Soaring Success

By Patricia Lakin and Anastasiia Drakova

The Tinkerers help an injured bird fly back to her family.

When Lucy the goose does a crash landing in Big River Junkyard, the Tinkerers need to find a way to get her back up and flying before her family migrates south for winter. Can they use technology to help Lucy get her confidence back?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
• Release date: Apr 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9780807579589

Patricia Lakin

Patricia Lakin is an award-winning author and former elementary school teacher who has published a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction titles that span multiple age groups. As a die-hard New Yorker, she is continually in awe of the inspiration the vibrant, diverse city can offer.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

SIGNS OF FALL

Wow! Look at all the food we’ve grown. Roscoe the raccoon picked an ear of corn from the garden. Next to him, a wagon was already piled high with food.

Quit daydreaming, and keep picking, said Bart. We need to harvest our crop.

Soon Bart would go into hibernation for the winter. The bear needed to eat plenty of food before his long winter sleep.

I was just thinking how lucky we are to have this garden, Roscoe said.

It’s due to a little luck and lots of hard work, said Wanda, picking a high-up ear of corn.

True, said Roscoe. Secretly he knew how lucky he was to have found his three friends, Bart, Wanda the woodpecker, and Luna the badger. Just a short while ago, Roscoe had been living in Big River Junkyard all by himself. Now they all lived side by side and worked as a team—using supplies from the junkyard to build things.

Roscoe gazed behind him. Not all of their projects were meant to fix big problems. They’d used their engineering skills to construct a beautiful wood-and-magnet sculpture. And they’d also built the garden, where they could grow whatever food they liked.

Bart, I don’t know if even you can eat all this corn, Roscoe said as he went back to picking.

Bart gave one of his giant yawns, adjusted his suspenders, and took a good, long look at the pile. Hmm. There sure are lots of kernels to consume. There may be a kernel of truth in what you say, Roscoe. Bart chuckled.

Ugh! said Wanda. Will you be sleeping during hibernation or dreaming up more bad jokes?

Dreaming up jokes? Bart laughed. That’s a good one, Wanda.

But if there is a kernel of truth, that means you can’t eat all this corn, said Luna. And with all the other things we’ve grown, we can’t eat it all either.

We don’t want to be wasteful, said Roscoe. Remember when we first met? How desperate we all were to find food?

I certainly do, said Luna. We encountered rain, mudslides, and a raging river. We had to build a bridge just so we could cross and get to the food Roscoe told us about.

Now we have too much good food, said Bart. What do we do with the extra?

I have an idea, said Wanda. On my morning flight, I spotted something I think will solve our problem.

What’s that? asked Bart. An automatic eating machine?

No, Bart. Wanda gently tapped the top of his head. An old sign. We can make signs and offer any hungry critters our supply of corn.

What good will a sign do? Bart asked. Who will see it? Or do you suggest we wear the signs and parade up and down the road?

"Bart, I must