Wild Child: Forest's First Birthday Party

by Tara Zann, Dan Widdowson (Illustrator)

Overview

In the third installment of Tara Zann's Wild Child chapter book series, Forest attends his first birthday party and finds himself battling the decorations!

Forest goes with Olive to their classmate's birthday party. Shy Olive is as nervous as ever. She wants to make nice with Josie, which means everything will have to go perfectly. But when Forest defends the animal-shaped piñata and mistakes the candles for a fire emergency, his antics upset the birthday girl and nearly ruin the party. This time, Olive will learn that even a popular wild child like Forest still needs a best friend to show him the ropes.

With playful prose, heartfelt humor, and black and white illustrations to complement Forest’s hilarious escapades—this chapter book series for perfect for reluctant and avid readers.

Don’t miss Olive’s and Forest’s earlier adventures, Wild Child: Forest’s First Home and Wild Child: Forest’s First Day of School!!

An Imprint Book

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250103901
Publisher:	Imprint
Publication date:	08/15/2017
Series:	Wild Child , #3
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	29 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Tara Zann can't imagine living in a place without tall trees. Just like Forest, she has a spirit of adventure, though she might use a zip line instead of swinging from tree to tree on a long, dangling vine. She has no official pets, but dozens of creatures tend to stop by her backyard treehouse on a regular basis.

Dan Widdowson is a children’s illustrator from Loughborough, England. He graduated from the Arts University Bournemouth in 2014, and he has been working on children’s illustration projects ever since. Dan has a keen interest in storytelling and narrative. Some of his many clients include Simon&Schuster, Capstone, Oxford University Press, and Templar.

Tara Zann can't imagine living in a place without tall trees. Just like Forest, she has a spirit of adventure, though she might use a zip line instead of swinging from tree to tree on a long, dangling vine. She has no
official pets, but dozens of creatures tend to stop by her backyard treehouse on a regular basis.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Josie Letay's house stood in front of Olive and Forest like a big blue present waiting to be unwrapped. It especially looked like a present today, because today it was dressed up with shiny streamers and gold balloons for Josie's eighth birthday party.

Olive was dressed up, too: New overalls. New light-up sneakers. New Olive. She had embarrassed herself at every one of Josie's parties so far, but this year, she was finally going to get it right.

Except they were already twenty-three minutes late.

Forest sprang out of the car, landing on all fours like a wild cat ready to party-pounce. Olive eagerly stepped out after him, and her dad honked the horn as they rushed to the door.

"HONK, HONK, HONK!" Forest yelled over his shoulder.

"HONK, HONK, Forest! Have fun! And Olive, remember your goal," her dad called.

"We'll have fun, Dad," she said. Olive knew that sometimes just saying things made them true. That's what a goal was: a wish that you said out loud.

I will have fun and make new friends, she thought.

I will not embarrass myself like last time or the time before, she thought.

I will be the bigger person and try to get along with Josie, she thought.

That last one was going to be hard, especially after the Wizard of Oz play. Josie had been the most popular girl in school since kindergarten, while Olive had been a loner — until Forest had literally dropped out of a redwood tree and into her life a few weeks ago. But Olive knew she could do anything with Forest by her side. Since he had come to live with her family, her shyness had disappeared.

Well, it had at least shrunk. Her stomach bopped like the balloons tied to Josie's porch, all mixed up with excitement and nervousness.

Forest leaped onto the porch and rapped his knuckles against the wood, just like a woodpecker. Olive smoothed her hair down with one hand.

"Forest help Olive with hair." He ripped the sparkly purple bow off the present Olive was carrying and stuck it right on top of her head. She admired her reflection in the door's glass — Forest was developing a unique fashion sense.

"Thanks, Forest," she said.

Josie's mom opened the door. She looked a little frazzled already; the huge blond bun on top of her head was drooping to one side.

Olive gulped. Seeing Mrs. Letay reminded her that at Josie's party last year, Olive slipped and fell into a bucket of water balloons. She broke every single one with her butt and had to spend the rest of the party in wet pants. Did Josie's mom remember the water balloon thing?

"Sorry we're late, Mrs. Letay," Olive said in a small voice. Her heart started to sputter.

"Josie's mom need help finding birds?" Forest said, pointing at Mrs. Letay's hair. "Nest on head empty."

Olive blushed. "Forest!"

"It's all right, Olive." Mrs. Letay sighed, adjusting her hair with both hands. "So you're Forest. Follow me, you two — the party's already in full swing."

Mrs. Letay led them down a long garden path. Just a little hiccup, Olive thought. Maybe this will be fine. No, more than fine — good. Great. It will be —

"Candy!" Forest cried, and dove for the ground.

Before Olive could stop him, he scooped up a handful of decorative glass pebbles from the landscaping and popped them into his mouth. Then he spit them out, and one flew across the yard and pinged against a bird feeder.

"Ow. Bad candy," he said, rubbing his cheek.

Mrs. Letay stopped and stared at the spit-covered stones scattered across her yard.

Olive piped up. "He's still confused about what's candy and what's not candy, Mrs. Letay. He won't try to eat anything else in your yard. Right, Forest?"

"Right, Olive." Forest held his jaw. Olive hoped his teeth were okay, because when they went to the dentist last week, Forest had climbed out the window and run all the way home.

Mrs. Letay smiled, but it was the kind of smile Olive gave her dad when she said his scrambled eggs were yummy — really, the eggs were cold and slimy, but she didn't want to make him feel bad. It was a polite smile.

They started walking again, but Olive's insides twisted up with a serious case of the Worries. Questions flooded her head: Is Forest ready for a birthday party? Is getting a new start with Josie even possible?

A few steps later, Mrs. Letay opened the gate to the backyard, and what they saw made Olive's Worries disappear.

Josie Letay's Amazing Birthday Party Extravaganza was just like she remembered, except better. The huge backyard was huger than before, the pool was a sparklier blue, and a bigger mountain of candy and snacks was spread across the picnic table in the center of everything. The yard was dotted with blue and purple balloons — Olive knew these were Josie's favorite colors — and streamers were woven in and out of the Letays' tall fence. In one corner, a magician in a pink suit was making balls disappear under cups. Josie's rabbit was outside in a pen. And from the looks of it, half the school was there.

Forest had a zillion questions — about the magician, magic, the bunny, the streamers, the sprinkler, the swimming pool, and the magician again. He was especially confused about magic.

"Olive, what kind of tent is that?" Forest asked. He happened to be pointing smack in the middle of the yard, where a towering bounce house stood.

"It's not a tent, Forest. It's a bounce house!" Olive beamed. Perfect. That was the word for it. The party was perfect, and today Olive and Forest were going to be perfect, too. "It's like when we jump on the bed, except the jumps are much higher, and Dad's not around to yell at us."

"Forest!" a bouncing girl yelled, her pigtails flapping up and down. "Look how high I can jump!"

Forest turned to Olive. His big brown eyes were even wider than usual and melting like chocolate ice cream. "Bounce house make you fly like bird? We go inside?"

"Yeah, but first we have to say hi to Josie. You know ... start off on the right foot."

Forest lifted his left foot up like a flamingo. "Stay like this whole party?"

"No, Forest. It's an expression. It means we need to do things right." Forest lowered his leg. "We also have to put her gift on the table."

Forest suddenly looked worried. "Forest didn't bring gift for Josie."

"It's okay, this gift is from both of —" But before she could finish, Forest sped off, quick as a cheetah.

"Forest!" she called after him. Olive searched for him under the table and in the line of kids waiting for the bounce house, but she couldn't find him anywhere. She did find Josie talking and laughing with a group of their classmates right next to her mountain of presents.

Olive tugged at her braids. She really, really wished Forest was by her side — without Forest, all the courage she had built up suddenly popped like a birthday balloon.

But Olive took a deep breath and walked toward Birthday Present Mountain alone. Three steps closer, two steps closer, one step away ...

"Hi Josie happy birthday!" she blurted out. Josie snapped her head toward Olive, her dark blond hair bouncing.

"Hi, Olive. Thanks for coming." Josiesmiled, but it was small and polite, just like her mom's smile had been earlier.

"Thanks for inviting us."

"Us? Did Forest come with you?" Josie asked. The polite smile turned into a real one.

"Yeah, but ... I'm not sure where he is right now," Olive said.

Josie's face dropped. "Maybe later we can hang out when you find him?"

"Definitely," Olive said, feeling a sudden burst of confidence. Josie jogged over to her mom, who was waving at her to greet someone. "Maybe later" was Okay. Not Good. Definitely not Great.

"Olive. Ooooooooolive," a voice hissed from above.

She looked up and gasped — Forest was dangling upside down from the tippy-top of one of the bounce house's towers.

CHAPTER 2

The tower swayed under Forest's weight. It shook and shuddered. His toes were slipping....

The butterflies in Olive's stomach were like a flood — no, a stampede. Forest was going to fall right onto the table of presents.

Thankfully, Forest easily crawled down the tower like a spider and ran toward Olive. Relief washed over her.

"Forest, you can't climb on everything like you do at home ..." she started.

He pulled a fistful of bright yellow tulips from behind his back and wiggled them in Olive's face. "Present for Josie."

"Flowers?" Olive quickly scanned the yard and spotted the big hole Forest had made in the flower patch. Uh-oh.

"Flowers as present? No, Olive." Forest shook his head, as if giving flowers as a present was the craziest idea in the world. "Look."

Olive looked closer and saw the fat, pink worms curled in the dirt dangling from the flowers' roots. She took the little guys into her hands, and Forest threw the wormless flowers over his shoulder. ... And they hit Mrs. Letay right in the face.

Olive burned red all the way down to her toes.

"Forest," Mrs. Letay said through gritted teeth. Olive quickly put the worms in her pocket while Mrs. Letay bent down to get the torn-up tulips. "Did you pull these up from my flower garden?"

Forest's face was getting red, too, like it did when he realized he had done something wrong but didn't know what or why. Forest didn't know that grown-ups like to keep flowers in the ground, just to look at. Olive didn't really get it, either.

Okay — quick thinking.

"Mrs. Letay, Forest was just letting the flowers ... breathe. We'll put them back now, good as new."

Mrs. Letay handed the tulips to Olive. She was about to say something but caught sight of the dog trying to drink from the punch bowl again. "Rex!" she called, running away.

"Forest, there you are!" Josie screamed. She was getting into the bounce house. "Come bounce!"

"Bounce with me, Forest!" another partygoer cried.

"No, bounce with me!"

No one had noticed Forest until Josie did — but that was one of the things that was special about Josie. People caught her excitement for things like it was the flu.

Forest tugged Olive's arm, pulling her toward the bounce house, but Olive didn't budge. She needed to put the flowers back — fix things — before doing anything else. "Go ahead, Forest. I'll be there in a sec," Olive said.

Forest was giving her a case of the Worries. Big time. Maybe bouncing would keep him busy for a while. She could join Forest — and Josie — as soon as she put the tulips back.

Forest darted away again, climbed up the side of the bounce house, and rolled over the top, landing with a plop and a bounce. Josie squealed with happiness. Olive gently buried the tulips back in the dirt until they were good as new. Now she could work on making friends.

Yep. It was that easy. I will go hang out with Josie.

Olive brushed the dirt off her pants and walked right to the edge of the crowd of kids around the bounce house. There were a lot of them. She shouted, "Excuse me!" and "Can I get through?" until she practically lost her voice, but Forest didn't hear her. He kind-of-maybe saw her for a second, but then Josie pulled him into a double-spin bounce and he disappeared.

Olive suddenly felt very, very small.

Someone tapped her shoulder. Turning, she saw a boy a whole head shorter than her whose jet-black hair pointed up like a shark fin.

"Excuse me your bow is crooked," he said in one breath.

"No, it's not." Olive reached up and touched the bow. It totally was. "It's supposed to be like that."

"Oh, okay." The boy adjusted his glasses. "Are you Olive? I've heard Forest talk about you. He's in one of my after-school groups. I'm in second grade." The boy said everything really fast, like the words were hot and burning his tongue.

"Yeah. I'm Olive."

"I'm Herbert." His shark-fin hair swayed side to side. "Colton calls me Her-bot. Like robot? He says it like it's a bad thing, but it's really not."

Olive made a face. The syllables of Colton's name — COL. TON. — were like two annoying pokes in her ears. He was not very nice.

"Forest lives with you, right?" Herbert asked.

"Right." Olive had spent a lot of time trying to explain Forest to people. "We're best friends, but sometimes I call him my frother, because he's like my friend and my brother, and he calls me his frister because I'm like his friend and sister. There's not a good real word for it, so we made some up."

"Cool." Herbert stood there, not talking. Did he run out of words because he was saying them so fast? Am I making friends? What should I do next? Her brain was a spinning top. Before she could think of anything else, her hand shot up in the air.

"High five?" she said uncertainly.

Herbert immediately slapped her palm with his. His hand was sticky with something, but she didn't even wipe hers on her pants. Forest wouldn't be grossed out by sticky stuff, and neither would she.

They had high-fived the quietness away. Olive told him about the gymnastics class she and Forest took after school, and Herbert talked excitedly about knights, his favorite topic. Knights had squires. Knights went on quests. Knights had to eat bugs when they were traveling in the countryside.

Olive remembered the worms in her pocket. "I forgot about these guys." She plucked them out of her overalls and reached out her hand to show Herbert. Except he wasn't interested. Instead he jumped, screamed, and fell backward onto the ground.

Oh, no! Olive crouched down, cupping the worms close to her chest. Herbert's eyes were wide with fear.

"Sorry, Herbert, I didn't know you were afraid of worms," she said.

"What?!" he said, his voice high. "I'm not!"

Yell-y voice. Big eyes. Crinkled forehead. All the things her brother, Ryan, did when he insisted he wasn't afraid of frogs. But when Forest brought a frog inside the house, Ryan had run away screaming.

"I won't get them in your face again, I promise."

Herbert uncrinkled his forehead and sat up as Olive unfurled her hands. The worms squirmed around in her palms. "My mom would say it's none of my business but ... why do you have worms in your pocket?" he asked.

"This is Forest's gift to Josie. He likes to dig them up because it reminds him of living in the trees. Sometimes we play a game and figure out what letters they look like."

Herbert leaned forward and pointed. "This one kind of looks like the letter S."

Olive tilted her head. "That one does, too." She realized a lot of worms look like the letter S. She put them on the ground, and Herbert breathed a sigh of relief.

"Olive! Come fly!" Forest called. Olive and Herbert had to look way, way up to see him — he was jumping so high, he blotted out the sun. Kids clung to his arms like they were all monkeys in a barrel. And when Forest jumped, they jumped, too. He did a double jump. Then a double backflip. Then a triple backflip. His T-shirt billowed out like a parachute.

"Look!"

Bounce.

"Olive!"

Bounce. Bounce.

"Come!"

Bounce.

Finally, Forest could help her get in.

"Herbert, come on," Olive called. "Let's go bounce."

But Herbert stayed stuck in place. "Actually, the bounce house is kind of crazy right now and I get nervous around so many people so I'm just going to hang out here for a while," he said, digging his shoe into the dirt again. His shark fin drooped to one side, like it was sad, too.

Olive paused. She felt as though her body was a magnet being pulled in two directions. But she couldn't leave the only friend she had made at the party. And she also didn't want to.

"How about we play with Josie's bunny, instead?" Olive asked.

Herbert's face lit up. "I'm not scared of bunnies."

"Hey, Forest!" Olive yelled. "Herbert and I are going to pet the bunny!"

Forest yelled something back, but Olive and Herbert were already running to the bunny enclosure.

CHAPTER 3

There was a small sign on the pen that said, MY NAME IS MR. NIBBLES LETAY.

Olive and Herbert crouched over the black-and-white bunny to pet it. It shook under Olive's hand — but if she were a tiny ball of fluff at a person party, Olive would be scared, too.

"Hi, Mr. Nibbles," Olive said. Mr. Nibbles quivered his nose at her. Then Herbert patted Mr. Nibbles and sneezed so hard, he fell backward onto his butt. Mr. Nibbles darted under Olive to hide.

"Gesundheit," Olive said. "My favorite way to say 'bless you.'"

"Thanks." Herbert wiped his nose on his sleeve. "I'm allergic to cats. I guess I'm allergic to conejitos, too."

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Wild Child: Forest's First Birthday Party"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Imprint.
Excerpted by permission of Imprint.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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