 This is Ms. Chanda from Long Beach Public Library. Thank you for visiting us again. And today I'm going to be reading Owen by Kevin Hinkas. He's one of my favorite author. Because it's always very funny and great to read aloud or share with someone. This one, look. There's Owen right there. And there's his neighbor, Mrs. Theresa. What is she doing over the fence? She's looking out, huh? What do you think she's looking outside with? Why is she over the fence looking over? Oh, look at her again. There she is with the water hose. And there's Owen. Oh, Owen had a fuzzy yellow blanket. He had it since he was a baby. He loved it with all his heart. Oh, do you have a blanket too? Do you have a baby blanket that you love? Fuzzy goes where I go, said Owen. And fuzzy did, even on the toilet, upstairs, downstairs, in between, inside, outside, upside down. Fuzzy likes what I like, said Owen. And fuzzy did, orange juice, grape juice, chocolate milk, ice cream, peanut butter, applesauce cake. Oh, isn't he getting a little old to be carrying that thing around? Ask Mrs. Tweezers, having you heard of the fairy blanket? Owen's parents had Mrs. Tweezer filled him in. That night, Owen's parent told Owen to put fuzzy under his pillow. In the morning, fuzzy would be gone, but the blanket fairy would leave an absolutely wonderful, positively perfect, especially terrific big boy gift in its place. Owen stuffed fuzzy inside his pajama pants and went to sleep. No blanket fairy, said Owen in the morning. No kidding, said his Owen's mother. No wonder, said Owen's father. It's in his pants. Fuzzy's dirty, said Owen's mother. Fuzzy's torn and rattle, says Owen's father. No, said Owen. Fuzzy is perfect. And fuzzy was. Fuzzy played Captain Plunger with Owen and fuzzy helped Owen become invisible. And fuzzy was essential when it came to nail clippings and haircuts and trips to the dentist. Can't be a baby forever, said Mrs. Tweezers. Haven't you heard of the vinegar trick? Owen's parents had Mrs. Tweezers fill them in. You see how she's standing up over the fence? When Owen's parents, when Owen wasn't looking, his father dipped Owen's favorite corner of fuzzy into a jar of vinegar. Owen sniffed it and he smelled it. And then he sniffed it and he picked a new favorite corner. Then he rubbed a smelly corner all around his sandbox, buried it in the garden and dug it up again. Good as new, said Owen. Fuzzy wasn't very fuzzy anymore, but Owen didn't mind. He carried it, he wore it and dragged it. He sucked it and hugged it and twisted it. What are we going to do, said, asked Owen's mother. School is starting soon, said Owen's father. Can't bring a blanket to school, said Mrs. Tweezer. Haven't you heard of saying no? Owen's parents hadn't. Mrs. Tweezers filled them in. I have to bring fuzzy to school, said Owen. No, said Owen's mother. No, said Owen's father. Owen buried his face in fuzzy and he started to cry and would not stop. Don't worry, said Owen's mother. Happy all right, said Owen's father. Then suddenly, Owen's mother said, ah, I have an idea. It was an absolutely wonderful, positively perfect, especially terrific idea. So she snipped, snipped, snipped. And then she sew, sew, sew. And then she snipped again and sew some more. Wow, snipped, snipped, snipped, sew, sew, sew. Dry your eyes, wipe your nose, hooray, hooray, hooray. Now, Owen carries one of his not so fuzzy handkerchiefs with him wherever he goes. Oh, look at that, tiny little handkerchiefs. And Mrs. Tweezers doesn't say a thing. Yay, isn't that nice? You can save your little fuzzy baby blanket to some other ways. You can sip, sip, sip, sew, sew, sew, dry your eyes and wipe your nose, hooray, hooray, hooray. Owen can take his little blanket, pieces of his blanket wherever he goes, right? That I hope you enjoy that story, this story. And if you like some more books, you can always visit the Long Beach Public Library online to read more books that you can download with your parents. Now, you know, Owen was able to, his mom was able to save his blanket because it was getting all worn out. Well, I have a blanket that I wanted to save that my cat loves. It's fuzzy and it's really nice, but we have to wash it often because they sleep on it and cats have lots of fur. So what did I do? I put it together, I fold it in half, I washed it, and I cut all the fuzzy part off of the edges. Then I sew two of the three edges closed and you can just pick whatever side you want to have. So you want to put them face together like this, fold it in half and then you just sew one side, two side, a little bit on the other side. So it makes the opening smaller and then here's the good thing. You know, all that ratty edges that comes apart. Well, once you sew it, you can turn it inside out and make almost a brand new pillowcase or cat blanket that doesn't have any fuzzy size spilling out. See? So if you want to, you can put a pillow inside and then when it gets really dirty or ratty and could even be for yourself, you can then just take it out and wash it and you can do it many times. So hopefully you can recycle or upcycle as they say, you old towel or blanket into a new one by just making it half its size and sewing it and then turning it inside out. All right. Well, thank you for joining me and thank you for sharing the book, Owen by Kevin Hinkus with me. I hope to see you again at the library sometime soon but until we see each other again, bye.