The Adventures of Albert S. Cheddar

The Adventures of Albert S. Cheddar

About this book This book was written collaboratively by community members in the spring of 2020 in support of Reading Partners Twin Cities.

Authors Amy Buckley Sarah Dischinger Dean and Tal Ganani Joe Grosdidier Hallie Kircher-Henning Douachee Lee Rita Mecicar Laura Moulton Sutherland Nora Paul Tracy Roy Meg Walters Yer Yang

Illustrations Erica Rule

Once upon a time in a little white house, on a little street, in a little town lived a little teeny mouse. This little mouse named Albert S. Cheddar, you can call him Al, lived in a little hole in the wall and his very best friend was a dog and a hamster that also lived in the house.

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Al lived a very happy life with his best pals, Scruffy and MooMoo. They spent their days rolling in the grass, finding the very best hiding spots and, of course, eating lots and lots of cheese. But their most favorite thing of all was.... to DANCE.

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One day, Al, Scruffy and MooMoo decided that they would host a dance party to celebrate life and friendship- and cheese! They would invite all their friends and serve grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, cheese curds and cheese burgers. But, since they lived in a little house, too small for the party, they decided that they would have their dance party in the big field behind their little house.

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The first thing that the friends needed to do to get ready for the party was to go to the store to get some great, big, wheels of cheese. Each one picked out his favorite kind of cheese, Al's favorite being cheddar, of course, and left the store to head home and get cooking.

Everything was going well, until MooMoo lost control of his parmesan and it started rolling down the sidewalk, faster and faster, without him!

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When the three friends caught up to the runaway parmesan they found a big pile of fluffy cheese. "How perfect is this?" asked MooMoo. "The rough sidewalk shredded the cheese for us!" They gathered up the cheese and headed home to start cooking for the party.

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Albert wasn’t able to carry as much cheese back to the house as the others because he was the smallest. When they got back, he said to MooMoo, “MooMoo, do you think if I eat more cheese, I can be as big and strong as you are someday?”

“Don’t be silly,” MooMoo said, “you are a mouse and I am a hamster and, besides, I like helping you carry things! Let’s prepare for the party to celebrate everyone being friends.“

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Al folded his arms across his chest.

"If I can't be big and strong, then how can I help them?" he thought.

Al watched MooMoo and Scruffy moving around very fast to set up the party. They were bumping into a lot of things. Al followed them. He steadied the chair that MooMoo bumped into. He caught the cheese that Scruffy hit off the table.

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Now that he had the cheese in hand, Al, Scruffy, and MooMoo were ready to prepare for their dance party.

Al had an idea: “Let’s get a bunch of different shapes of cheese and make up a new dance called Cheese Dance!”

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Scruffy and MooMoo didn’t know what a Cheese Dance was, but they had some ideas.

"What if we have a triangle cheese and we jump from corner to corner and wave our hands in the air?” said Scruffy.

And MooMoo said “Or if it is a circle-shaped cheese, we can run around it and twirl at the same time.”

The friends were almost ready for the party and to teach their friends their new dance.

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The trio started getting really excited when their friends started pouring in. Everyone loved all the cheesy snacks, but not as much as they loved the new dance moves they were learning! It didn’t take long before even their shiest friends were jumping and twirling. Soon enough, their friends were even coming up with their own dances!

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Al shuffled over to Katrina and Kaitlin the cats, who were showing off what they had come up with.

“We call it the Macarena and Cheese!!” they said proudly.

“THAT’S SO CHEESY!” he shouted (which was his greatest compliment).

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Scruffy, with his paw on his hat, moonwalked right in front of them. With a sharp move, he threw his hat in the air to hit the disco ball, shimmering the field in rainbow beamed lights. Everyone roared with excitement.

Scruffy howled into the microphone “IT IS TIME… FOR THE SHOW TO START! Everyone, make your way towards the dance stage!”

He then handed the microphone to Al.

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Al, who had a quiet voice but with his love for dance and his friend’s encouragement, shouted, “IT IS TIME.. FOR THE SHOW TO START! To live is to dance.

To dance is to live.

Start the music MooMoo and the Band!”

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All the friends and critters looked up at Al, wide-eyed with anticipation. Al had turned his back to the audience and was frozen still.

Ten long seconds passed, but Al still didn’t turn around. The crowd started to mutter with confusion.

Scruffy nudged MooMoo and whispered, “What’s going on? Did he get too scared? Is the show going to go on?”

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Finally, after what seemed like forever, Al turned to face the audience. His eyes were closed, and he had a dreamy expression on his face. He did a big, loud swallow and opened his eyes, looking surprised to see everyone staring up at him.

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“Oh my goodness, I do apologize. Right before I began to speak, I put the tastiest piece of cheddar cheese into my mouth. It blew me away, and I was transported to a magical cheese world for a moment! Now I’m back. Wow, cheese is so amazing, and so are all our friends. I am so thankful for everything delicious in this world. Let the show begin!”

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That’s when Al called his friends MooMoo and Scruffy to join him in teaching his friends the new dance they had created.

The Cheese Dance was the hit of the night!!

He had never seen all his friends move with so much energy and joy.

He was so proud that he had helped put this event together to celebrate life, friendship, and of course CHEESE!

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The End

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