The Sasquatch Escape (The Imaginary Veterinary) (19 page)
Read The Sasquatch Escape (The Imaginary Veterinary) Online
Authors: Suzanne Selfors
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction / Juvenile Fiction / Animals / Dragons, #Unicorns & Mythical, #Juvenile Fiction / Fantasy & Magic, #Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure - General, #Juvenile Fiction / Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues - Friendship
Milk comes from mammals. Baby mammals are not able to take care of themselves when they are born. They would die without a mother or father to feed them. So a mother mammal makes milk, which she feeds to her baby.
But baby reptiles are independent the moment they are born. This means they slither or crawl or swim away from their parents and seek food on their own. A mother or father reptile does not need to provide food. How much easier it is to be a reptile parent—once the kids are hatched, you’re free!
So back to the question, why did the baby wyvern drink milk? Dragons are reptiles, but they are also magical creatures, so the regular rules don’t apply
to them. This is why a baby dragon might drink milk—or else it might eat your neighbor!
Imagine two mothers, a snake mother and a squirrel mother, are sitting in the garden talking about their babies. How are their lives different?
Imagine you are a baby dragon, just emerging from the shell. What does it feel like to break through the shell? What does your world look like? What is the first thing you do?
Make Your Own Homemade PuddingHere is a supereasy recipe for homemade chocolate pudding. You make it in the microwave, so you don’t have to worry about using a hot stove. Be sure to have a parent or grown-up help you.
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ¼ cup cocoa powder (Don’t use unsweetened cocoa powder. If you want it extra chocolaty, use dark cocoa powder.)
- ½ cup sugar
- 2¼ cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons butter (Don’t use margarine.)
1. Mix the cornstarch, cocoa, and sugar in a big bowl that is microwave-safe. You want a big bowl because during the last cooking step the pudding will bubble, and you don’t want it to bubble over the sides.
2. Add the milk. Stir. Don’t worry, it will be lumpy.
3. Heat in the microwave for two minutes. The bowl will be hot, so use an oven mitt to remove the bowl from the microwave. Stir the pudding with a whisk.
4. Heat for two more minutes. Remove with an oven mitt. Stir with the whisk. Everything should be melted now, and the pudding should look like hot chocolate.
5. Heat again for two minutes. The bowl
will be extra hot, so be careful. Now your pudding is thick. Stir with the whisk, making sure there are no lumps.
6. Add the vanilla and butter. Stir again with the whisk. The butter will melt while you stir. The pudding is thicker now.
7. Ladle or pour the hot pudding into little serving cups. Press plastic wrap onto the top of the pudding to keep a skin from forming. Put the cups in the refrigerator.
When the pudding has cooled, it’s ready to eat!
Huge thanks to Michael Bourret, Julie Scheina, Pam Garfinkel, Christine Ma, and everyone at Little, Brown for helping me launch this fun new series. For help with the Yiddish, I called upon librarian Janine Rosenbaum and my dear friend Gary Pazoff, who got his uncle Stew on the phone just to make sure. Yiddish dictionaries differ greatly, so I chose the spellings that I felt would be most familiar to readers.
Big thanks to Dan Santat for capturing my story in his gorgeous illustrations.
And, as always, big hugs and kisses to Bob, Isabelle, and Walker for all their love, support, and tiptoeing.
I love hearing from readers, so please visit me at
www.suzanneselfors.com
.
For more great reads and free samplers visit
CHAPTER 2:
Welcome to Buttonville
CHAPTER 3:
The House on Pine Street
CHAPTER 8:
The Old Button Factory
CHAPTER 12:
Sasquatch Catching Kit
CHAPTER 22:
The Best Story Ever
SCIENCE CONNECTION:
Dragon’s Milk
CREATIVITY CONNECTION:
Make Your Own Homemade Pudding
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2013 by Suzanne Selfors
Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Dan Santat
Cover art by Dan Santat
Cover design by Sasha Illingworth
Cover © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected].
Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
First e-book edition: April 2013
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
ISBN 978-0-316-22568-7