Driving Team Read Online Free Page B

look in her soft brown eyes. It had been seven or eight years since she had learned to read, but she could still remember sitting on her mother’s lap, running her fingers over the words in her horse books. They had all seemed so wonderful and mysterious, and she’d hardly been able to wait to go to school so that she could learn to read the stories about these great animals whose pictures she loved. Now she couldn’t imagine not being able to read, especially about horses.
    Carole smiled at the little girl. “How old are you?”
    “Five.” The little girl held up all the fingers on one hand. “My name’s Cynthia and I just started kindergarten.”
    “Hey, that’s great,” said Carole. “That means you’ll be reading in about a year. Then you can check out all these wonderful books about horses and read them all you want.”
    “But I want to know what happens to the horses in this book now.” Cynthia’s lower lip stuck out as if she might cry. Carole moved closer and sat down beside her.
    “Well, let’s see,” she said. “Maybe I can explain what’s going on.”
    She thumbed through the book and smiled at the illustrations she remembered so well. “This is the fierce pony stallion the Pied Piper, who’s chasing the great mare Phantom back to the herd, away from Paul and Maureen, who want to catch her.”
    Carole turned the pages, explaining the pictures. “Here Paul and Maureen are working hard to earn enough money to buy the Phantom, if they can catch her on Pony Penning Day. And here Paul has to jump in the water to save Phantom’s foal, Misty, from drowning in the sea!”
    “Wow,” said Cynthia. “How can you tell what’s going on just by looking at the pictures? Not even my teacher at kindergarten can do that.”
    Carole laughed. “Well, this is one of my most favorite books. I bet I’ve read it about fifty times. I could almost tell you what happens from memory.”
    “Could you?” asked Cynthia excitedly. “Would you?”
    “Sure,” answered Carole, settling back against the bookcase. “About five hundred years ago Misty’s pony ancestors were shipped from Spain to work in the gold mines of Peru, but a great storm blew in and wrecked their ship. The ponies broke free and finally swam ashore on Assateague Island.…”
    “Carole?” a familiar voice rang out. “What on earth are you doing?”
    Carole looked up. Lisa stood there, pencil and note cards in hand.
    “Oh, hi, Lisa.” Carole gave a sheepish grin. “I was just reading, uh,
Misty
.”
    “Reading
Misty
?” Lisa frowned. “I thought you were reshelving books we didn’t need.”
    “Well, I was, but this little girl was trying to figure out Misty just by looking at the pictures, and I thought I’d help her out. Her name’s Cynthia, and she likes books about horses.”
    “Hi, Cynthia.” Lisa knelt down and smiled. “My name’s Lisa. How old are you?”
    “Five,” Cynthia replied shyly.
    “Do you go to school?”
    “I go to kindergarten, but my teacher hasn’t taught me how to read yet.”
    Lisa smiled again. “You know there are brighter, nicer places to look at books than this dark old cornerof the stacks. Why don’t you move to one of the children’s tables?”
    For a long moment Cynthia stared at the floor. “Because I need to hide,” she finally replied, her voice just a whisper.
    “Hide?” Lisa looked at Carole and frowned. “How come?”
    “Because that mean old Mrs. Davidson would be real mad if she found me here again.”
    Carole looked at Cynthia. “But why? Mrs. Davidson loves to see kids use the library. She helped us gather lots of books about driving.”
    Cynthia dug the toe of her right sneaker into the carpet. “Mrs. Davidson has found me here before. She doesn’t like it when my mother leaves me here.”
    “Your mother leaves you here?” Lisa’s voice rose in alarm.
    Cynthia nodded. “She leaves me here to go to the mall and shop. She buys all sorts of stuff. I bet she spends a