1. 1. Hanabiko was born in the San Francisco Zoo
on July 4, 1971. Hanabiko is a gorilla. She is called
“Koko.” Koko can communicate with humans.
Koko uses sign language for the deaf. She can
make about 500 signs. She understands about
1,000 signs. Koko is a very famous gorilla.
2. Koko likes tofu and apples. She enjoys drawing
and painting. Her favorite movie is Free Willy.
Her favorite book is The Three Little Kittens.
She likes to scare people with her toy alligator.
Sometimes she tells lies.
3. One Christmas, Koko wanted a cat. Her trainers
gave Koko a cement cat. Koko became very angry.
She wanted a REAL cat. So, her trainers gave Koko
a baby cat. Koko loved the kitten. She named the
kitten “All Ball.” She gently took care of All Ball
every day. One day, a car hit All Ball. All Ball died.
Koko was very sad. Even today, Koko remembers
All Ball.
Hanabiko
2. 1. Cassius Clay was 12 years old and lived in
Louisville, Kentucky. One day, his new bike was
stolen. In tears, he told Officer Joe Martin, “I’m
going to whip the person who stole my bike!”
Joe said, “Well then, I’d better teach you how
to fight.” Joe Martin was the boxing coach at
the Columbia Gym.
2. Cassius Clay went to the Columbia Gym and
learned to fight. He trained hard. When he was
15, he wore heavy boots and shadowboxed on the
street. He raced school buses and drank raw eggs
in his milk. He loved boxing. He wanted to go to
the Olympics.
3. Cassius Clay was very polite and religious.
After school, he worked in the Nazareth College
library. When the boxing team went to other
towns, Clay always stayed in his room and read
his Bible. In 1958, he wanted to go to the Olympic
trials in San Francisco. There was one problem.
Clay was afraid to fly. He decided to buy
a parachute and wear it on the plane. During the
flight, he prayed in the aisle.
4. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Clay won the gold
medal. In 1964, he became the world heavyweight
champion. Soon after that, he converted to Islam
and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Ali
refused to go to war in Vietnam, and his title was
taken away. He won his title back in 1974 when
he fought George Foreman in Zaire, Africa.
5. Muhammad Ali developed Parkison’s disease in
the ‘80s. He died on June 3, 2016, at the age of 74.
Muhammad Ali
3. 1. Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie, and Yvonne
Dionne were sisters. They were born on
May 28, 1934, in Ontario, Canada, during
the Great Depression. Their parents were very
poor and already had five children. The sisters
soon became internationally famous as the
first surviving quintuplets. The quintuplets’
doctor, Dr. Dafoe, also became famous.
2. The Ontario government and Dr. Dafoe took the
children away from their parents. Dr. Dafoe put the
baby girls in a special hospital of their own across
the road. Their new “home” was called Quintland.
It was more like a theme park. At Quintland, as
many as 6,000 visitors a day came to watch the
girls play. The girls’ story inspired three Hollywood
movies. The Dionne Quintuplets became Canada’s
number one tourist attraction during the
late 1930s.
3. But the quintuplets’ father wanted his
daughters back. Finally, after nine years of
fighting the Ontario government, the girls went
to live with their parents again. At home, life was
not easy for the sisters. Today, only two of the
sisters survive. They have written a book called
We Were Five. The book tells about their lives,
Quintland, and their abusive father.
The Dionne
Quintuplets
4. 1. In 1817, Mary Shelley, her husband, and
her friends went to Switzerland for a holiday.
One night, there was a terrible storm. There
was a lot of rain, thunder, and lightning. Mary
Shelley and her friends could not go outside, so
they decided to sit inside and tell ghost stories.
Each person told a story, but Mary Shelley could
not think of a story to tell.
2. That night, while Mary Shelley was in bed, she
thought of a scary story. The next day, she decided
to start writing the story down. One year later,
when she was 19 years old, she finished writing
her story. She called her new book Frankenstein.
3. Many people think Frankenstein is one of the
best stories ever written. It is one of the first
science fiction books. In the book, a scientist
created a man. Then the scientist became afraid
of the man he created. The scientist called him
a monster. Later, the monster killed the scientist
and his family. It is a story about people, science,
and responsibility.
4. There have been many movies made about the
Frankenstein monster. Most of these movies are
very different from the book. While many of the
movies are for children, the book by Mary Shelley
is for adults.
Frankenstein
5. 1. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was an American
baseball player. He changed the way the
game was played.
2. Jackie Robinson was a black man. He wanted to
play professional baseball. In America in 1945,
black people could not play baseball with white
players. Black Americans had their own all-black
baseball teams called the Negro Leagues.
3. In 1945, Jackie Robinson became a member of the
Negro Leagues. Then the manager of the Dodgers
saw Jackie Robinson and thought he was a good
baseball player. He asked Jackie Robinson to play
baseball for the Dodgers. The Dodgers was an
all‑white team.
4. Playing for an all-white team was not easy for
Jackie. Team members and fans became angry
because a black man was playing for the Dodgers.
Other baseball teams said they would not play
against the Dodgers if there was a black man on
the team. People even sent Robinson letters
saying they would kill him if he played.
5. But Jackie Robinson was strong. He played
hard the first year and won the Rookie of the
Year Award. Soon, other black baseball players
joined all-white baseball teams all over America.
Jackie Robinson
6. 1. On September 30, 1955, there was a highway
accident near Paso Robles, California. The car
was a silver Porsche Spyder. The driver was
a 24-year‑old Hollywood actor. His name was
James Dean.
2. The young Hollywood actor had made three
movies before he died: East of Eden in 1953,
Rebel Without a Cause in 1954, and his last film,
Giant, which was completed in 1955. James Dean
died one day after he finished work on Giant.
3. In the 1950s, many young men wanted to be a
cowboy, drive a sports car, or be a Hollywood
actor. James Dean did all of these things. In his
movies, James Dean played an angry young man.
4. In real life, too, James Dean was often an angry
young man. He would fight with his friends and
with the people he worked for. He was everything
a good boy was not supposed to be. Many
people liked him, but many others disliked him.
James Dean was creative, intelligent, curious,
and sometimes mean and selfish.
5. Today, people from all over the world visit the
small farm in Indiana where James Dean was
born. There have been many books written
about him, his lovers, and the movies he made.
Like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean has become
a Hollywood legend.
James Dean
