~~ The Reading Room ~~
presents:
Sesame Street
ABC and Me!
TM & © 2007 Sesame Workshop
(The highlighted text will be replaced with
the personalized information you provide)
Lauryn Rachel Anderson
Helps Elmo count
For my precious granddaughter, from
Grandma Brenda
with lots of love!
Lauryn Rachel Anderson, age 2, from Norfolk, Virginia, was worried about her friend, Big Bird. He didn’t look very happy. “What’s wrong, Big Bird?” Lauryn asked.
“Today is Clean Sweep Day, the day we all help clean up the neighborhood,” Big Bird sighed. “It’s going to be a lot of work.”
“Don’t worry,” said Lauryn. “Alexis, Madi, and Alayna showed me you can make a big job easier by turning it into a game. Let’s try it. We can pick up trash starting with each letter of the alphabet.”
“That’ll be fun!” Big Bird smiled. So Big Bird spread the word about the great idea Lauryn had and the Clean-Sweep game began.
“Look, someone left a broken airplane here, right next to a stack of beat-up boxes,” Lauryn said. “Amazing, that’s our A and B!”
“Hey, this box is full of empty cans,” called Big Bird. “C is for cans!”
“Cool, we can recycle them,” Lauryn said. “Wow, we have A, B, and C already! Now let’s find something that starts with D.”
Just then, Rosita joined them. “How about these dishes, Lauryn?” she asked, holding cracked dishes from her tea set. “You can have these too,” she added, handing over a stack of old envelopes. “I took all the neat stamps off them.”
“Excellent!” said Lauryn. By now, everyone on Sesame Street knew about the Clean-Sweep game.
“Elmo wants to play, too,” Elmo said with a smile, carrying as many tattered gloves and bent forks as he could manage. Elmo looked so silly Lauryn had to laugh. “Those forks are fabulous for F and your gloves will make a great G addition to our trash collection,” she giggled.
While collecting Elmo’s gloves, Lauryn noticed a twisted water hose lying on the sidewalk. “Watch out, Big Bird!” she called. But it was too late. Poor Big Bird tripped on the hose and fell with a THUMP. Luckily, Big Bird’s feathers padded his fall so he wasn’t hurt.
Lauryn ran to help him up. “I’m glad you’re not hurt, Big Bird. At least you found something that started with the letter H. This hose has so many holes in it, it must be trash!”
“How about using this to smooth your ruffled feathers, Bird?” snickered Oscar, handing Big Bird an old iron. “Don’t be silly, Oscar! But a rusty iron is ideal for our trash pile so we’ll have an I!” Lauryn exclaimed.
“Boy, I don’t know what we’ll use for J,” Lauryn wondered. “I sure wish Alexis, Madi, and Alayna were here to help.”
“Me help, Lauryn,” Cookie Monster said. “Jars with no cookies go into trash.”
“Thanks, Cookie Monster! We’ll put your jars in our recycling bin, instead of our trash pile,” Lauryn said.
Zoe joined the group. “I found this in the park, Lauryn, but I don’t know what it is.”
“It’s a kazoo, Zoe,” Lauryn said. “But it’s broken. See, it’s cracked on the side. Let’s add it to our trash collection, okay?”
“K,” Zoe said with a smile. “Do you want these puzzle pieces I found too?”
“We’re not ready for the letter P yet, Zoe. We’ve found A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and K, so we’re looking for L now,” Lauryn explained. “We’ll save your puzzle pieces for later.”
“You know,” Lauryn continued, “the park might be a good place to find more alphabet trash. Let’s go!”
Lauryn was right. She and her friends picked up many things at the park to add to their collection. They found a half-eaten lollipop in some litter on the ground. Someone had left a milk carton on a bench. They collected a net near a nest up in a tree, and even a broken oar by the pond.
“Now that we’ve got L, M, N, and O, we’re ready for your puzzle pieces, Zoe,” Lauryn said with a smile. “P is for the puzzle pieces!” shouted Zoe.
“There’s Ernie and Bert,” Big Bird said. “Maybe they’ve come to help us clean.” “I hope so,” Lauryn said. “We still haven’t found anything for Q.”
“We heard you were looking for trash,” Bert said. “So Ernie and I cleaned out our closet.”
“Let’s see,” Ernie said, reaching into a large bag. “We have one queen from Bert’s chess set. I lost the other pieces. There’s my red rocket ship that broke last year. Oh, and here’s an old skate.”
“And here are some train tracks. Someone left them outside and they got trampled,” Bert said. “Now you have Q, R, S, and T.”
“Hey, Lauryn,” a grouchy voice called. “Take this umbrella. And here, Telly dropped off this vase. It’s cracked…just like some people I know.”
“Thanks, Oscar, that’s great for U and V,” Lauryn said.
Just then Big Bird spied his wobbly wheelbarrow. “Wow, that’s perfect for W. But Lauryn,” Big Bird groaned, “What about X? There aren’t any X-rays or xylophones around.”
“X is tough. But look, Big Bird, Lauryn said with a smile. “Two of the umbrella’s ribs are making an X. Can you see it?”
“Yes! And look, there’s a tangled piece of yarn around on the wheels of my old wheelbarrow!” Big Bird cried. “Yay! That’s our Y!”
“Let’s see. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z,” Lauryn sang.
“Oh no, Lauryn,” Big Bird wailed. “We haven’t found anything that starts with Z.”
“Don’t worry, Big Bird,” Lauryn said. “See, the zipper is broken on my old wallet. I had it in my pocket all the time.”
“All right! Lauryn found Z!” Big Bird shouted. “We went through the whole alphabet, and we made the neighborhood look cleaner than ever.”
“I sure had a lot of fun helping you with your big job, Big Bird. Now I’d better go home to Cincinnati, Ohio,” Lauryn said. “Besides, I can’t wait to tell Alexis, Madi, and Alayna how much fun it is playing games with the alphabet!”
~ ~ ~
Lauryn Rachel Anderson
Enjoy this book!
A Special Gift from
Grandma Brenda
