9 788378 290704

ISBN 978-83-7829-070-4

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A little ant with big ideas, and his human friend Joey will delight your children with their exciting adventures.

The imaginative stories in these fun, colorful books will both entertain your children and help them learn valuable lessons

that every kid should know.

the goofed up science projectSometimes we have great plans which come to nothing because we put

them off until later to eventually forget about them. For this very reason, Joey forgets an important homework in Biology.

Andy tries to help him out of this situation and the disaster is round the corner. After that day, Joey discovers that our responsibilities should never be

put off until the last minute, because it can only cause problems!

lAwn mower on The looSerunAwAy AnTS

The Swimming hole diSASTerThe BAnd muSic mySTery

dAnger AT The circuSThe runAwAy dog

The SecreT oF The Spooky houSeThe gooFed up Science proJecT

Books For Those We Love

The goofed up Science project

Look for Andy Ant in his other books, too!

ANDY’S SWIMMING HOLE

ANDY’SROOM

FAMILY ROOM

JOEY’S HOME

ANDY’S HOME

Mr. DAVIS’HOME

Creator: Lawrence W. O’Nan created Andy Ant in the 1970s when he told bed-time stories to his children. He developed Andy Ant to assist him in instilling values and providing an imaginary hero for his two daughters. He regularly lectures and teaches on subjects dealing with values. He and his family reside in California, where is he is a fund raising consultant with nonprofit organizations.Author: Gerald D. O’Nan is the author of the Andy Ants stories. The stories are based on events that occurred during his childhood and individuals who played important roles in his life as a child. He actively works with children in his community as a teacher and storyteller and also teaches seminars in public and private schools on creative writing and storytelling. He and his family reside in Colorado, where he is an attorney.Illustrator: Norman McGary is an internationally recognized illustrator. He began his career in 1957 when he illustrated children’s books for Walt Disney and became known for his illustrations in 101 Dalmatians and Sleeping Beauty. His career also in-cludes extensive work with Hanna-Barbera Productions, Warner Brothers, and Jere-miah Films. He resides in California, where he continues to illustrate many projects.

STORM DRAIN

DINING ROOM

HALLWAY

SIDEWALK

INSIDEANDY’S HOME

ANT SCHOOL

JOEY’SSCHOOL

PORCH STEP

Dear

Sometimes we forget to do things

that we really planned on doing.

I guess we wait too long to start the

project and that’s why I forgot.

Andy even tried to help me out but

maybe I was depending on Andy’s

help too much because we almost

had a disaster! So, do your projects

right away and don’t have any

disasters.

Sincerely,

Joey

Vocatio PUBLiSHiNG HoUSE Warsaw

Created by Lawrence W. O’NanWritten by Gerald D. O’Nan

Illustrated by Norman McGary

the Goofed Up Science Project

To Jonathan Davies and in memory of Jay Davis two special friends

“Joey, time to get up,” mom said as she peeked in my room. i opened my eyes and looked out the window. the sun was shining, and it looked like a perfect day to get ready for spring vacation. tomorrow we were going to my cousin’s house and spend a whole week there.

My cousin lived in the mountains, and i had never been to the mountains before. Wow, i was so excited that i had spent the last few weeks just thinking about all the things i would need to take along. today was Friday, just one more day of

school before vacation.“Friday — oh, no,” i said right out loud. i just remem-

bered that i was supposed to bring in a science proj-

ect today. Mrs. Mash, my teacher, told us

to bring in a proj-ect that had some-

thing to do with

spring. and that was a couple of weeks ago. i had planned to do the project but just hadn’t gotten around to it. What was i going to do?

Suddenly, i heard a familiar tap on my window. there stood andy and his friend Dickter.

“Morning, Joey,” andy said, “Sorry to bother you, but we’re a little hungry. So, we thought we would have breakfast with you.”

andy and Dickter were already on spring vacation. they had been getting up real early everyday so they wouldn’t waste any of it. i wondered why it was always so easy to get out of bed on vaca-tion days and so hard to get up on regular school days. But i didn’t even feel like asking “ol’ philosopher andy” that question today.

�

“Sure, come on in,” i said in a real low voice.“W-what’s wrong Joey?” Dickter said with just a little stutter.“oh, i forgot to make a science project for school. and it’s due

today,” i said. “Without a project i’ll probably get a bad grade in science.”

“that is pretty bad,” andy said, “Why did you forget to work on it?”

“Well, i had planned to work on it, but i kept thinking i would do it tomorrow. and here it is tomorrow and it’s not done,” i said.

When i finished telling them my problem, Dickter leaned over and whispered something in andy’s ear.

“Hmm,” andy said, “maybe there is a way we can help you.”“Do you really think so,” i asked?“Yeah, we’ll tell you while we eat breakfast,” andy said.

11

andy and Dickter both grabbed a crumb, and after a few bites, they started telling me their plan.

“How would it be if we’re your science project?” andy asked.

“i don’t understand,” i said.“Well, your project could be about ants.

after all, you do know a lot about ants,” andy said with a laugh.

“But i have to show my class a project, not just tell them some-thing,” i said.

“We have that figured out, too,” andy said. “We can get our friends to help. if you can get a jar full of dirt, we can make an ant farm. it was Dickter’s idea. What do you think?”

“Y-yeah, w-what do you think,” Dickter asked, with that anten-na-to-antenna smile.

“could you make tunnels and everything before science class?”“We’ll sure try, J-Joey,” Dickter said. “B-but don’t let Mrs. Mash

do anything to us.”“Somebody told Dickter that Mrs. Mash got her name because

of what she does to ants,” andy whispered.“on, don’t worry. that’s just her real name,” i said. “i don’t think

she ever really mashed anybody.”i wasn’t sure if Dickter felt better about Mrs. Mash, but i was

sure feeling better about my project. i figured andy and the gang would get most all the work done and i would just do the talking.

all i needed was a jar, but i didn’t know where mom kept them.“What are you looking for?” mom asked, when she saw my head

in the cupboard.

12

“Well, i’m looking for a jar,” i said.“What for?” mom questioned.i knew it would be best to tell her the truth.

So i did. Mom shook her head, “it’s kind of late to start a project the day it is due Joey, but i’ll help if i can. What is your project?”

“i’m going to make an ant farm and tell about ants,” i said.

“as much time as you spend over by the sidewalk looking at those ants, you should know a lot about them,” mom said. “if i didn’t know better, i would think you were talking to them.”

Wow, i didn’t know mom even saw me when i was over at an-dy’s house. But i guess moms and dads know a lot more than we think. anyway, mom helped me get the jar and fill it full of dirt.

By the time i got over to the sidewalk, andy and all his friends were there.

“We had better hurry,” andy said, “there isn’t much time, and we have a lot of digging to do.”

and with that, all of andy’s friends started loading their gear into the jar. there were picks and shovels, wheelbarrows and lots of other things to build the ant farm.

“o. K., Joey, lets head for school,” andy di-rected, like a general getting ready for battle.

i screwed the lid on tight so nobody would fall out. When i got to school, i put the jar un-

der my seat. it would be safe there until i had to show my project. Science class wasn’t until after lunch, so i was hoping that andy and his friends could really make some good tunnels by then. i kept peeking to see how the tunnels looked, but i couldn’t see very much.

Mrs. Mash always calls our names when it’s each person’s turn to come up front. and wouldn’t you know it, today my name was first. i didn’t even have time to look at the jar again before i had to show the class my ant farm.

“ants are very hard workers,” i be-gan. “they live in places like drive-ways and under sidewalks and lots of them live over at the vacant lot.

“ants can carry things that are big-ger than they are,” i continued. “and they can teach us an awful lot.”

Dad once told me that God even wanted us to learn things from ants, so i really made sure the class knew how

smart ants were. after that i couldn’t think of anything to say. all the kids were just looking at me and so was Mrs. Mash. i tried to think of more to say, but nothing came out. at least i had my ant farm.

i held up the jar real high so everyone could see all the tunnels andy and Dickter had made. But there wasn’t a single tunnel. it was just a jar full of dirt.

Mrs. Mash said it looked like i hadn’t worked on my project very long, and of course she was right. i could tell she wasn’t go-ing to give me a very good grade. Finally, she told me to put the

jar on the shelf by the window. that way we all could see the ants working the rest of the day.

When i sat down, all i could think about was how bad my science project must have looked. i couldn’t understand why andy and the guys hadn’t dug any tunnels. if they had just worked a little bit, i would have gotten a good grade.

after science class was over, i thought i heard somebody calling my name, “Joey, Joey.”

it almost sounded like andy. i looked over at the jar, but there were a lot of water drops all over the inside and i couldn’t see andy. i didn’t understand how all the water had gotten inside the jar. i hoped one of the kids hadn’t poured anything in there.

a few hours later, the bell rang and school was out for spring va-cation. i ran home as fast as i could. i was hoping dad would load the car right away so we could leave for our vacation.

“Hi, Joey,” mom said. “Did you have a good day at school?”“Yeah,” i answered as i grabbed a cookie out of the cookie jar.“Did Mrs. Mash like your science project?” she asked.“My science project,” i gasped, almost choking on my cookie. “i

left it at school. i’ve got to go get it!”“the school is probably locked up by now,” mom said.“oh, mom, i can’t leave the ants in the jar all during spring vaca-

tion. they won’t have anything to eat and they might die,” i said, running out the door.

When i got back to school, it looked like everybody was gone. the door of the school was locked, but i banged on it real hard just in case somebody was in side. i banged and banged, but nobody came.

i sat down on the steps and tried to figure out what to do. Sud-denly, the door opened behind me.

“Was that you trying to break the door down?” i heard a voice say. it was Mr. Miffin, our janitor.

“Yes sir.” i said. and i started telling him my problem.“i’m not supposed to let anybody in the school after it’s locked

up,” he said, and he looked me right in the eye. “But run in and get your project. i’ll wait for you here.”

i hurried real fast, and in no time i had the jar and was on my way home.

When i got in my room, i took the lid off. “andy, are you in there?” i asked.

First, andy’s head peeked out and then Dickter. and before i knew it, the whole Grand ant soccer team was slowly climbing out.

22

“Why didn’t you build any tunnels like you said?” i questioned.“We c-could hardly breathe,” Dickter said taking in a big gulp

of air. “We were trapped!”“You didn’t punch any holes in the lid, so we didn’t dare do any

work because that would use up our air faster,” andy said.“i didn’t even think about punching air holes in the lid,” i said.

“i’m sure you didn’t think about it, Joey. But that’s what hap-pens when we wait until the last minute to do a job. a person who does that is a procrastinator — that means they always wait until the last minute,” andy said in his philosopher’s voice.

“Yeah, i should have started the project as soon as Mrs. Mash told us about it,” i said quietly.

“that’s right! if you wait until the last min-ute, you never do your best. then you end up in a big hurry and usually forget something re-ally important,” andy said, still talking in his philosopher’s voice.

“Like air holes in the lid.”“You’re right,” andy said. “But we were all

in a big hurry and didn’t make very good plans. Plans like how we were going to breathe. that’s why we almost had a big disaster.”

andy didn’t have to say it, but we both knew that is why my project was a disaster. Not because of what andy didn’t do, but be-cause of what i didn’t do.

“i bet you even thought i had for-gotten about you,” i said, hoping andy hadn’t really noticed.

“We didn’t tHiNK that, Joey, we KNEW it,” andy said with a chuckle. “But somehow we knew you would come back to rescue us, even if it was at the last minute.”

then we all laughed!i wasn’t going to wait until

the last minute on any more projects. after all i didn’t want andy calling me a pro-crastinator or whatever that big word was. i decided i was going to start my projects right away. Maybe i could help dad

load the car! that would be a good project. if we started loading it now, we wouldn’t get in a hurry and forget something really important — like all the things i was going to take to my cousins. it would be a disaster if i didn’t take those things. and we wouldn’t want any disas-ters ion spring vacation, would we!

Andy’s Family (Me)

MomDadU

ncle

And

rew

Ang

elic

aD

ickte

rPa

rker

Your Friend, Andy

Mom Dad

Joey’s Family (Me)

Fre

ckl

es

Your Friend, Joey

Bec

kyD

wa

yne

The Adventures of Andy AntThe Goofed up Science Project.

copyright © 1995 by andy ant Productions, inc.10951 W. center ave., Lakewood, co 80226, U.S.a.

all rights reserved

copyright for the English edition(excluding North america)

© 1996 by Vocatio PUBLiSHiNG HoUSE

all rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or any portions thereof, in any form. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic

or mechanical, magnetic, chemical, optical, manual, or otherwise, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without prior written permission from Vocatio.

For the permission please contact:

Vocatio PUBLiSHiNG HoUSEPolnej Róży 1

02-798 WarsawPoLaND

e-mail: ceo@vocatio.us

www.vocatio.us

Printed in Poland

ISBN 978-83-7829-070-4