Bring Back My Gerbil! — Edith Tarbescu

Children will enjoy this humorous Level 4 Hello Reader! story about what happens when Katie fools her best friend Tyler into thinking she turned his pet gerbil into a dog.

On the way home from school, Tyler is teased by two bullies. His best friend Katie jokes that maybe they can feed his pet gerbil, Jake, something to turn him into a dog to scare the bullies away. Instead, they decide to feed Jake and clean out his cage. But Katie makes a special concoction of food coloring and water and feeds it to Jake. While they are arguing about the contents of Katie's magic brew, they accidentally leave the cage door open--and Jake disappears!

When a mysterious stray dog appears, Katie convinces Tyler that her magic brew turned Jake into the dog!