Dina Anastasio
  Excerpt from "Fly Trap"
Published by Grosset and Dunlap That night we had a barbecue. My dad was cooking burgers. They were thick and round. Yum! I looked over at the plant. Its little jaws opened and closed, Was the plant hungry too? Dad and I went in to get plates. We came back a minute later. Something was wrong. "That's funny," my dad said. "I know I put six burgers on the grill. And now there are five." ________________ From "Grey Wolf" Pearson Pub. Grey Wolf remembered that the tree trunk was long and narrow and lying on its side on the ground. Now it was nearly covered with snow. She almost passed it before she smelled her pups inside. The pups whimpered in their shelter. It was a soft whimper. They were too young to bark or howl. Grey Wolf heard the pups and went toward them, making noises so that they would know she was there. When she had quieted them, she pushed her nose as far into the end of the tree trunk as she could. The pups came to her, one at a time. She licked them until they were warm again and they stopped whimpering. The storm was now a blizzard. The wind was howling. It shook the trees so hard that branches jerked and snapped. The cracking noise startled the wolf. The pups would have to be moved quickly to a warmer place or they would freeze. Grey Wolf looked around. She remembered there was a small cave nearby. She had not gone to it before because humans were often there. But now she would have to use it. |
High/low book excerpts Excerpt from "The Torch Runner"
Scholastic Danny went back to the track the next afternoon. He didn't want to, but he went anyway. He felt like he had to. The coach was waiting. "I've been thinking about you and your dad," the coach said. "I want to talk with you. But first let's see you run." It was hot. Danny hated running when it was hot. And he hated running on a track. He liked running because of all the interesting things you got to see. He liked seeing people and store windows. He liked catching the lights before they changed to red. He liked skidding around corners and leaping over the same cracks every day, He started to run. At first he ran very fast, because he knew that was what the coach wanted to see, But then he slowed down. He didn't care about the coach. He didn't care about being fast. ________________________________________  Grey Wolf |
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