"Babysitters Club 057 Dawn Saves The Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babysitters Club)

"You live much closer to the Barretts," Kristy said to me. "Why don't you take it?"
"Sure." The Barrett kids, who I used to refer
to as the Impossible Three, were now some of my favorites. I was glad to take the job.
For the next twenty minutes the phone did not stop ringing. Mal booked a job with the Arnold twins on Wednesday, Claud with the Hobarts Tuesday night, and Jessi with the Johanssens on Wednesday afternoon.
Stacey had just finished collecting everyone's dues when the meeting was over. I had hoped to discuss my list of ideas for my science project with the club, but realized I'd have to wait till the next day.
That was okay, because the really great idea didn't come to me until I baby-sat for the Barretts.
Chapter 3.
Woof! Woof!
Pow, the Barretts' basset hound, met me on their front porch when I arrived to baby-sit on Tuesday. He was wearing a baby bonnet, and a plastic bottle was tied around his collar. He looked miserable.
"Come here, you bad dog," five-year-old Suzi Barrett cried as she ran around the side of the house. "You're supposed to take your nap now."
"Hi, Suzi," I said, kneeling down to hug her. "Is Pow giving you trouble?"
Suzi nodded. "I'm playing house and he's my baby."
Then the front door flew open and Buddy Barrett, wearing a cowboy hat and chaps, shouted, "Hooray, it's Dawn!" He flung a loop of clothesline around my shoulders and shouted, "Got you!"
"Oh, no!" I cried, pretending to be scared. "What's going on?"
"I'm the sheriff," Buddy declared. "And you're under arrest."
"No, she's not." Suzi put her hands on her hips and faced her brother. "Dawn is going to play house with me and Pow."
"Dawn! Dawn!" another voice shouted from inside the house.
Marnie, the two-year-old, who has curly blonde hair and big blue eyes, raced down the stairs and through the front door and wrapped her arms around my knees.
I bent down and picked her up. "It's a good thing you showed up, Marnie," I said. "I think you broke up the argument Sheriff Buddy and Mother Suzi were about to have."
When I first met the three Barrett kids they were impossible. Their hair was uncombed, their house was a total mess, and they acted pretty wild. But I soon discovered it was only because their parents were going through a rough divorce and Mrs. Barrett was having trouble getting a job and running the house at the same time. Things are much better now. The house isn't quite so messy, Mrs. Barrett has a part-time job, and the divorce isn't as awful as it was at first. The Barrett kids can still be rowdy, but they're a lot of fun.
Mrs. Barrett appeared in the front hallway,
looking as if she had just stepped off the cover of some fashion magazine. I'm not kidding, she was absolutely gorgeous.
"Oh, hello, Dawn. I'm glad you're here," she said. "The kids have been looking forward to seeing you all day."
I smiled at her and then ruffled Buddy's hair. "I've been looking forward to seeing them, too." I held up my Kid-Kit. "I've, got a surprise I want to show them."
"Oooh, I want to see!" Suzi shouted, hopping up and down.
"Me, first," Buddy cried.
"Me, me," Marnie chimed in.
"Let's go into the living room and I'll show all three of you," I said.
Mrs. Barrett slipped on a light jacket that she'd taken from the hall closet. "I'll be at the dentist's office. I've written her name and number on the pad by the phone. I'll be back in about two hours," she told me. "There are crackers and some cans of juice on the kitchen counter. 'Bye, kids!"
Buddy and Suzi waved good-bye but didn't look up. They were too preoccupied with what was in my Kid-Kit. I said good-bye to Mrs. Barrett and then carried Marnie into the living room. We sat in a circle around the box.
Buddy pulled out the paper bag holding my
surprise and peeked inside. His face fell when he saw what it was. "It's a book."
"But not just any book," I said mysteriously. "Open it up and tell me what you see."
Suzi pulled back the cover and then squealed with delight. "Stickers! I love stickers."
Buddy tried to sound out the words written across the top of the big vinyl-coated page. "Mah-reen. Werrrrld." He looked up at me with a grin and repeated it. "Marine World."
"That's right, Buddy," I said. "Good job."
The book was actually a fold-out map of Marine World. It showed several ponds, a walkway, waterfalls, and slides. In the middle of the fold-out was a piece of paper covered in stickers.
"What kind of animals do you see there?" I asked them.
Suzi peeled the stickers off the page, calling them by name. "Fish. Whale. Seal. Hippo-lota-mess."
I couldn't help giggling. "I think you mean, hippo-pot-a-mus.''
Suzi nodded solemnly. "That's what I said."
"Dawn." Buddy held up a sticker. "What kind of fish is this?"
"It's a dolphin. They're one of the smartest creatures in the ocean."
"You mean, they can do tricks?" Suzi asked.
"Yes, but they also communicate with each other and with us. In dolphin language, of course."
"I want one," Buddy declared.
"Where would you keep it?" I asked.
"In the bathtub," Suzi suggested.
"Oh, a dolphin's much bigger than that," I replied. "And it needs lots of room to swim in. Here's something sad about dolphins. Did you know that a lot of them die just because we like to eat tuna fish?"
Buddy looked at me skeptically. "What's tuna fish got to do with dolphins?"