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Zuno’s dog friend, Ziggy, likes to carry a stuffed animal with him and it reminded Zuno of Corduroy. Don Freeman’s A Pocket for Corduroy is Zuno’s choice this week. Corduroy explores the laundromat in search of a pocket. Who knew laundry could be this fun?

Miracle-Gro Our backyard is a favorite place for our family. We have a covered patio, a picnic table, chairs, and a pool. Texas lilacs and crepe myrtles fill the corners. Roses and jasmine add color and fragrance. The sprinklers water faithfully morning after morning, but water alone is not enough for maximum growth. Plants need food,…

In Cracker, award-winning author, Cynthia Kadohata, crafts a unique book about the military K-9 units in the Vietnam War. What makes this novel so unique is that the story is told from the dog’s point of view. Parental heads-up: There is some language and violence due to the war setting.

Are you a little brother with an older sister? Max and Zuno feel your pain in Ruby’s Beauty Shop by Rosemary Wells. Max’s sister, Ruby, and her friend, Louise, are playing beauty shop and they need customers. Max, however, has his own ideas about beauty. This is an extreme makeover not to be missed.

A Weaponless Army My son and I are studying the lives of Saul and David in our quiet time and some verses caught me by surprise. When Saul became king, Israel had all kinds of grief from those pesky Philistines. The Philistines had rigged it where the entire nation of Israel was weaponless. Check it…

Milo is bored. He is bored at school. He is bored at home—until a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room. Author Norton Juster fills The Phantom Tollbooth with clever wordplay and whimsical characters like Tock, the watchdog (literally), and the Spelling Bee, S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g B-e-e. You find this book “Beyond Expectations.”

My youngest son is losing teeth right and left. It reminds Zuno of Robert McCloskey’s One Morning in Maine. Go clamdigging with Zuno and Sal and see the seagulls, loons, and seals of Maine. When Sal loses a tooth, she makes a wish. Can you guess what it is?

Covert Operations: Part 3 Today, I’ll brief you on the final covert op in Matthew 6. Feel free to glance back at the last two Cross Training entries for Parts 1 & 2. “ ‘ When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are…

It was his birthday present—“á small white metal cupboard with a mirror in the door, the kind you see over the basin in old-fashioned bathrooms.” In Lynne Reid Banks’s Indian in the Cupboard, Omri discovers that while his new birthday gift may look ordinary, it holds extraordinary power. The cupboard brings his plastic toys, cowboys,…

Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire have authored and illustrated numerous biographies for children. Zuno has chosen a playful princess with the D’Aulaires’ Pocahontas. Other books include, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Columbus, George Washington, and Leif the Lucky.