Lesson 6:Racecar Bob in Panama

Level: Q
DRA: 40
Genre:
Humorous Fiction
Strategy:
Question
Skill:
Sequence of Events
Word Count: 1,021
3.2.6
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Online Leveled Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01698-6
ISBN-10: 0-547-01698-0
1031557
H O UG H T O N M IF F L IN
by James Wolf
illustrated by Marie LaFrance
Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
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ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01698-6
ISBN-10: 0-547-01698-0
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It was a perfect summer day in Rapid City,
but Racecar Bob couldn’t seem to enjoy the
sunshine, the blue skies, or the singing birds.
He was just plain bored.
Bob owned the fastest car in Rapid City,
and with the help of his crew, Bob had won all
the important races: the Wingle Cup, the Jiminy
500, and even the Tour du Cleveland. But that
wasn’t enough.
“What I need is a real challenge,” Bob said
to himself.
Bob had nearly fallen asleep in his hammock for a
nap when Hannah, his chief mechanic, arrived.
“Bob, do I have some news for you,” Hannah
shouted. “There’s a big race coming up, maybe the
biggest ever!”
“Big race, big deal,” Bob said. “I’m bored with
racing; maybe I’ll take up golf instead.”
“But this race is different, Bob,” Hannah said with
a grin. “It’s the Panama Challenge—a race from Rapid
City to the Panama Canal. Every other race team has
failed the challenge, and we’re the only team left.”
3
Bob scrambled out of his hammock.
“Panama is my kind of challenge!” he shouted.
Then Bob darted into his house to use the telephone.
Within minutes, Bob had made phone calls to
Lisa B. Basil, his navigator, and Otto Auto, the team
chef, to meet him and Hannah at the garage.
“This won’t be easy because we’ll have to cover
thousands of miles, much of it across rough terrain,”
Bob told the crew.
“That’s not all,” Hannah said. “To win the prize,
we’ll have to collect palindromes along the way.”
“Aren’t palindromes a kind of bird?” Bob asked.
4
“No, silly. I’ll give you an example of a
palindrome,” Hannah said. “Take my name and
arrange the letters in reverse order, and you get the
same name! A palindrome is a word, a phrase, or a
sentence that reads the same in both directions.”
“My first name is a palindrome, too—and so are
both of your names, Racecar Bob,” Otto said.
Bob still wasn’t sure he understood, but he knew
he had a race to win so he told the crew to get ready.
5
On the morning the Panama challenge
began, Fred Derf, the race director, explained
the rules.
“If you want to win, you must follow
my instructions exactly. The first stop is the
fruit market in Jangles, Nebraska. When you
arrive, you’ll find a clue, and the answer to
the clue is a palindrome.”
“When you figure out the palindrome,”
he continued, “you’ll be given directions to
the next stop. When you get to the Panama
Canal, you’ll face one final challenge, and if
you succeed, you’ll win the prize.”
6
After reading the rules, Fred rapidly waved
the green flag above his head and shouted the
palindrome that started the race.
“A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!”
Bob and his crew took off at top speed.
7
By the time they got to the first stop, the crew
was tired, hot, and thirsty. Otto told everyone not
to worry.
“I can make a fantastic iced drink with lemon
juice and chunks of melon,” he said. “I’ll buy them
here at the fruit market.”
But to Otto’s surprise, there were no lemons or
melons to be found.
Otto threw up his hands in despair. “No lemon,
no melon!” he said.
Hannah was thirsty, too, but she managed a
smile. “No lemon, no melon! You’ve discovered the
first palindrome!”
The cashier at the market told them the name
of their next destination—a small town called
Tres Rios, in southern Mexico.
“We’re on the way to another easy victory,”
Bob said confidently. Of course, he was wrong.
9
When the crew arrived in Tres Rios, the
sun shone fiercely, scorching everyone. The
only thing the crew saw was a ragged old owl
sitting on top of a mailbox.
“Are you sure this is the right address?”
Bob asked Lisa B. Basil. Lisa sorted through
her maps and double-checked. They were in
the right place, but no one saw any clues that
might reveal a palindrome.
“Maybe the owl is supposed to tell us
something,” Hannah said after a while. “But
she hasn’t made a sound. I guess she is just
too hot to hoot.”
10
Now it was Otto’s turn to smile. “Too hot to
hoot is a palindrome!” he cried.
Just then the owl blinked her big eyes,
leaned forward, and opened the mailbox. Inside
was a paper showing their next destination.
11
The next stop was Jamón Dulce, a small town in
Nicaragua. It took four more days of hard driving to
get there.
The team arrived at lunchtime, and they hadn’t
eaten in hours. They couldn’t believe their luck when
they drove to the address on their clue sheet: It was a
restaurant called Ma and Edna’s Ham Shack.
12
The sandwiches at the Ham Shack smelled
delicious. Everyone on the crew ordered one.
To make the sandwiches, Ma cut the ham
and handed slices to Edna. Edna put the slices
on bread and added tomato, lettuce, and
some mustard.
Otto was watching Ma and Edna make the
sandwiches when suddenly his face broke into
a big smile.
“Ma handed Edna ham!” he shouted.
Edna smiled. “Next stop: the Panama
Canal!” she said.
Everyone on Bob’s crew hugged each other
and then ran out to jump in the car. They were
about to win the Panama Challenge!
But winning this race wasn’t going to be
that easy.
When they arrived at the Panama Canal,
Fred Derf was waiting.
13
“Now you must face one more challenge,”
Fred said. “Look at these photographs. They have
been arranged in a special order. Identify the
animals you see.”
Fred showed the crew the photos—but only for
a second.
“Was it a bat I saw?” Otto asked.
“Was it a cat I saw?” Lisa B. asked.
“Was it a rat I saw?” Hannah asked.
Suddenly, Bob knew the answer. “You saw
all of those things! I know because all of those
sentences are palindromes!”
Finally, Bob understood palindromes. And he
wasn’t bored any more.
In fact, he’d just won his biggest race ever!
14
Responding
Sequence of Events Copy the chart below. Then write each palindrome Racecar Bob’s team finds and where the team found it. Write them in the order in which things happened. Add boxes if you need.
TARGET SKILL
Jangles, Nebraska
No lemon, no melon.
?
?
Write About It
Text to Self Write a paragraph that tells about your favorite part of Racecar Bob in
Panama. Use examples from the story to explain why you like this part.
15
TARGET VOCABULARY
collect
continued
darted
order
ragged
rapidly
scrambled
sorted
ExpaNd YouR VocabulaRY
cashier
destination
hammock
navigator
palindrome
reveal
terrain
Sequence of Events Tell the time order in which events happen.
TARGET SKILL
Question Ask questions before you read, while you read, and after you read. TARGET STRATEGY
GENRE Humorous fiction is a story that is written to entertain the reader.
16
Level: Q
DRA: 40
Genre:
Humorous Fiction
Strategy:
Question
Skill:
Sequence of Events
Word Count: 1,021
3.2.6
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Online Leveled Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01698-6
ISBN-10: 0-547-01698-0
1031557
H O UG H T O N M IF F L IN