Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for July

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 5	Pinocchio Is Hungry from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	The White Ship from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Sliding on the Ice from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet	Fire for the King's Son from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum	The Empire of Rome from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge	Betsy Holds the Reins (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	The Old Man Who Fought against the Giants from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Foes'-fear from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall	Balsam Fir (Part 2 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Am Shipwrecked from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Hercules from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price	Peter Rabbit Tells His Story from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	The Wedding Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	A Sea Song from the Shore by James Whitcomb Riley	How Many Seconds in a Minute? by Christina Georgina Rossetti	The Monkeys and the Crocodile by Laura E. Richards	Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost	The Song of the Soldiers by Walter de la Mare	The Snowdrop by Alfred Lord Tennyson	Falling Snow, Anonymous

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Hare and the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.

The Hare and the Tortoise