Unicorns and Germs Read online

  Mom raised an eyebrow.

  “Oh! Oh!” I said again. “Yogurt! Of course!”

  “Care to share those thoughts?” Mom asked.

  “Well, we knew we could grow the store-bought yogurt bacteria in milk, because the bacteria was already growing there.”

  “Right,” Mom said.

  “We know that bacteria on Tiny grows on unicorns, so we just need to find a way to add some unicorn … something … to the agar mixture!”

  “Ooh, great thinking, Zoey! That just might work. What are you thinking of adding?”

  “Well, the cut on Tiny’s leg is in his fur. Maybe I could clip some fur from one of his good legs and we could mix that in?”

  “Excellent plan. You grab the fur and I’ll start cooking a new batch.”

  In no time at all, Mom and I had petri dishes filled with new agar—now with unicorn-ness added! Once they cooled, I took them out, and with my gloves and cotton swabs, I carefully added bacteria from Tiny’s cut to the new petri dishes. Mom refilled the jars in the cooler with more hot water, and I gently settled the new petri dishes next to the old ones.

  “The old petri dishes still have nothing on them,” I told Mom as I closed the lid.

  “Let’s hope the new ones are more effective,” she said.

  I sat down at the kitchen table. “And now we wait.”

  CHAPTER 9

  WHOA

  After what seemed like forever, but was actually only about three hours, Mom said I could take a peek in the cooler.

  “But don’t be disappointed if there’s no bacteria yet,” she reminded me.

  I squinched my eyes closed, made a silent wish, and then opened the cooler. “WHOAAAAA.”

  Mom squished in right beside me.

  “Whooooaaa,” she said.

  For a full minute we just stared. The new petri dishes were covered with shiny red dots that glowed red. It was pretty … and also kind of creepy.

  “ACK! I’m wasting time!” I said, bouncing on my toes. “I need to get started on my second experiment NOW!”

  “How can I help?” Mom asked.

  “Can you start another batch?” I asked. “I’ll get some more unicorn fur and grab the onions, garlic, oregano, and thyme from our garden.”

  “Let’s make it happen!” Mom said, turning to the stove.

  I ran out the back door. Tiny was sleeping and Sassafras paced around him. I quickly clipped some fur. I figured Tiny wouldn’t mind, and I didn’t want to wake him.

  Next I ran to the garden. While I worked, Sassafras chattered at me and kept glancing back at Tiny. I could tell from how upset he was that Tiny was getting worse. “Don’t worry, Sassafras. We’re hurrying!” I promised. I kissed his head and dashed back to the house with my supplies.

  I burst into the kitchen. “Tiny’s getting worse, Mom. Sassafras is really upset!”

  Mom frowned. “I know, baby. But we’re doing everything we can. The agar mixture is ready. What next?”

  “I’ll wash all the plants. After that, I think chopping them up will help them mix into the agar. It’ll also make them easier to measure. Can you get the food chopper out for me?”

  Mom helped me chop the onion, garlic, oregano, and thyme. I added the soap and disinfecting wipes to the lineup and grabbed a tablespoon to measure each ingredient to add to the petri dishes.

  “Wait!” Mom slid a permanent marker toward me. “Don’t forget to label them.”

  “That was a close one! Thanks, Mom.” I labeled each of the seven dishes:

  After they were labeled, I spooned a tablespoon of each ingredient into the correctly labeled dish, washing my spoon in between each ingredient. For the dish with the disinfecting wipes, I decided to add a tablespoon of the liquid from the bottom of the container.

  I left one dish with nothing added. I needed to see how much bacteria grew without anything there. If any of the petri dishes with an added ingredient grew less bacteria, then I’d know that ingredient was working.

  Mom carefully poured the same amount of hot agar mixture into each of the petri dishes. I used a clean spoon to stir each ingredient in, and we left them to cool.

  We both paced the kitchen as we waited for the timer to let us know that the agar had cooled and was ready for the next step. When it buzzed, we jumped, then grabbed all the supplies and ran to the backyard.

  Tiny’s cut was even more red and swollen than just a few hours earlier. I had to take a few breaths so I didn’t start crying. This experiment had to work.

  He must have been feeling really awful because he kept sleeping as I used the cotton swab to get bacteria to put on the new petri dishes. Mom sealed them all up and handed the ziplock bags to me.

  I took the ziplock bags inside the house and put them in the cooler while Mom added new hot water to the jars. We then washed our hands and tapped our legs nervously as we sat waiting.

  “Hey, why don’t you write down your procedure while we wait,” Mom suggested.

  “Good idea,” I said and got to work.

  “Do you think it’s time yet?” I asked Mom.

  “I’m not sure it’s been long enough, but it won’t hurt to check.”

  We both walked over to the cooler. I held my breath as we opened it.

  “YESSSSSSS!” we cheered at the same time. We had an answer.

  CHAPTER 10

  TWO ANSWERS

  We had two answers, actually. “Look!” I held up two petri dishes. “Both onion and garlic worked!”

  “Wonderful!” exclaimed Mom.

  I took a closer look at the petri dishes. “Hmmm, it looks like there’s just a little bit of bacteria on the one with onion. But it’s a really small amount.” Next I looked at the garlic petri dish. “OK, there’s seriously nothing on this one. Does that make garlic the best choice?”

  “You got it.” Mom smiled.

  “So now we need a LOT of garlic. Like maybe all of our garlic?” My dad was obsessed with garlic so we had two full rows of it growing in our backyard. But that cut on Tiny was huge. I was going to need all of it. “Do you think Dad will mind?”

  “We’ll have to come up with something to tell Dad,” Mom said. “But I know if he could see Tiny, he would absolutely give up his garlic.”

  That settled it. With Tiny getting worse, I didn’t want to waste a single moment. I threw on my shoes and grabbed a bucket from outside the kitchen door.

  Tiny’s droopy eyes were barely open. Sassafras perked up when he saw me burst out the back door. “We figured out how to fix the cut!” I shouted across the yard to them. I bolted to the garden, where I probably set a new record for the fastest garlic-harvesting ever.

  Mom and I set up a production line where I washed the garlic and she chopped off the roots and stems. I chopped batch after batch of garlic. Our kitchen smelled like an Italian restaurant!

  I grabbed all my supplies for a new bandage for Tiny. Mom helped me carry those and the big old bowl of chopped garlic outside.

  We set it all down, and Sassafras trotted toward the bowl. He took one sniff, wrinkled his nose, and sneezed.

  I walked over to Tiny and gently pet his nose. “OK, Tiny. I think we’ve got this figured out. I ran an experiment, and garlic got rid of the bad bacteria from your cut. I’ve chopped up a big bowl of garlic, and I’m going to gently cover your cut with it. Then I’ll bandage it up like I did before. Your cut should feel better in a few hours.”

  I gave his nose a pet. “I know you aren’t feeling very well, but it will be easiest for me to get the garlic and the bandage on if you are standing. Do you think you can stand up for me?”

  Tiny gave a very small nod. But it barely ruffled my hair. Oh, Tiny!

  It took him a minute, but Tiny finally stood up to his full height. He carefully set his bad leg down so I could reach the swollen cut easily.

  “First, I’m using a clean paintbrush to spread the chopped garlic on your cut. It might tickle!”

  Tiny wiggled a little but did a good j
ob holding pretty still.

  “Now I’m going to cover the wound and the garlic with the paper towels. Mom, can you hold this while I wrap it?” Mom held the paper towels in place with both hands while I walked around Tiny’s huge leg, pulling the plastic wrap snug. Finally I used the packing tape to keep it all in the right spot on Tiny’s tree trunk of a leg.

  I patted him. “All set, Tiny! You can hang out here if you’d like. I’m sure Sassafras would love to keep you company.”

  “TINY FAMILY WORRY. TINY SHOULD GO.”

  “Oh, right. That makes sense.” I was a little bummed to see him go, but I knew how my parents would worry if I were gone for this long. Especially if I were sick!

  Mom and I hunkered down as Tiny began his earth-rattling hops back into the forest, but Sassafras took off after Tiny.

  “Come back, Sassafras! You can’t follow Tiny!” I hollered.

  Sassafras completely ignored me. Stinker.

  Luckily, Tiny turned around. “NO KITTY. NO FOLLOW. TINY BE BACK SOON.”

  Sassafras grumbled and reluctantly made his way back to us. Tiny had just disappeared when Dad burst from the house.

  “Another earthquake? This is getting out of hand! Are you all OK?”

  Whoops. Dad was home from work! Mom jogged over and put her arm around him. I saw him slowly relax as they went back inside. Whatever she was saying to him was working!

  I made a silent wish that Tiny was already starting to feel better, and then headed inside for dinner.

  CHAPTER 11

  BACTERIA EVERYWHERE

  The next morning Sassafras and I woke up super early. We spent almost a full hour with our noses pressed to the window, looking for any sign of Tiny, until Mom suggested that we keep busy while we wait.

  First, I updated my science journal:

  I finished that. Still no Tiny.

  So then Mom and I cooked up a new batch of agar mixture without unicorn hair, and she gave me a whole bunch of cotton swabs to explore the house.

  I took samples from my face, Sassafras’s mouth, the bottoms of my shoes, the bottoms of Sassafras’s paws, the bathroom and kitchen sinks, the front doorknob, my bedroom doorknob, and under my fingernails.

  “Ooooh, these are going to be so gross!” I giggled in anticipation.

  I was just filling the last of the glass jars with hot water to warm up the cooler when Sassafras hopped up on the kitchen counter.

  “Sass! Down! You know you’re not supposed to be up here!”

  Sassafras not only ignored me but also started purring really loudly. He was staring out the window.

  “No way!” I squealed. Our whole backyard was lit up by a giant rainbow.

  Sassafras and I both ran for the back door and burst into the yard. Rainbow light was everywhere. It was like some kind of amazing dream!

  “TINY!” I yelped in delight.

  “MRROOOOOWWW!” cried Sassafras.

  We both bounded over to Tiny who stood on all four legs! He was positively glowing. He looked incredible!

  “ZOEY LIKE A UNICORN! ZOEY FIXED OW!” Tiny declared.

  I ran to the bandage and peeled it off. There was just a pale pink line where the swollen, angry cut had been just yesterday. “Hooray for garlic!” I cheered.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Mom. “You did it, sweetie! Well done.” She held my camera out to me.

  “Mom, you’re a genius!” Now that Tiny felt better, it was the perfect time to ask for a photo. I always try to get a photo of the magical creatures I help to add to my science journal so I can remember them. Photos of magical creatures are the coolest because some of the magic stays behind in the photo.

  “Tiny?” I called up. “If it’s OK to take a photo with you, would you put your head down by me?” I felt clever for thinking of a way to ask that wouldn’t involve Tiny nodding and blowing us all over.

  Tiny put his head down low, and I gave his velvety nose a big hug.

  Mom snapped a photo. “Got it!”

  “Can you stay and play with me and Sassafras, Tiny?”

  “SORRY ZOEY. TINY NEED GO HOME. TINY GONE LONG TIME. THANK YOU ZOEY FOR HELP OW.”

  Tiny bent his head low again and nuzzled each of our cheeks. Sassafras purred super loudly again.

  Just then, my dad raced into the backyard. “What is going on?” He looked around and rubbed his eyes. “First we have earthquakes, and now there’s an enormous rainbow in our backyard?”

  He came toward us and stood just inches from Tiny’s hoof. But of course he had no idea, because he couldn’t see Tiny. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said, looking through the ginormous unicorn and around at the rainbow-filled yard.

  Mom and I covered our mouths with our hands to keep from bursting out laughing. If only Dad knew he was standing at the foot of a giant unicorn.

  While Dad took another look around the yard, Mom and I secretly waved to Tiny.

  Tiny gave us one last “BYE-BYE,” then gracefully and silently galloped into the forest.

  Mom slid the photo into my hand and walked Dad back inside as he scratched his head.

  Sassafras was pretty bummed. I thought a tuna treat might cheer him up. When I set the bowl of tuna on the ground, I gave him a big hug. “You did such a good job taking care of Tiny.”

  He bumped his head into my leg and took a huge bite of tuna. Once the purring started, I knew he’d be OK.

  I looked down at my photo and tilted it this way and that. The rainbow that had filled our whole yard shimmered, and Tiny sparkled. I couldn’t help but smile.

  I added the photo of Tiny to my science journal, took one last look, then turned my journal to a new page. A new page that was blank and ready for the next magical creature we would meet.

  GLOSSARY

  Agar: A gelatin-like substance. If you mix it with other ingredients and pour the mixture into a petri dish to cool, you can grow bacteria on it!

  Antibiotic: Medicine that gets rid of bacteria (your doctor might give you an antibiotic if you are sick with a bacterial infection).

  Bacteria: Tiny microscopic living things that can be harmful or helpful, depending on the type.

  Disinfectant: A substance, like bleach or soap, that gets rid of bacteria and viruses.

  Infection: When harmful bacteria or viruses get inside your body and make you sick.

  Petri dish: A container that scientists use to grow bacteria in.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  AND ILLUSTRATOR

  ASIA CITRO used to be a science teacher, but now she plays at home with her two kids and writes books. When she was little, she had a cat just like Sassafras. He loved to eat bugs and always made her laugh (his favorite toy was a plastic human nose that he carried everywhere). Asia has also written three activity books: 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids, The Curious Kid’s Science Book, and A Little Bit of Dirt. She has yet to find a baby dragon in her backyard, but she always keeps an eye out, just in case.

  MARION LINDSAY is a children’s book illustrator who loves stories and knows a good one when she reads it. She likes to draw anything and everything but does spend a completely unfair amount of time drawing cats. Sometimes she has to draw dogs just to make up for it. She illustrates picture books and chapter books as well as painting paintings and designing patterns. Like Asia, Marion is always on the lookout for dragons and sometimes thinks there might be a small one living in the airing cupboard.

  for activities and more visit

  ZOEYANDSASSAFRAS.COM

 

 

 
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