Arnold Saves the Day

Arnold

Saves the Day

Written by Jenny Feely Illustrated by Steve Axelsen

Arnold Saves the Day Text type: Narrative Level: L (24) Word count: 651 Content vocabulary anteater/s ants beavers blood claws flowers giraffe grasshopper hummingbird/s juices leaves nectar spiders sucking thorny tongue/s vultures vampire bats

Arnold Saves the Day

Curriculum link • Science: Living things – animals: structure and function Key concepts • Some animals eat food that is difficult to reach, collect, or get to.

• These animals have the right body parts to get the foods they need.

Reading strategy • Using word parts or syllables to decode Paired book The Right Tools for the Job

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Written by Jenny Feely Illustrated by Steve Axelsen

CONTENTS Chapter 1 A hard time for Arnold

4

Chapter 2 Not a friend in sight

10

Chapter 3 Trouble at dinner time

14

Chapter 4 The trouble with ants

18

Chapter 5 Arnold saves the day

22

“How can you eat all those poor little ants?” said the other animals.

“It’s my job,” said Arnold.

“And it’s very important.”

Chapter 1 A hard time for Arnold Every day, all the animals were nasty to Arnold.

Arnold was an anteater. He had a long, sticky tongue. Every day he dug into ant nests with his sharp claws. He licked up the ants with his tongue and ate them.

4

5

And the hummingbird ignored Arnold as she fed in the nearby trees.

“You are revolting!” they all said together.

“It’s disgusting!” the giraffe said, as she wrapped her long, long tongue around some thorny branches to get the soft green leaves she ate.

“We agree,” said the beavers, as they chewed their way through some woody logs.

6

7

Arnold looked at the spider, the vulture, and the vampire bat.

The spider was sucking up the juices of a grasshopper.

The vulture was eating a dead animal.

And when the giraffe wasn’t looking, the bat was sucking some blood from her neck.

“Eating ants is disgusting!” said all the animals as they looked down at Arnold. “How can you do it?”

8

9

Chapter 2 Not a friend in sight This was too much for Arnold.

He stopped scratching at the ant nest and sat down. A big tear rolled down his face.

“No one likes me,” said Arnold.

“I have no friends. And it’s all because I eat ants. What will I do?”

Arnold sobbed and sobbed. None of the animals noticed.

Then Arnold had an idea.

10

11

Arnold turned and looked at the other animals.

“You don’t like me eating ants?” he asked.

“We don’t,” they all said.

“Well,” said Arnold. “I will stop eating ants. I will find something else to eat. I will be more like you.”

“That’s an excellent idea,” said the other animals.

12

13

Chapter 3 Trouble at dinner time The next day Arnold didn’t try to scratch his way into any ant nests, and he didn’t eat any ants.

Instead, Arnold decided to eat leaves like the giraffe did.

He climbed up a thorny tree.

But Arnold’s claws got stuck.

He lost his grip and came tumbling down.

“This is no good,” said Arnold.

“I must try something else.”

14

15

Arnold tried eating a woody log like the beavers did, but splinters of wood stuck to his tongue.

Arnold was getting hungrier and hungrier.

Arnold tried collecting nectar from flowers like the hummingbird did.

His tongue could reach inside the flowers to collect the nectar, but the pollen in the flowers made him sneeze.

“Ahh–choo! Ahh–choo!”

Arnold couldn’t stop sneezing.

“This isn’t working,” he said.

16

17

Chapter 4 The trouble with ants

The ants took all the nectar from the flowers. There was no nectar left for the hummingbird.

The other animals didn’t notice that Arnold was having a hard time. They were happy they didn’t have to watch him flicking out his tongue to eat all those poor ants.

But soon they noticed something else. There were ants everywhere!

18

19

When the beavers tried to cut down a tree, the ants swarmed all over them. And the ants crawled all over the bat and the spider.

“Get off! Get off!” they yelled.

The leaves on the thorny tree were

“Someone must get rid of these ants.”

covered in ants. When the giraffe tried to eat the leaves, she got a mouthful of ants.

“How disgusting!” she said.

20

21

Chapter 5 Arnold saves the day All the animals looked at Arnold, and he looked at all the animals.

“Quick! Start eating the ants again,” said the hummingbird.

“We’re sorry,” said the animals.

“You’re the only one who is any good at eating ants,” said the giraffe.

“It’s very important that there aren’t too many ants,” said the beavers. “Please stop trying to be like us and be yourself.”

“But you don’t like me when I eat ants,” said Arnold.

“You complain about it.”

22

23

FLYING START TO LITERACY EARLY EMERGENT STAGE

EMERGENT STAGE

EARLY STAGE

TRANSITIONAL EARLY FLUENT STAGE STAGE CHAPTER BOOKS

FLUENT STAGE CHAPTER BOOKS

FLUENT PLUS STAGE CHAPTER BOOKS

Level A Level B Level C Level D Level E Level F Level G Level H Level I Level J Level K Level L Level M Level N Level O Level P (1) (2) (3-4) (6) (8) (10) (12) (14) (16) (18) (20) (24) (28) (30) (34) (38)

Level K (20) Paired books Basketball Basics

Alex Stands Tall

Animal Show-offs

The Too-tight Tutu

Amazing Gardens

The Giant's Garden

So Arnold happily went back to doing

Polar Bears

A Bear Called Trouble

Surviving the Flood

The Great Flood of Dusty Plains

what all anteaters do best – eating ants.

A Long Day at the River

The Crocodile and the Plover

Looking After Tide Pools

The Smart Little Crab

Driver Ants

Killer Ants

And from that day on, the other animals

Level L (24) Paired books

smiled when they saw Arnold flicking out

Meerkats at Work

Anwar, the Very Bright Meerkat

his tongue and eating ants.

Protect the Oceans: Act Locally

The Kingdom of Bloom

Animals That Store Food

A Tale of Two Squirrels

I Am an Inventor

Gabby's Fast Ride

My Faraway Home

The Last Lighthouse Keeper

Designed For Speed

The Sleeping Prince

The Right Tools for the Job

Arnold Saves the Day

The First Flight

The Balloon Adventure

Level M (28) Paired books

24

Hummingbirds

The Kiss of a Hummingbird’s Wing

Polar Bears and the Arctic Sea Ice

Atka’s Ice Adventure

Body Works

The Mystery Trip

Built By Hand

Dr. Zardos and the Mind Stone

The Great Railroad Race

The Legend of Jimmy Drake

Frost

The Smallest Smudger

Living in Space

Space Camp

Marathon Journal

The Marathon Man

Flying Start to Literacy: Level L (24)

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