kusoma upinde wa mvua Article: The salamander Room

1

posted by hornean

Brian found a salamander in the woods. It was a little machungwa, chungwa salamander that crawled through the dried leaves of the forest floor.
The salamander was warm and cozy in the boy’s hand. “Come live with me,” Brian said.
He took the salamander home.

“Where will he sleep?” his mother asked.
“I will make him a salamander kitanda to sleep in. I will cover him with leaves that are fresh and green, and bring moss that looks like little stars to be a mto for his head. I will bring crickets to sing him to sleep and bullfrogs to tell him good-night stories.”

“And when he wakes up, where will he play?”
“I will carpet my room with shiny wet leaves and water them so he can slide around and play. I will bring mti stumps into my room so he can climb up the bark and sun himself on top. And I will bring boulders that he can creep over.”

“He will miss his Marafiki in the forest.”
“I will bring salamander Marafiki to play with him.”

“They will be hungry. How will wewe feed them?”
“I will bring insects to live in my room. And every siku I will catch salamanders. And I will make little pools of water on juu of the boulders so they can drink whenever they are thirsty.”

“The insects will multiply, and soon there will be bugs and insects everywhere.”
“I will find birds to eat the extra bugs and insects. And the bullfrogs will eat them too.”

“Where will the birds and bullfrogs live?”
“I will bring trees for birds to roost in, and make ponds for the frogs.”

“Birds need to fly.”
“We can lift off the ceiling. They will sail out in the sky, but they will come back to my room when it is time for dinner, because they will know that the biggest, juiciest insects are there.”

“But the trees—how will they grow?”
“The rain will come through the open roof and the sun, too. And vines will creep up the walls of my room, and ferns will grow under my bed. There will be big mushrooms and moss like little stars growing around the mti stumps that the salamanders can climb on.”

“And you—where will wewe sleep?”
“I will sleep on a kitanda under the stars, with the moon shining through the green leaves of the trees; owls will hoot and crickets will sing; and inayofuata to me, on the boulder with its head resting on soft moss; the salamander will sleep.”

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Hot Air Henry

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Feelings

posted by hornean

I HAVE FEELINGS

WHAT TOM DID

Boy 1: Mrs. Rudolph, come see what Tom did.
Boy 2: Look what Tom did!
Boy 3: All kwa himself.
Girl 1: How did he reach?
Girl 2: Wow.
Girl 3: He must feel proud.
Girl 4: He’s a genius.
Boy 4: That’s some space capsule!
Boy 5: He used up all the blocks.
Boy 6: It’s great, Tom.
Tom: Thanks.
John: I could do that.

WHAT JOHN DID

Boy 3: Poor Tom.
Girl 2: I can’t look.
Boy 2: John’s always doing things like that.
Girl 1: He has no feelings!
Boy 1: Mrs. Rudolph, come see what John did!
Boy 4: He did it on purpose!
Girl 4: You’re mean!
Boy 6: You’re spiteful!
Tom...

The maziwa Makers

posted by hornean

Cows are grazing in an open window. They are dairy cows, the maziwa makers.

Other wanyama make milk, too. But dairy cows make most of the maziwa we use.

There are five common breeds of dairy cows. The Holstein-Friesian is the most maarufu because it can produce zaidi maziwa than the other breeds.

A cow is able to make maziwa when she is two years old and has aliyopewa birth to a calf. Her maziwa is the chakula for her baby. She makes zaidi than her ndama will ever need—so we use the extra milk.

A few months after her ndama is born, a cow is bred again to have another calf. She will be pregnant for nine months. Two...

The maziwa Makers

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Gila Monsters Meet wewe At The Airport

posted by hornean

<<1>>
I live at 165 East 95th Street, New York City, and I’m going to stay here forever.

My mother and father are moving. Out West.

They say I have to go, too.
They say I can’t stay here forever.

Out West nobody plays baseball because they’re too busy chasing buffaloes.

And there’s cactus everywhere wewe look.
But if wewe don’t look, wewe have to stand up just as soon wewe sit down.

Out West it takes fifteen dakika just to say hello.
Like this: H-O-W-W-W-D-Y, P-A-A-A-R-D-N-E-R.

Out West I’ll look silly all the time.
I’ll have to wear chaps and spurs and a bandana and a hat so big...

The Life Cycle of the Honeybee

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Alistair in Outer Space

posted by hornean

Alistair Grittle was a sensible boy.

Every siku he made a orodha of the things he had to do.
Then he made a orodha of things he did not have to do.

He was always on time for school. The school clock was set kwa Alistair’s watch.

He hung up his koti, jacket every night and put his shoes in plastic bags.

Alistair took especially good care of maktaba books. He washed his hands before he read them so that he would not smudge the pages. And he always returned them to the maktaba on time.

One day, when Alistair was returning his vitabu to the library, something unusual happened.

He was picked up kwa a space ship and...

Digging Up Dinosaurs

posted by hornean

Have wewe ever seen dinosaur skeletons in a museum?
I have.
I visit them all the time.
I went again yesterday.

I saw APATOSAURUS.

I saw CORYTHOSAURUS.

I saw IGUANODON and TRICERATOPS.
I like to say their names.

SCOLOSAURUS was just where I had left it.
And TYRANNOSAURUS REX looked as fierce as ever.
TYRANNOSAURUS used to scare me.
I still can’t believe how big it is.
Just its head is almost twice my size.

I’m not afraid of dinosaurs anymore.
Sometimes I call them “you bag of bones” under my breath
I can spend hours looking at them.
I used to wonder where they came from and how they got into the museum....

Digging Up Dinosaurs

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Summer

posted by hornean

Run outside to play in the warm summer sun where the nyasi grows tall and sunflowers fill the fields.

Baby bears play just like you.
They grow fat and round on fresh summer nyasi and learn to catch their first samaki chajio, chakula cha jioni down kwa the riverbank.
Summer is time to learn and to grow.

Baby mountain kondoo learn the safest path to summer meadows. gosling wings grow stronger, their voices louder.

Up in the trees, the songs of spring suddenly soften. mweusi, sorgun mothers and mweusi, sorgun fathers, busy feeding their young, have little time to sing. Hummingbirds sip nectar for themselves and catch bugs for their tiny...

Snowy Day: Stories and Poems

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Sports Pages

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Sunken Treasure

posted by hornean

“It’s there! It’s really there!”
The rotting hull of a ship has been found on the ocean floor. Within the wreck lies a fabulous treasure.

The story of each underwater treasure hunt is different, but each goes back to the same beginning…the sinking of a ship. The story of the hunt for the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a Spanish galleon, begins the same way.

THE ATOCHA
The Sinking

It is 1622. The Atocha with its fleet of sister ships, makes its way back from South America to Spain. The Atocha is a treasure ship, laden with gold, jewels, silver bars, and thousands of coins.
The fleet makes a...

The Bionic Bunny onyesha

posted by hornean

“Good morning,” alisema Wilbur.
“You’re late,” grumbled the director.
Wilbur had only ten dakika to get made up, go to Wardrobe, and finish learning his lines.

“Hold still,” alisema Maxine, the makeup woman. “I have to make wewe look strong and smart. It isn’t easy, wewe know!” she joked.
With practiced skill, the Wardrobe Department transformed Wilbur into the Bionic Bunny.
First they snapped on his costume with the built-in muscles.
They tied his bionic sneakers, which made him taller.
They strapped on his bionic wristwatcher, which supposedly let him see anything anywhere.
Finally,...

Snowy Day: Stories and Poems

posted by hornean

WINTER MORNING
kwa Ogden Nash

Winter is the king of showmen,
Turning mti stumps into snow men
And houses into birthday cakes
And spreading sugar over the lakes.
Smooth and clean and frost white
The world looks good enough to bite.
That’s the season to be young,
Catching snowflakes on your tongue.

Snow is snowy when it’s snowing
I’m sorry it’s slushy when it’s going.

SNOW
kwa Karla Kuskin

We’ll play in the snow
And stray in the snow
And stay in the snow
In a snow-white park.
We’ll clown in the snow
And frown in the snow
Fall down in the snow
Till it’s after dark.
We’ll cook snow pies
In a big snow pan.
We’ll make snow eyes
In a round snow man.
We’ll sing snow songs
And chant snow chants
And roll in the snow
In our fat snow pants.
And when it’s time to go nyumbani to eat
We’ll have snow toes
On our frosted feet.

Sports Pages

posted by hornean

WATCH ME ON THE WING

Sweeper: the deeper I can play
the faster I can lay
out my traps for their fullback
moving too close to mid field.
I shine along the sidelines
from mid field
back to our goal.

I am the quickest,
sharpest,
most intelligent,
(and
most modest,) player on
my
team:
in this league.

I have the
superspeed:
I have the need to do a little
more
than play only one position. I
defend. I score. I run lik
wind
across the mahindi, nafaka fields of
this
town.
I am a brown tornado on a
muddy
day.
The opposition knows
I come to play with
all I bring. They
watch:

watch me on the wing.

SWEET

You are at the line. wewe take a deep breath....

The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth

posted by hornean

In Ms. Frizzle’s class, we had been learning about animals’ homes for almost a month. We were pretty tired of it.
So everyone was happy when Ms. Frizzle announced, “Today we start something new.”

"We are going to study about our earth!" alisema Ms. Frizzle. She put us to work uandishi reports about earth science.
“And for homework,” she said, “each person must find a rock and bring it to school."

But the inayofuata day, almost everyone had some excuse.

Only four people had done their homework. And Phil was the only one who had found a real rock.

“I guess we’ll have to go on a field trip and...

Three kwa The Sea

posted by hornean

Lolly, buibui and Sam had a picnic on the beach.
“I’m as full as a tick,” alisema Lolly.
“Me too,” alisema Sam.
“Hot mbwa and maji ya limau, lemonade always hit the spot.”

“Now for a swim,” alisema Spider.
“Oh, no,” alisema Lolly.
“Not so soon after lunch.”
“Rats,” alisema Spider.

“How about a nap?” asked Sam.
“Oh, no,” alisema the others.
“Naps are no fun at all.”
“Very true,” alisema Sam.

“Want to hear a story?” asked Lolly.
“I brought along my reader.”
“A fine idea,” alisema her friends.
“Then let’s begin,” alisema Lolly.

LOLLY’S STORY

The panya saw the cat and the dog.
“I see them,”...

kusoma upinde wa mvua Logo

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Is This A House For Hermit Crab?

posted by hornean

Hermit kaa was forever growing too big for the house on his back.

It was time to find a new house. He crawled up out of the water looking for something to hide in, where he would be salama from the pricklepine fish.
He stepped along the shore, kwa the sea, in the sand...
scritch-scratch, scritch-scratch

...until he came to a rock.
Is this a house for Hermit Crab?
Turning himself around, Hermit kaa backed his hind legs beneath the rock. The rock would not budge. It was too heavy.
So he stepped along the shore, kwa the sea, in the sand...
scritch-scratch, scritch-scratch

...until he came to a rusty old...