Spring Sprint! Mr. Putter and Tabby Run the Race by Cynthia Rylant

It was April. Mr. Putter and his fine cat Tabby were feeling their April energy. Mrs. Teaberry next door was feeling it, too. She called Mr. Putter one April morning. "There's a race! A marathon!" she said. "Uh-Oh," thought Mr. Putter. "I don't think I remember how to run. Aren't we too old to run a marathon?"

But Mrs. Teaberry knows how to close a deal.

Mrs. Teaberry told him it was a race for seniors--no one but old people.

"There are prizes," said Mrs. Teaberry. "Second prize is a train set, with lights and tunnels.

Find your sneakers!"

Mr. Putter didn't find training for a marathon to be easy. He spent four days just looking for his sneakers. He tried touching his toes and settled for touching his knees three times a day. Tabby lapped some cream and napped. On the day of the race, Mrs. Teaberry had matching T-shirts that said The Zekers for them to wear. Her good dog Zeke had a jump rope. Tabby had a worried look as they arrived at the track. She and Zeke got on top of the car to watch. Zeke watched. Tabby napped.

"I didn't know there were so many seniors," said Mr. Putter.

"Oh, we're everywhere!" said Mrs. Teaberry.

"Uh-Oh," thought Mr. Putter, as he watched the seniors stretching and touching their toes. The seniors lined up and then they were off. All the runners passed Mr. Putter. Mrs. Teaberry was soon way out front. Zeke got so excited he jumped off the car, and with his jump rope still in his mouth, he ran after Mrs. Teaberry. Some of the seniors tripped on Zeke's jump rope and bumped into other runners; some fell, and some stopped running right on the track to protest having a dog in the race.

But one of them wanted a train set so badly that he ran past everybody.

He grabbed Zeke's rope and hanged on for dear life. Zeke ran fast. This made Mr. Putter run faster.

Mr. Putter and Zeke ran so fast that Mr. Putter won the first prize--a set of golf clubs. Mrs. Teaberry won the train set.

"Phooey!" said Mr. Putter.

Mr. Putter did not want the first prize. But Mrs. Teaberry did, and she promptly swapped prizes with him. And after every round of golf in April, she and Zeke stopped by Mr. Putter's house to watch the new Putterville Railroad stop at the junctions and go through the tunnels.

Mr. Putter had a train hat.

Mrs. Teaberry had a golf cap.

Zeke had his jump rope.

And Tabby had a nap.

You're never too old to share a train set, in the Newbery and Caldecott award-winning Cynthia Rylant's Mr. Putter & Tabby Run the Race (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Artist Arthur Howard's pen-and-ink watercolor illustrations are nothing short of comic genius, as always filling out the gentle and humorous renditions of the familiar characters in this outstanding series of books for beginning readers. Long may Mr. Putter and Mrs. Teaberry share their pets and a cup of tea together.