Ellen's Terrible TV Troubles

Brenda Baltensperger is a playwright, a director of children’s
theatre, an editor of children’s fiction, and the author of Fractured
Fairy-tales.

Ellen has settled down to watch her favorite Saturday morning cartoons
on television. When the set breaks down, she fiddles with the dials and
pounds on it, but nothing happens. Although her mother says she will
have the TV fixed on Monday, two whole days are too long for Ellen to
wait. Her father suggests they all go for a walk, but Ellen decides to
stay home. She closes her eyes and wishes very hard for the TV to work.
When she presses the remote-control button, the TV does work. When Ellen
sits down to watch, the cartoon characters leap out of the set and begin
chasing each other around the room. Switching channels, Ellen comes
across a baseball game and suddenly finds herself surrounded by the
baseball teams, who insist that they will continue playing in her living
room. After a fight with a vacuum cleaner salesman, Ellen manages to get
all her unwelcome visitors back into the television. She finishes
cleaning up the mess just before her parents return from their walk.

This story features simple vocabulary, short chapters, and
illustrations that are colorful and fun. Recommended.