Moira Donohue - National Geographic Kids Chapters - Kangaroo to the Rescue! - And More True Stories of Amazing Animal Heroes

Copyright © 2015 National Geographic Society

All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

Published by the National Geographic Society

Gary E. Knell, President and Chief Executive Officer

John M. Fahey, Chairman of the Board

Declan Moore, Executive Vice President; President, Publishing and Travel

Melina Gerosa Bellows, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer, Books, Kids, and Family

Prepared by the Book Division

Hector Sierra, Senior Vice President and General Manager

Nancy Laties Feresten, Senior Vice President, Kids Publishing and Media

Eva Absher-Schantz, Design Director, Kids Publishing and Media

Jay Sumner, Director of Photography, Kids Publishing and Media

Jennifer Emmett, Vice President, Editorial Director, Kids Books

R. Gary Colbert, Production Director

Jennifer A. Thornton, Director of Managing Editorial

Staff for This Book

Shelby Alinsky, Project Editor

Marfé Ferguson Delano, Editor

Jay Sumner, Photo Editor

Callie Broaddus, Associate Designer

Ruth Ann Thompson, Designer

Paige Towler, Editorial Assistant

Erica Holsclaw, Special Project Assistant

Sanjida Rashid, Design Production Assistant

Margaret Leist, Photo Assistant

Grace Hill, Associate Managing Editor

Joan Gossett, Production Editor

Lewis R. Bassford, Production Manager

Susan Borke, Legal and Business Affairs

Production Services

Phillip L. Schlosser, Senior Vice President

Chris Brown, Vice President ,

NG Book Manufacturing

George Bounelis, Senior Production Manager

Nicole Elliott, Director of Production

Rachel Faulise, Manager

Robert L. Barr, Manager

The National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,” the Society’s mission is to inspire people to care about the planet. It reaches more than 400 million people worldwide each month through its official journal, National Geographic , and other magazines; National Geographic Channel; television documentaries; music; radio; films; books; DVDs; maps; exhibitions; live events; school publishing programs; interactive media; and merchandise. National Geographic has funded more than 10,000 scientific research, conservation, and exploration projects and supports an education program promoting geographic literacy.

For more information, please visit nationalgeographic.com, call 1-800-NGS LINE (647-5463), or write to the following address:

National Geographic Society

1145 17th Street N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20036-4688 U.S.A.

Visit us online at nationalgeographic.com/books

For librarians and teachers: ngchildrensbooks.org

National Geographic supports K–12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources. Visit natgeoed.org/commoncorefor more information.

More for kids from National Geographic: kids.nationalgeographic.com

For rights or permissions inquiries, please contact National Geographic Books Subsidiary Rights: ngbookrights@ngs.org

Trade paperback

ISBN: 978-1-4263-1913-6

Reinforced library edition

ISBN: 978-1-4263-1915-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-4263-2225-9

v3.1

Version: 2017-07-11

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

LULU: Kangaroo to the Rescue

Chapter 1: Pouch Pet

Chapter 2: Hop Along

Chapter 3: Big Foot

MAGGIE AND PILOT: A Tale of Two Dogs

Chapter 1: Play Ball

Chapter 2: Look Out!

Chapter 3: Eyes and Ears

DASIEY, LULU, AND BUTTERCUP: Three Little Pig Heroes

Chapter 1: Daring Dasiey

Chapter 2: Loyal Lulu

Chapter 3: Sweet Little Buttercup

DON’T MISS!

Chapter 1: No Ordinary Cow

More Information

Dedication

Credits

Acknowledgments

Lulu takes a break from hopping to stretch out in the sun. ( photo credit p01.1)

Lulu is happy to hang out with Luke Richards and his parents. ( photo credit p01.2)

Luke Richards and his friends were driving home late one evening.

“Watch out!” one of the boys yelled. “There’s something in the road!”

Squee!! The driver hit the brakes and swerved. He avoided hitting the lump in the road.

“Pull over, mate,” Luke said. He wanted to move whatever was in the road out of the way. Luke hopped out of the car.

The lump turned out to be a dead kangaroo. That would be a shock if you lived in the United States. But Luke lived in Australia. Millions of kangaroos live there, too. Unfortunately, sometimes they wander into the road in front of cars and trucks.

Luke was sad to see the kangaroo, but he knew he had to move it out of the way. He grabbed the animal by the tail and dragged it to the side of the road. It was heavy. Full-grown eastern gray kangaroos, or “roos,” as they say in Australia, weigh about 145 pounds (66 kg).

Then Luke saw something amazing. The kangaroo’s belly twitched. Kangaroos are a kind of mammal known as marsupials (sounds like mar-SOO-pee-ulz). Females have a pouch across their bellies. That’s where they keep their babies, called joeys (sounds like JOE-eez). Luke put his hand in the pouch. Gently, he removed a joey. It had survived the accident!

Luke didn’t think his parents would be happy if he brought the joey home. But he looked into the animal’s frightened eyes. He just couldn’t leave the little roo behind.

The joey was about the size of a cat. Luke wrapped it in his sweater. He climbed back into the car.

When he got home, Luke tiptoed into the house. He didn’t want to wake his parents. He got some newspapers and covered the floor of his room. He offered the joey some water. Then he tucked the little roo snugly into his sweater. He draped the sweater over his bedpost. He hoped it would feel like the mother’s pouch. Within minutes, both he and the joey were asleep.

Did You Know?

When it’s born, a baby kangaroo is hairless. It takes several months before its fur grows in.

The next morning, Luke’s mother, Lynn, opened the door to his bedroom. It was a mess. She frowned. “Luke?” she called in a voice that said he was in trouble. Luke sat up. And like bread in a toaster, the joey popped up, too.

“I’ve got a little friend, mum,” said Luke.

“So I see,” his mother sputtered.

Luke’s family lived on a small farm. It was about 90 miles (145 km) west of the city of Melbourne. The farm was surrounded by land that was covered with wild plants and trees. This is known as “the bush” in Australia. Animals from the bush often wandered onto the farm. Sometimes Luke and his sister, Celeste, would find an injured one.