Explosion after explosion of hot rock and ash spurted from the ocean. A thick cloud of steam rose high into the air. Slowly, for many days, a long mound of dark lava rose up out of the water. An...
The outside of the earth
We live on the surface of the earth. The surface, or crust of the earth, is made of rock. In some places, it is covered with soil. In many places, it is covered with water. All around it is air. ...
The Challenge
from Sea Glass by Laurence Yep Craig is a Chinese-American boy who has lived in San Francisco's Chinatown all his life. Then, when he is in eighth grade, his family moves back to the small coastal...
I Leave the Island
from Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell The book from which this story is taken is based on historical facts. When a ship comes to take a small band of Indians to the mainland,...
Until I Saw the Sea
by Lilian Moore Until I saw the sea I did not know that wind could wrinkle water so. I never knew that sun could splinter a whole sea of blue. Nor did I know before, a sea breathes in and out...
A Thousand Pails of Water
by Ronald Roy Yukio lived in a village where people fished and hunted whales to make their living. Yukio's father, too, was a whale hunter. "Why do you kill the whales, Father?" Yukio asked....
The Dog and the Bone
by Aesop It so happened that a dog had a fine bone and was carrying it home to chew on in peace. On his way, he had to go across a plank over a stream. As he walked across the plank, he looked down...
The Crow and the Pitcher
by Aesop A crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a pitcher which had once been full of water. But when the Crow put his beak into the pitcher, he found that there was only a little water left in...