Made Special For
Made Special By
AIDEN
MOM AND DAD
story by
Kenn Nesbitt
illustrations by
Troy Cummings
E R O M ! S R A BE by Kenn Nesbitt illustrated by
Made Special For
AIDEN
Troy Cummings
Made Special by
MOM AND DAD
Aiden, We love you so much! Mom and Dad
Once upon a time there was a story. This story was a lovely story with absolutely no bears in it— not a single bear anywhere. Then one day...
MORE BEARS!! What? Who said that? The author of the story looked around the room, wondering where the voice had come from. Was that Aiden shouting? Then he went back to writing.
As I was saying, this story had absolutely no bears at all. The author was very certain about this.
MORE BEARS!!
The author tried very, very hard to ignore Aiden, who thought that the story ought to have‌
M O R E B E A R S !!
Fine. This story had a bear. It was a cute little baby bear strolling through the book looking for—
E R O M S ! ! R A BE
Now hold on a second, Aiden. The author of this story knew exactly how many bears it should have, and the author insisted there should only be‌
two bears. There. Happy now, Aiden? An adorable, cuddly-wuddly little baby bear named Mr. Fluffy, and his mama bear, Stella, who always wore a yellow hat. Now it happened that Stella and Mr. Fluffy, like all bears, were especially fond of‌
more bears. Of course. The author was just thinking that. The author was thinking that, just to keep Aiden happy, this story should have a papa bear, whose name, by the way, was Captain Picklehead,
and a bear named Uncle Sheldon who was bald and loved to play the ukulele. Now, where were we? Oh, yes...
Stop that, Aiden! How many bears do you want this story to have, anyway? Do you really want to hear about Bobcat Sam, the bear who rode a pony, and Admiral Haversham, the English dancing bear, and Excellent Steve, the bear who just wanted to surf?
You do, Aiden? Wow. Why didn’t you say so? In that case, the author suddenly decided that what this story really needed was‌
Yes, yes, yes. More bears, Aiden. So the author added Astrobear, who, by the way, was Bulgarian and always kept a hamster in his pocket, just in case. And then the author put in three more bears named Lester, Chester, Ester, and Floyd. Wait. That’s four! Oh well, four is okay, because, after all, this story really needed‌
It needed a bear named Lucky Eddie who juggled carrots,
and a bear named Elbow who wasn’t very smart and always wore his underpants on the outside of his regular pants,
and a bear named One-Two-Three, which even the author thought was a strange name for a bear.
And since this probably wasn’t enough for Aiden, the author added even…
The author added six bears on tiny pink bicycles, two bears reading comic books, one bear flying across the page in a cape and lederhosen, three more bears swinging through trees on vines, a bear in a yellow submarine, several bears making cupcakes, and an entire team of fire-fighting bears running across the page with hoses, ladders, and party balloons.
There were bears hanging from the top of the page, bears sleeping in the corners, and bears standing on top of other bears. There were so many bears in the story that they couldn’t all fit on the page.
It was crowded! Too crowded, Aiden. So crowded that some bears started pushing other bears off of the page. And arguing. Which made the author grumpy. And when authors get grumpy, they start rewriting. Changing the story. In fact, this author was so grumpy he told the bears to leave. And they did. After all, this was the author’s story.
They walked off the page. They rode off the page. They swung, surfed, danced, climbed, ran, and even somersaulted off the page.
At last all of Aiden’s bears were gone, and the author smiled. Finally the author had a story with no bears in it. A lovely story with not a single bear anywhere. Just the way the author wanted it. Because, you see, the author was quite certain that this story should have absolutely‌
MORE CHICKENS!!
Copyright © 2010 by Kenn Nesbitt Cover and internal illustrations © Troy Cummings Cover and internal design © 2010 by Sourcebooks, Inc. Cover design by William Riley/Sourcebooks Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc. Put Me In the Story is a trademark of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews— without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. Published by Put Me In the Story, a publication of Sourcebooks, Inc. P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410 (630) 961-3900 Fax: (630) 961-2168 First published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher. Source of Production: Lightning Source, Inc. 1246 Heil Quaker BLVD, La Vergne, TN 37086 Date of Production: MM YYYY Run Number: 99999 Printed and bound in the United States of America. LSI 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
KENN NESBITT is possibly the funniest and most sought-after children's poet writing today. When he's not writing, podcasting, updating his website (poetry4kids.com), or visiting schools sharing his wacky brand of humor with kids across America, Kenn can be found cuddling his collection of stuffed bears. He seriously cannot get enough of bears. Or chickens.
TROY CUMMINGS has been drawing goofy animals pretty much nonstop since kindergarten. His illustrations have appeared in newspapers, in magazines, on websites, on frozen fish stick packages, and in hospital waiting rooms. He hibernates in Greencastle, Indiana, with his wife and cubs.