climb on top of each other. “Billy, you’re heavy!” David shouts. “Told you not to eat that last pasta.” “It’s not me,” Billy says. “It’s Pinky!” “Almost there,” says Pinky. Just then, it all goes wrong.Pinky falls to the floor.“What is happening here?” It is the Very Tall Librarian! She puts Pinky down. Billy and David run away! Pinky looks up sadly at the book she almost had in her hand. "Can I help?”“I was trying to climb the bookshelf. I have run out of books to read,” says Pinky, sadly. “Why didn’t you say so?” says the Very Tall Librarian. “As long as I am around, you do not have to climb a bookshelf. May I pick you up?” Pinky agreed.“I will take this, and this, and this one too!” says Pinky happily. “Thank you!” “Take this one too,” says the Very Tall Librarian. “When I was small, I loved this book.”“You were small?” Pinky asks. “Oh yes, even smaller than you,” says the Very Tall Librarian. “But then I grew, and so will you. Until then, all you need to do is ask for a book and I will be here to give it to you.”But is Pinky listening? No, she is not! She is inside her book, through a circle and a line, and a letter and another. Then a word! And another. A sentence. And another. And now a story. Pinky just loves to read.