Deborah Ahenkorah comes from Ghana, a country in West Africa. She has loved to read since she was a little girl. But all the books she read when she was little were American books and they showed a world that was different from hers. When Ahenkorah grew up, she started Golden Baobab. It is an organization that provides African children with books written by African people.

    Golden Baobab does this in several different ways. First, it organizes programmes and workshops (讲习班). These workshops support African writers. In these workshops writers can learn new things and improve their writing. Second, Golden Baobab connects writers to publishers (出版商). Finally, it offers the Golden Baobab Prize. This is the most famous way in which Golden Baobab works. Any writer who is an African citizen (公民) can compete for the prize, and each story must happen in Africa.

    "Children need books they can relate to. When they see characters who are like themselves in a story, they know that their experiences are important," said Tiffany Morris, who works for Golden Baobab.

    According to Ahenkorah, Golden Baobab has already helped create over 850 stories. She wants to make Africa's book publishing industry a success. "We could have an industry of books, games, toys and characters that come from stories that are made just for African children," she said.

    This is a big dream and also a big challenge. But Ahenkorah and Golden Baobab are working to make it come true.

    Bill from Australia is in New York now. He will have a meeting with some people from England in the Peterson Building on 34th Street. But he doesn't know where it is. Now he is asking two men the way to the Peterson Building.

    "Excuse me, can you tell me where the Peterson Building on 34th Street is?"

    "Sure," answers one of the men. "You can get there in five minutes. Go along this road and turn left at the third crossing, and then you can find it. "

    But the other man says, "There is a better way; take a No. 3 bus. It can take you to the Peters Building." "Not Peters, but Peterson." says Bill.

    Then the two men say, "Oh, we're sorry we don't know."

    "Thank you all the same. I think I'll take a taxi," Bill says. He knows that if he wants to know how to get to a place next time, he'd better ask a policeman.

    The Lost Thing is a story about a young man. He often wears a pair of glasses. He likes collecting(收集)bottle caps when he's travelling around the world. One day, he takes an old train to the beach. He sees a strange red teapot(茶壶)。It is about 3-4m tall. It's very friendly to him. They play with a ball in the afternoon. When the sun goes down, he starts to know that his friend doesn't have the owner(主人). He thinks, "It might be a lost thing." He wants to know more about the red teapot, so he tries to help it find its owner. Will the teapot find its owner? It's a secret.

    Betty and I are best friends. Our birthdays are on the same day, so every year we have a birthday party together. But this year, we had a costume party instead.

    While we were writing the invitations, my mum came in and asked, "Why not invite John?" John had been in our class for only a few months, but he was already getting better grades in Maths than anyone else in class. I wrinkled (皱起) my nose, "Mum, he wears the same pants to school every day. How could he even afford a costume?" Mum said nothing. The next day, mum gave me an envelope with a shopping certificate (凭证) in it. "I thought it would be nice for you to give this to John" Mum said. But how? We didn't want to make John embarrassed. We discussed it for a long time. Finally, Betty and I had a good idea.

    On the day of our party, kids arrived, dressed differently. John arrived, in an old sheet (床单), but still in the same brown pants as usual. We danced, ate snacks and played games in groups. Before eating the birthday cake, Betty said in a loud voice, "Now it is time for the great prize game. It is the following riddle…" It was a maths game. None of us was surprised when John came up with the right answer first and walked off with the envelope.

    Everything went on well as we planned. John wore a new pair of pants and a new shirt the next week. He felt happy. So did we.

    When we help others, we need to find a proper way, or we may hurt them in another way.

    A young boy was playing with a ball in the street. He threw(扔) it too hard and it broke the window of a house and fell(掉) inside. A woman came to the window and shouted(大喊) at the boy. The boy was afraid and ran away. But he still wanted his ball back. A few minutes later, the boy came back and knocked(敲) at the door and said, "My father is going to come and repair(修理) your window soon."

    After a while, a man came to the door with tools(工具) in his hand, so the woman let the boy take his ball away. When the man finish repairing the window, he said to the woman, "Please pay ten dollars."

    "But aren't you the father of the boy?" the woman asked, looking surprised (惊奇).

    "No," he answered, looking more surprised, "Aren't you his mother?"