11x10 - 29-Jun-99

[bunniefuu]

♪ Reading rainbow ♪

♪ Butterfly in the sky ♪

♪ I can go twice as high ♪

♪ Take a look ♪

♪ It's in a book ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ I can go anywhere ♪

♪ Friends to know ♪

♪ And ways to grow ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ I can be anything ♪

♪ Take a look ♪

♪ It's in a book ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ Reading rainbow ♪

Ah, good evening,
my friends,

And welcome to my library.

This room is the perfect place
to spend a quiet night...

[Wolf howling]

Or a not-so-quiet one.

These books are filled
with stories so astonishing,

They can't possibly be true...

Or can they?

Sometimes, strange things
surprise you

When you least expect it.

[Cuckoo cuckoo]

Huh huh huh!

Strange things indeed.

Today, we are going to hear
some rather odd little stories.

Some are true.
Some are not.

Can you tell the fact
from the fiction?

To begin, let us consider
this curious tale.

Fossils are
really amazing.

The time is saturday morning.

The place--an empty lot

At the edge of town.


A fossil hunt with his dad.

I'm bored.

Let's look at this.

Dad, you won't
find any fossils.

John, you've just
got to keep looking.

Dad, there's
nothing here.

John, be careful.

Whoa!

Wow!

Dad!

Dad, I think
I found something!

What have you got,
john?

This is a fossil!

I think it's
a dinosaur bone!

Incredible!

Mmm.

What do you think?

Is this story fact,
or is it fiction? Hmm?

That's a fact.
I found a fossil, too,

At camp on a rock.

It's not true.
Fossils aren't in the city.

It's a fact.
You can find dinosaur bones.

That wouldn't happen
to a kid.

You have to dig and do research
to find dinosaur bones.

The story you just heard
is fact.

Incredible.

John and his father made
an amazing discovery.

Scientists confirmed that they
found the fossil remains

Of a baby nodosaur...

It's a baby
nodosaur.

An armor-plated dinosaur that
lived millions of years ago.

Now, prepare yourself
for another intriguing tale.

Umm...yes, here it is.

This is
the remarkable story

Of a young girl
named holly evans.

The place--
ho-ho-kus, new jersey.

The date, june 29, 1999.

The place
is ho-ho-kus, new jersey.

The year is 1999.

On may 11th, after months
of careful research,

Holly evans launches vegetable
seedlings into the sky.

May 18th, the young scientist
reports on her experiment.

Holly intends to study

The effects
of extraterrestrial conditions

On vegetable growth
and development.

She expects the seedlings
to stay aloft for several weeks

Before returning to earth.

Her classmates are speechless.

The date is june 29th.

Shortly after sunrise,

A member of the billings,
montana, moose lodge

Hiking through
the rocky mountains

Makes a startling discovery.

Robert bernabe is
in a daze when he returns.

All he can say
for several hours is "turnips."

"Turnips."

"Turnips!"

All over the country,
the skies fill with vegetables.

Cucumbers circle kalamazoo...

Lima beans loom
over levittown...

Artichokes advance
on anchorage...

Parsnips pass by providence...

And broccoli lands
with a big bounce

In holly evans' back yard.

In ottumwa, iowa, tony kramer
emerges from his barn

And shouts for joy.

"At last, the blue ribbon
at the state fair is mine!"

By mid afternoon,

All vegetables
float safely to the ground

Except for the peppers.

For some reason,
they need help.

Tv news channels
broadcast 24-hour coverage

Of
the "airborne vegetal event."

"Cauliflower
carpets california,

"Spinach blankets greenwich,

And arugula covers ashtabula."

Holly is puzzled.

Arugula is not part
of her experiment.

Vegetables become
very big business.

Peas from peoria are shipped

Down the mississippi to mobile

In exchange for eggplant.

Real estate booms
in north carolina.

Avocados bolster
vermont's economy.

Potatoland
is wisely abandoned.

The big apple is renamed
the big rutabaga.

Arugula, eggplant,
avocado, and now rutabaga.

As the list of vegetables that
holly did not plant grows,

She concludes
that the giant specimens

Are not the results
of her experiment.

More curious than disappointed,

Holly asks herself,
what happened to my vegetables?

And whose broccoli
is in my back yard?

The place is the ionosphere.

On june 29th, the arcturian
starcruiser alula borealis

Was touring its sixth planet
in four days,

And the captain
had just pointed out

The fjords of norway.

In the galley,
an assistant fry cook

Accidentally threw out
the entire food supply.

As their vegetables drifted

Toward the small
blue planet below,

Everyone onboard
had the same thought--

Where would their supper
come from?

Suppose you looked out
your window

To see an unidentified
flying broccoli.

Impossible, you say?

I suppose it is.

Huh huh huh huh!

But then, you never know.

Imagine the size of a worm
living in an apple this big.

Now, giant fruits
and vegetables

Don't really come
from outer space.

People work very hard
to make them grow.

[Man]
growing big pumpkins has been

A very enjoyable part
of my life.

I'm howard dill
from windsor, nova scotia,

Where I've grown some of
the world's largest pumpkins.

Most people
grow pumpkins this size,

But the ones I grow, it takes
six people to carry them.

An average pumpkin
may weigh 15 to 20 pounds,

But our atlantic giants will
weigh upwards to 800 pounds.

You know,
that's a pretty big pumpkin.

In the early stages,

It's very important
to prepare the ground

With manure or fertilizer

And get ready
for the coming season.

The most important consideration
in growing giant-size pumpkins

Is the seed itself.

This is
the most important part.

Early in the spring,

I plant each seed
into a jiffy pot--

A unique pot
that gets the seed started

In time to get the seed
into the ground.

When growing large pumpkins,

It's important
to feed them regular.

I use a special blue powder
in my water

To make the plants
grow bigger.

This gives the plants
all the vitamins they need.

We dig a hole to transplant
the plant and the pot

Into the ground
at a specified time.

I place minigreenhouses
over the young plants

To protect them
early in the season

From cold and dampness.

I apply insect dust

In the hole
around the root of the plant

To protect them from insects.

As the season goes on,

The plants grow
rapidly each day,

Upwards to perhaps


During the midpart
of the growing season,

I remove the hothouses
from the plants.

This could be june or july

En the vines
are putting out full flower.

There are two kinds
of pumpkin flowers,

Male and female,

And it takes both
for a pumpkin to grow.

I pollinate the female blossom
with the male blossom.

I choose the flower
from the plants

Which I think
will grow the best.

I move pollen from a male flower
to a female flower.

And of course,
the bees will help, too.

Farming takes
patience and dedication.

From start to finish,

It would take upwards
to four months

To grow a 500-
to 800-pound pumpkin.

I give my plants a lot
of tender, loving care.

I think that's
the most important thing.

When I stand in my field
to view my giant pumpkins,

It gives me pride and joy

To know that I have accomplished
this success.

My pumpkins are mainly grown
for competitions,

But also make some lovely
pumpkin pies.

The most pumpkin pies
ever recorded

From one of my giant pumpkins
was 442.

And that's a lot
of pumpkin pie.

Giant pumpkins.

What in the world will be next?

What other "impossible" things
really happened?

Well, agnes perkins has quite
a tale to tell.

Is her astonishing story fact...

Hmm...

Or is it fiction?

Our story takes place in 1976

In a small town
in the northwest.

At precisely 9:38 p.m.,

Agnes perkins'
quiet evening at home

Is interrupted by a phone call.

Hello?

Agnes hears the excited voice
of her neighbor marge.

Say that again? What?

Marge sees a flying saucer
headed for the mall.

A flying saucer?
Hold on.

Agnes runs outside
to get a closer look.

The night air hums

With the sound
of an approaching engine.

Agnes sees lights
moving slowly across the sky.

Agnes perkins has seen
a flying saucer.

Did agnes perkins see
a ufo that night?

Is her story fact,
or is it fiction?

It's probably either
a flying saucer, maybe,

Or a space ship,
or planets...

Maybe even a satellite.

We don't know
if flying saucers exist or not.

I believe there's life
on other planets.

I believe in ufos.

It was probably an airplane.

I believe it.

Hmm...

Agnes perkins' ufo story is...

Fiction.

Ha ha ha!

Mrs. Perkins did not see
a ufo that night,

But she did see something.

What was it?

It was a flying advertisement--

An aircraft spelling out
a message in colored lights.

Nearby at the mall,

Shoppers could read
its message clearly.

Agnes perkins' flying saucer
is easy to explain,

But what about all those
other stories?

Every year,
hundreds of people

Report seeing something
odd in the sky.

Are all of those
ufo sightings fiction,

Or could some of them be real?

Ufos--
unidentified flying objects.

These strange sights
are captured in photos

And are witnessed
in gulf breeze, florida.

The object was very large,

The size of a medium-size
or large airplane.

We could see it well enough

That we could see the light
and portholes

And a lighted dome on top.

Having seen it myself,
I'm convinced.

Until that time,
I hadn't thought about ufos.

Many objects are
flying around gulf breeze.

That doesn't make them
alien spacecraft.

If ufos are not flying saucers,
what could they be?

Perhaps
an experimental helicopter

Or a new type of aircraft,

An odd cloud formation

Or a meteor.

Some ufo photos
are practical jokes.

Take a closer look at this.

Special computer
analysis reveals

That this flying saucer
is suspended by a string.

Perhaps you can explain
this ufo,

Captured on home video.

What is it?

No one knows for sure.

The year is 1897.

The place is england.

Professor john plumb finds
an old library book

On one of his shelves.

He decides to return it

And finds that the book is
overdue hundreds of years.

Fact or fiction?

Fact.
The book professor plumb found

Had been borrowed


And the fine
for this overdue book?

And the fine for this
overdue book?

[Ding]

Let's see,
at 10 cents a day

Times 365 days a year

Times 288 years...

Mmm. $10,512
And some change.

Fortunately, professor plumb was
excused from paying that fine.

If you're overdue
for a trip to the library,

Here are some truly
fascinating books,

But you don't have to
take my word for it.

My name is shanelle.

I read a book
about growing vegetable soup.

Guess what.

It's called
growing vegetable soup.

A dad and his child
plant a vegetable garden.

They start with seeds
and little sprouts.

They give the seeds water,

The sun comes out,
and things grow.

When the vegetables
are ready,

They pick them
and take them home.

They cut the vegetables
into tiny pieces

And put them
in a pot of water.

Next comes delicious
vegetable soup.

Yum!

Growing vegetable soup

Seems really fun.

I'd like
to try it.
How about you?

Tornadoes made of ketchup,

Giant hamburgers dropping
on people's heads...

What's the world coming to?

Find out in cloudy
with a chance of meatballs.

Chewandswallow
is a weird town.

It has everything...
Except food stores.

The people don't really need
food stores.

Every food you can imagine
falls from the sky.

It rains soup.

It snows mashed potatoes.

Every time you turn the page,

There's something funny
and unexpected.

Ever since I was 6,

It's been one
of my favorites.

This is sam gorney
signing off.

Come with me on a strange trip
into the past.

We get there by reading
this book, time train.

Some school kids
are taking a trip

To dinosaur
national monument.

They get on
a train in new york.

Then odd things
start to happen.

They see some soldiers
from the civil w*r.

Are those really buffalo
in ohio?

When they reach
their destination,

Things get even more strange.

Is that a real dinosaur?

Was the whole story
fact or fiction?

That's what you'll
have to decide.

I'm nathan chang recommending
that you read time train.

Today, we have heard
some incredible stories.

Some were fact,
some were fiction,

And some were science fiction.

But all of them
were really strange.

Ahem.

And now it's time
for one final tale.

The time...

Is midnight,

And the place, a room,
just like this.

There is a sound,
a strange whirring noise.

Mysteriously, the room fills
with an eerie red glow.

It is the unmistakable presence
of a flying saucer

Hovering overhead.

The whole house
begins to rumble!

Uh-oh!

The noise gets
louder and louder!

Chattering alien voices
come closer and closer!

Is this story fact,
or is it fiction?

Why, it's fiction,
of course.

I'll see you next time.

♪ Butterfly
in the sky ♪

♪ I can go twice as high ♪

♪ Take a look ♪

♪ It's in a book ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪♪

Today's reading rainbow books
are...

June 29, 1999,
by david wiesner,

Published by clarion books:

A houghton mifflin co.
Imprint.

Growing vegetable soup,

Written and illustrated
by lois ehlert,

Published by harcourt
brace jovanovich incorporated.

Cloudy with a chance
of meatballs,

Written by judi barrett
and drawn by ron barrett,

Published
by atheneum publishers,

An imprint of macmillan
publishing co.

Time train, by paul fleischman,

Illustrations by claire ewart,
a charlotte zolotow book.