The Muddily-Puddily Show
| Author | Valerie Tripp |
| Illustrator | Thu Thai |
| Originally Published | © 2016 American Girl |
| ISBN | 9781609587932 |
Windy, Windy
The wind pushes against Emerson’s back. It’s blowing so hard she feels like she’s flying as she skips along the pathways to meet her friends, the WellieWishers. She loves the wind because she feels like it likes to stir up excitement. She even made up a little poem about the wind:
Windy, windy blue-sky day,
Swirl me up and blow me away.
Lift me like a leaf or a kite
Over the treetops,
Up out of sight.
Camille, her friend, calls out to her. All the other WellieWishers are waiting for her by a big pile of leaves. Ya-hoo! Emerson flies forward and takes a big leap and lands face-first into the pile of leaves. All of her friends laugh and jump next to her as well.
The wind picks up the scattered leaves and floats them around the girls. Rolling over, the girls watch the leaves dancing through the sky as Emerson shares her leaf poem. All the girls know Emerson is really good at making up poems. She finds it really easy.
Willa comments that she brought apples for everybody. Her aunt takes care of the big garden, so they always have lots of apples to eat. Willa shows the girls a big tree with yellow leaves almost ready to fall off. All the girls agree the tree is beautiful. Together, one by one, they each comment on how pretty the tree is, eventually forming a poem:
They’re as yellow as a school us,
Yellow as a pear,
Yellow as a dandelion,
Yellow as your hair!
As yellow as a lemon,
Yellow as the sun,
Yellow as the butter on a hot, toasty bun!
Yellow as a ripe banana,
Yellow as some cheese,
Yellow as the stripes
On the bumblebees!
Suddenly, Emerson has a brilliant idea.
Fall for Fall
Emerson leads all of the girls to the garden theater and leaps onto the stage. “We are going to put on a show,” she declares. “Our show will be called ‘Fall for Fall.’ It will be about all the things that make us fall in love with fall.”
They can talk about jumping in leaf piles and trees of yellow leaves. They can recite poems, and Emerson suggests they can sing songs and dance dances.
Willa is nervous about the concept of her singing and dancing. But Emerson doesn’t hear her concerns. She keeps listing out things they can talk about. “We’ll sing and dance about fallish things, like ducks flying south for the winter, and pumpkins—”
“And splishy, splashy, muddily, puddily rainy days,” interjects Camille. When Kendall asks if they know any songs or dances about fallish things, Emerson says not to worry… the girls can make the songs and dances up!
Emerson stands in the middle of the stage and thinks. Then, she has an idea. To the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down,” she sings:
Autumn leaves are falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
Autumn leaves are falling down,
Oh, so pretty!
Ashlyn jumps up on stage to continue, pulling leaves out of her pockets and tossing them around:
Take some leaves and toss them up,
Toss them up, toss them up.
Take some leaves and toss them up,
Oh, so pretty!
Camille, Willa, and Kendall applaud, cheering that this’ll be the best show ever.
Fun Work
The next day, the WellieWishers all meet in the playhouse to talk about their show. Ashlyn spins around in a circle singing the “Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down” song. Her tiara glistens in the light. Emerson praises her performance. But, she says, there’s more to a show than just singing and dancing. There’s planning and preparing and working first. Emerson explains that she made up different jobs for each of them to do, based on what they like to do best.
Emerson hands Ashlyn poster paper, pens and markers, paint and paintbrushes, glitter glue, and foil stars. Ashlyn’s job will be to make the poster to invite people to the show, because she always makes such beautiful party invitations. Ashlyn is pleased.
Emerson knows Camille likes dress-up, so she thinks costumes will be the perfect job for Camille. Camille gushes “Costumes!” She immediately dives into Aunt Miranda’s trunk and begins flipping through shawls and shoes, caps and capes, robes and raincoats, and gowns and galoshes.
Emerson tells Kendall that she likes to build things, so maybe she’d like to build the set. Kendall smiles, and flips open a notepad and gets drawing.
Lastly, Emerson turns to Willa. “Will you collect all the props we need, like fallen leaves, acorns, and pinecones?” Emerson holds out a basket. “Yes!” Willa exclaims, sprinting out the door.
Emerson stands back to inspect everybody doing their jobs. Then Kendall realizes, “You gave all of us great jobs, but what about you, Emerson? I’m afraid you didn’t save any fun work for yourself.”
Emerson says her job will be to make up more fun songs and dances and teach them to the rest of them. She even already thought of a new song: the Muddily-Puddily song. She says she’s thinking of them dressing up as ducks and waddling around. To the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” she sings:
Rain, rain, rainy day,
Splishy-splashy wet!
Muddily, puddily, muddily, puddily,
We love rain, you bet!
There’s a moment of silence, and then all the other girls break out into laughter and exclamations. Emerson has done it again. “Hooray for Emerson!”
Lucky Duck
Camille is standing up on stage, trying to recite the poem about the tree with the yellow leaves. But she’s getting confused. She says she keeps getting the words mixed up, holding the wrong prop, and messing up the rhyme. Suddenly, Emerson says “Stop! I’ve thought of a better way to do it.”
The show is tomorrow, but Emerson keeps coming up with new ideas and new songs, and they keep popping out of Emerson like popcorn. But there’s so many ideas that the girls are getting confused by all the changes.
Emerson says Ashlyn can stand behind Camille and recite the poem. Then Camille just has to stand in one place and hold the props. But, Ashlyn is wearing a gigantic pumpkin costume. She says she can’t really see through it, so she doesn’t think she can recite the poem. And she can’t dance because she can’t see her feet.
Emerson insists she has to wear the pumpkin costume. And she doesn’t need to dance—Willa can do the Muddily-Puddily song and dance all by herself. At that comment, Willa gets nervous. She doesn’t want to sing and dance all alone on stage. Emerson says she only had time to make one duck mask, so Willa will need to be the only duck. She’s a lucky duck. She hands Willa the mask, who takes it hesitantly; she doesn’t feel like a lucky duck at all.
Emerson gets up on stage to demonstrate how Willa can act as a duck. She can fly around flitting her arms as wings, and then gracefully swoop to the floor as if landing on a pond, where Willa can sing the Muddily-Puddily song.
Willa tries to mimic what Emerson did, but she lands down so hard that tears come to her eyes. “I can’t do it like you do it, Emerson,” she says in a wobbly voice. Emerson crosses her arms. “All right, all right. Just sing the Muddily-Puddily song, then.” When Willa explains she can’t do it alone, Emerson dismisses her, saying she’ll be fine.
Camille asks if there’s something else Willa would rather do in the show. Willa’s face perks up. She’d like to talk about pinecones. She can talk about how they fall off trees, the males and females, and what happens when they decompose. But Emerson interrupts her, saying nobody’s interested in pinecones anyway.
Kendall says, “Maybe you can help me with the set, Willa. You can help me figure out how to have wind blow and leaves fly and rain fall.”
“You mean you haven’t figured that out yet? When will you figure it out?” Emerson demands. Kendall responds she doesn’t know yet… it may be impossible.
And then Emerson breaks. “Impossible? Impossible?! I’ll tell you what’s impossible: putting on a show with all of YOU! Maybe we just shouldn’t do the show at all.”
Everybody is silent. Willa feels hurt. Kendall feels unappreciated. Ashlyn feels confused. And Camille feels sad to see her friends all unhappy with one another. Then, slowly, Camille suggests they take a break. Glumly, the girls follow Camille into the playhouse.
Listen
Inside the playhouse, nobody is speaking. Willa and Ashlyn begin to wash the paintbrushes, and Emerson helps Camille pick up costumes and put them away. Then, Camille starts to whistle “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Ashlyn picks up the tune, and begins singing their lyrics to the song. Willa starts to join her, in a soft, whispery voice. Then Kendall chimes in. When they’re done, Ashlyn says, “That’s a really good song, Emerson.”
Emerson hmphs. “If it’s so good, then why won’t Willa sing it?”
Camille puts her arm around Willa. “Willa, just tell Emerson how you feel. And Emerson, you need to listen, okay?”
Willa explains that Emerson is really good at singing and dancing. But it’s hard for Willa to be in front of people on stage all by herself. It gives her a case of the willies. Willa’s willies.
Kendall turns to Emerson. Kendall says that she’s working really hard to make the rain and wind and falling leaves, but she’s not sure she can. Maybe Emerson doesn’t understand how hard Kendall is working.
Camille agrees. Camille is working really hard to understand and memorize everything, but she keeps getting confused by all of Emerson’s changes. The ideas are great, but she can’t keep them straight.
And Ashlyn says her issue is the pumpkin costume. She can’t see out of it, and it’s hot and uncomfortable. Ashlyn doesn’t like being hidden away by the costume, but Emerson insists she has to wear it.
Emerson swallows and takes a deep breath. Then, without a word, she picks up her little round suitcase, and leaves the playhouse.
Emerson Acts Up
A while later, the girls turn to see something in the doorway. It’s an enormous clown shoe, waving wildly back and forth. The girls look at one another, puzzled. Then Emerson steps inside the playhouse.
“I’ve been such a clown. I’ve really put my foot in my mouth, haven’t I?” she asks.
The others giggle. Emerson apologizes, and says she hopes they can start over. She says she has lots of new ideas for their show, but she wants to listen to them and their ideas first.
The other girls rush over and hug Emerson. They’re all happy to be friends again. Then Willa speaks up: “I have an idea. I’ve thought of a better way to sing the Muddily-Puddily song.” All five WellieWishers begin talking at once, bursting with new ideas. And soon, they were all ready to put on their show.
The next day, Aunt Miranda and their friends and families all gather at the garden stage. Kendall and Camille are the first act. They toss leaves around the stage as they sing “Autumn Leaves are Falling Down.” Then, Ashlyn and Camille come onstage to recite the “Yellow” poem. Ashlyn talks, sans pumpkin costume, while Camille holds up props. Lastly, Emerson comes swirling in, dancing and spinning as she recits her “Windy, Windy” poem.
Then, all of the girls come onto the stage with a big umbrella. All the girls crowd together underneath, and to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” sing the Muddily-Puddily song. The umbrella has strips of paper coming down from the top, with raindrops on it, as if it’s raining and they’re huddling under the umbrella to hide from the rain.
After the show, Emerson steps forward to thank everybody for coming to the show. The audience bursts into applause, and all the WellieWishers take a bow. After the audience leaves, the girls all sit on the stage. Emerson exclaims that their show was nothing like she imagined it would be, but it was much better.
For Parents
Discusses how to talk about managing strong emotions. Topics include:
- Encouraging creativity, such as poetry, singing, drawing, etc
- Reminding girls that everybody has different strengths
- Playing games to manage boredom