Teamwork Magic
| Author | Valerie Tripp |
| Illustrator | Thu Thai |
| Originally Published | © 2022 American Girl |
| ISBN | 9781683371922 |
Spring Has Sprung!
The five WellieWishers are playing in their garden admiring the springtime air. Emerson says she loves the spring because it’s when the garden wakes up. Ashlyn has a great idea to have a spring celebration party and to thank Aunt Miranda for letting them play in her garden. As the girls run to Aunt Miranda’s house, they sing to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”:
Spring, spring, spring has sprung!
Time to celebrate!
We’ll have a tour and garden party!
Oh, it will be great!
As Aunt Miranda opens the door, Willa asks her if she’s free that afternoon. But Aunt Miranda doesn’t come out alone. She has a boy with her. The boy has on his own wellingtons, and has a pair of green wings on and a blue dragon tail. Aunt Miranda says this is Bryant, and he moved into the neighborhood recently, so Aunt Miranda invited him to come play in the garden.
The WellieWishers exuberantly say hello. Camille asks if he wants to come get ready for Aunt Miranda’s surprise with them. Bryant’s face lights up, and she says goodbye to Miss Miranda.
All By Myself
The girls show Bryant the flower garden, where little green sprouts are starting to grow. Willa says they need to fix up the garden so that it’s not gloomy, but bloomy. Bryant says dragons can volunteer to help, but Willa insists he’s a guest. Besides, as a fairy, she doesn’t need his help. She begins tidying as she sings to “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”:
Bloom, bloom, bloom and grow,
Feel the sun and showers!
I’ll make the garden beautiful
With my fairy powers.
Willa skips off to put on her fairy costume. Camille is over by the pond, grumbling about how it’s all choked with weeds. Bryant suggests that dragons like clearing out ponds. Camille tells him it’s okay, he doesn’t need to clean. Camille imagines herself a mermaid, and sings:
Swim, swim, swim and splash,
In the pond for hours!
I’ll make the water clear as a mirror
With my mermaid powers.
Camille skips off to the playhouse to put on her mermaid costume. Emerson, Kendall, and Ashlyn pull Bryant down to the castle. Emerson says it looks messy. Bryant says dragons are super scrubbers. But Ashlyn interrupts him, saying with her princess powers, she can clean it right up!
Scrub, scrub every inch.
Polish, dust, and scour!
I’ll make the castle welcoming,
With my princess power.
And with that, Ashlyn skips off to put on her princess costume. Kendall points out the swing is broken. Bryan suggests that dragons can make repairs. Kendall says that’s okay, and sings:
Fly, fly in the sky,
Way up to the towers!
I’ll fix the swing as I flutter by
With my butterfly powers.
And before they know it, Kendall is gone, too. Emerson shows Bryant the carriage, and points out that Lulu Llamacorn will give Aunt Miranda a ride around the garden. But, the carriage must be decorated and Lulu Llamacorn has to be brushed. Bryant says dragons know all about llamas and carriages.
Emerson declines Bryant’s offer for help, saying she can fix it all herself. She sings to herself:
Twist, twist, twist the vines,
Add some pretty flowers!
I’ll dress Lulu in a pink tutu
With my unicorn powers.
Emerson runs off to the playhouse. Bryant, alone, follows her.
Let’s Go!
When the girls have all changed into their costumes, Willa leads them out of the playhouse. They let Bryant know they’ll see him in an hour or so when they’re done. Bryant feels sad to be left out, and he sits on a bench outside the playhouse, watching the girls trot gleefully away.
Willa is surprised when weeding the flower garden is harder than she thought it would be. Soon, her wings are as dirty as her knees and her petal skirt has wilted.
Camille finds that clearing the pond is tricky, too. The vines are slippery and slimy. Soon, Camille’s mermaid outfit is splattered with mud and pond scum.
Ashlyn is busy dusting, refreshing the flowers, and making food for the tea cart. Soon, her gold princess wellies have lost their shine.
Kendall is stumped trying to fix the swing. The rope broke, and all her sparkles have stopped sparkling.
And Emerson is having trouble getting Lulu Llamacorn to put on a tutu. She keeps walking in a circle, and she won’t stand still. Finally, Emerson gives up and trudges back to the playhouse.
When the girls get back to the playhouse, they’re all exhausted. They admit they can’t do their jobs on their own.
Teaming Up
Emerson sadly begins walking to the house… it’s time to tell Aunt Miranda her surprise is canceled. Then, Bryant says he has an idea. The girls turn to him eagerly. “How about working together? As a team,” he suggests.
Kendall says teaming up sounds like a smart idea. Maybe if they do all the chores together, they’ll be easier. Willa admits it was wrong of them not to include Bryant before, after all, they need his help. Will he officially be on the WellieWisher team?
Bryant responds, “Dragons are super at teamwork.”
As a group, all six children go back to the garden to begin working at the chores. They clear away all the weeds, clear all the vines out of the pond, fix the swing at the castle, dust, scrub, polish, and sweep the castle, and decorate the carriage. They even managed to hold Lulu Llamacorn still enough so that they could put the tutu on her. They’re finally ready for a party!
All the kids are so ecstatic. And extra thanks to Bryant for his great idea of working as a team. He laughs and says that dragons are good at helping.
WellieWisher Power
When Aunt Miranda joins them for the party, she compliments their decorations on the carriage, and is amazed they managed to get Lulu into a tutu. Emerson chuckles, saying it was WellieWisher power! They all teamed up to get the job done.
Aunt Miranda then exclaims that the garden looks so healthy and tidy. She turns to Willa and asks if she cleaned the whole garden on her own. Willa shakes her head, saying it was WellieWisher power! It turned out, Willa needed all of their help.
When they get to the pond, Aunt Miranda asks if Camille used mermaid power to clean the pond. Camille admits she tried, but she needed everybody to work together to make WellieWisher power.
And lastly, they walk down to the castle. When she sees the beautiful swing, she asks Kendall if she fixed it on her own. Kendall shakes her head, and says she needed WellieWisher power.
And when she goes inside the castle, Ashlyn offers Aunt Miranda a seat and cookies. “Well, Princess Ashlyn. You’ve made a party fit for royalty. You must have used princess power.”
Ashlyn shrugs her shoulders, and responds that they all worked together to clean up and make the food. Everything was possible because of the WellieWisher power!
Aunt Miranda thanks all the children for the beautiful surprise. She knows they all worked very hard to clean the whole garden up. The kids all look at each other. They know that nothing is too hard for them, because they have WellieWisher power!
For Parents
Discusses having children help out adults with chores around the house. Topics include:
- Helping in the garden with digging holes, planting, and weeding
- Helping around the house with chores like dusting, sweeping, and window washing