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Houghton Mifflin Fourth Grade Reading "Story Summary" |
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Theme 1 |
Akiak
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Grandfather's Journey
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Finding The Titanic
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By The Shores of Silver Lake
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Theme 2 |
Tomás and the Library Lady
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Tanya's Reunion
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2-3 Boss of the Plains
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A Very Important Day
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Theme 3 |
The Stranger
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Cendrillion
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Heat Wave!
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Theme 4 |
My Name is Maria Isabel
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4-2 Marven of the Great Northwest
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4-3 The Last Dragon
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4-4 Sing to the Stars
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Theme 5 |
5-1 Happy Birthday, Dr. King!
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5-2 Gloria Estefan
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5-3 Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man
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Theme 6 |
6-1 Salmon Summer
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6-2 Salmon Summer
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6-3 Skylark
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This is a story about a dog named Akiak. Akiak pulled a sled with a team of dogs. Akiak was the lead dog, the first dog in the team. The driver of the sled was a young woman named Mick. Mick and here team raced in the Iditarod, a race in Alaska. This was Akiak’s last chance to win the race, because she was getting old.
On Day 1, the race began. It lasted ten days. On Day 4, Mick’s team was in first place. Then the hard snow hurt Akiak’s paw. Akiak could not help pull the sled. Akiak had to go home.
But Akiak knew that the team needed her help. Akiak did not go home. She ran after Mick and the team. Akiak ran for many days. She slept at night in the snow. Some men tried to catch Akiak. She ran away. Some people gave Akiak food. She kept running to find her team.
On Day 10 Mick’s team was in second place. Then they got lost in the snow. At that moment Akiak appeared. She showed the other dogs where the trail was. Then she sat in the sled with Mick.
Mick’s team was the first team to cross the finish line. They won the race. Everyone was very happy for Akiak. She had finally won the Idirarod. Story Summary |
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Story Summary 1-2 Grandfather's Journey Grandfather is from Japan. When he was young, he went to North America. Everything there was new and different. Grandfather traveled a lot. He saw many places and met many people. His favorite place in North America was California. One day, Grandfather went back to Japan. He got married. Later, he and his wife went back to California. They lived in San Francisco. They had a daughter. They spent many years in California. But Grandfather missed Japan. He missed the mountains and rivers from Japan. Finally he took his family back to Japan. When Grandfather was in Japan, he missed California. He told stories about California to his friends and family. Grandfather hoped to go back to California. But a war started, and he never could go back. His grandson went to live in California many years later. When he visited California, he missed Japan. And when he visited Japan, he missed California. He loved both places, just like his grandfather.
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Story Summary 1-3 Finding the Titanic
The ship named the Titanic was very big. It was the biggest ship ever built. The first time the Titanic sailed was in 1912. Ruth Becker was one of the passengers on the Titanic. She was twelve years old. She was traveling from England to the United States. She was excited to be on the Titanic. She and her family cheered when the ship left England. The voyage took many days. Four days after the Titanic left England, it hit an iceberg! Ruth and her family got into lifeboats and were saved. But the Titanic sank. Many other people died. After the Titanic sank, many people looked for the big ship in the ocean. No one found it for many years. Finally, in 1985, Robert Ballard and his team found the remains of the Titanic. They had special equipment that could go very deep into the water. Robert Ballard had dreamed of finding the Titanic for many years. He found many things from the Titanic on the ocean floor: pots and pans, bathtubs, and suitcases. Using a robot camera, he took pictures of everything he saw.
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Story Summary 1-4 By the Shores of Silver Lake
This story is about the Ingalls family. It takes place in the 1870s. The Ingalls family had a mother, a father and four daughters, named Mary, Laura, Carrie and Grace. In the story the Ingalls took a train to move to a new town. Trains were new in the 1870s. They went very fast. All the girls were excited to go on a train. They had never been on one before. They put on their nicest clothes, and went to the station. They waited for the train on the platform. After a while, the train got to the station. The Ingalls family saw that it was very big. The train was loud. It blew black smoke into the air. When they were on the train, Laura explained what she saw to her sister Mary. Mary was blind; she couldn’t see. Laura described what she saw inside the train and outside. The train ride was special. It wasn’t something that happens everyday. Ma bought a package of candy for the girls to share. They each got two pieces. By the time they finished eating the candy, the train stopped. They reached Tracy, the town where Pa would be waiting for them. |
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Story Summary 2-1 Tomás and the Library Lady Every summer, Tomás and his family went to Iowa. His parents worked on a farm there during the summer. They worked in Texas during the rest of the year. Papá Grande, Tomás’s grandfather, told many stories to Tomás. Tomás loved the stories. Papá Grande told Tomás that he was old enough to go to the library himself. At the library, Tomás could find many new stories. Tomás was nervous when he first got to the library. The Library Lady made him feel better. She gave Tomás a glass of water. She helped Tomás find books that he would like. Tomás spent the whole day at the library. His imagination took him away to many fantastic places. The Library Lady helped Tomás check out some books, so he could take them home. At night, Tomás read the books to his family. All summer long, he went to the library. Sometimes he read to the Library Lady, and sometimes he read to himself. He taught the Library Lady some words in Spanish. At the end of the summer, it was time to say adios, or good-bye, to the kind Library Lady. |
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Story Summary 2-2 Tanya’s Reunion Tanya was excited. She and Grandma were taking a trip to a farm. Her grandmother grew up there. The whole family would be coming to the farm. They were having a family reunion. Tanya and Grandma went to the farm a few days early to help get everything ready. When Tanya got to the farm, it wasn’t what she expected. The farmhouse was old. There weren’t any animals. It rained all the time. Grandma was too busy to spend time with her. Tanya was unhappy and wanted to go home. Grandma finally realized that Tanya wasn’t happy. Grandma told Tanya about when she was young. She talked about the farm, and all the fun she had growing up there. She told Tanya about other family members who lived on the farm. After talking with Grandma, the farm started to seem interesting and exciting. Tanya helped get ready for the reunion. She fed the chickens and picked apples. Tanya found an old piece of wood with her grandparents’ initials in it. This made her feel proud. She felt closer to her family and their history. Tanya saw that she could enjoy being on the farm. |
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Story Summary 2-3 Boss of the Plains In the 1840s, John Stetson was a hat maker. His family had been making hats for years. John lived in New Jersey. He dreamed of going west. The life in the West seemed exciting to him. One day, he did go west. He went across the country with a group of people. They went to Colorado and looked for gold. Life was not easy. John decided to make a new hat. He needed a new hat because he wanted protection from the weather. The new hat he made was very big and had a large brim. This hat protected him from the sun and the rain. Some people laughed at John’s hat. But one day, a man came up to John and said he wanted to buy John’s hat. He paid a lot of money for it. John didn’t have any luck looking for gold. So he went back East. He started to make hats again. He decided to make a lot of big hats like the one he had made out West. He would send them west and see if people would buy them. He called his hat the “Boss of the Plains.” People didn’t buy his hat at first. But then, everyone bought the hats and John had to make many more. Soon everyone in the West was wearing John’s hat. It was the perfect hat for them. |
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Story Summary 2-4 A Very Important Day Many people in New York City woke up early one day. It was a very important day for them. When they woke up and looked out the window, they saw that it was snowing. Some people had never seen snow before. They were from other countries, such as India or Ghana, where it never snows. Other people had seen snow before. They were reminded of the counties they came from, such as Russia and Scotland, where it snows a lot. Even with all the snow, everyone had something important to do that day. So they all went downtown. Some people took the subway. Other people walked and took the bus. One family took a ferry to go downtown. All the families went to the courthouse. It was an important day for all of them. They were all going to a ceremony. It was an important ceremony because they were all becoming citizens of the United States of America. |
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Story Summary 3-1 The Stranger It was late summer. Farmer Bailey was driving. Suddenly, he hit a stranger with his truck. Farmer Bailey brought the man to his house to make sure he wasn’t hurt. The stranger didn’t speak at all. He had strange clothes. He didn’t know how to use buttons. He had never seen steam. The stranger worked hard, but he never sweat. After three weeks the stranger still had not said a word. Farmer Bailey noticed something odd about the weather. The seasons were not changing. The leaves on the trees had not changed from green to red and orange. The temperature hand not gotten colder. Instead of changing to autumn, it was still summer around the farm. The stranger knew that something was wrong. One day, he put on his old clothes and left the Bailey’s house. As soon as the stranger left, the air got cold and the leaves changed colors. Every autumn at the Bailey’s house after the stranger’s visit, a strange thing happens. The leaves change color overnight. In the morning, the Baileys find the words “See you next fall” written on their window. |
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Cendrillion was a young woman. She lived on a beautiful island. She lived with her father, her stepmother, and her stepsister. Cendrillion’s stepmother always made her work hard. One day, Cendrillion wasn’t allowed to go to a fancy ball. Her stepmother said she was too lazy. Cendrillion wanted to go to the ball, because Paul would be there. Paul was handsome and kind, just like a prince. Cendrillion’s godmother made a promise. She said that she would find a way for Cendrillion to go to the ball. Her godmother used her magic wand to give Cendrillion everything she needed for the ball: a carriage, horses, a beautiful dress, and elegant shoes. At the ball, Paul danced with Cendrillion all night. At midnight, Cendrillion had to leave the ball quickly. But she forgot one of her shoes. Paul picked up the shoe and hoped to find the woman who owned the other shoe. When Paul got to Cendrillion’s house, he put the shoe on her foot. Cendrillion was not wearing beautiful, expensive clothes. Paul said she looked just as beautiful as the night before. There was true love in his eyes. Cendrillion and Paul were married soon after that. |
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One summer day on a farm in Kansas, the weather got very hot. There was a Heat Wave! It was so hot that birds flying across the sky got cooked outside. It was so hot that the flowers went under the porch, looking for shade. The corn planted in the fields was so hot that it popped. There was popcorn all over the fields. The family who lived on the farm needed to get rid of the popcorn. They packed it in their truck and sold it at the movie theater. The family needed to fight the Heat Wave. They mixed flour, yeast, and water together. This made dough, and the dough started baking. Some crows smelled the baking bread and flew over. They created some shade, so it was cooler for a while. But then the birds landed on the bread, so there wasn’t any more shade. It was hot again. Then the family had another idea. They planted lettuce seeds. The lettuce grew right away. As the lettuce grew, the temperature got cooler. Finally, the Heat Wave disappeared. The lettuce cooled off the air so much because it was iceberg lettuce! |
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Story Summary 4-1 My Name is Maria Isabel
Maria Isabel had just started a new school. In her new class, the teacher called her “Mary Lopez” instead of Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez. Maria Isabel was not used to being called Mary. When the class was picking roles for the Winter Pageant, Maria Isabel didn’t hear the teacher call her. Since she didn’t answer when she heard the teacher call “Mary”, she didn’t get a role in the play.
Maria Isabel was unhappy that she wasn’t in the pageant. She felt left out of all the fun and excitement. Maria Isabel sat by herself when everyone was rehearsing. She wished she could tell her teacher that she wanted to be in the pageant, but she was to shy.
One day the teacher had the class write an essay called “My Greatest Wish.” Maria Isabel wrote that her greatest wish was to be called by her real name: Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez. She also wrote that she wanted a part in the Winter Pageant.
After the teacher read her essay, she started to call Maria Isabel by her real name. The teacher understood how she felt , and Maria Isabel got to sing in the Winter Pageant! |
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Story Summary 4-2 Marven of the Great Northwest
(coming soon)
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Story Summary 4-3 The Last Dragon
(coming soon)
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Story Summary 4-4 Sing to the Stars
(coming soon)
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Story Summary 5-1 Happy Birthday, Dr. King!
(coming soon)
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Story Summary 5-2 Gloria Estefan
(coming soon)
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Story Summary 5-3 Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man
(coming soon)
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Story Summary 6-1 Salmon Summer
(coming soon)
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Story Summary 6-2 Salmon Summer
(coming soon)
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Story Summary 6-3 Skylark
(coming soon)
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