[bright music] - Hello, everyone.

It's good to see you again.

My name is Shana and my special guest today is... - Hi, my name's Elena.

- And, we are gonna talk to you today about dreams and adventures.

So, Elena, and do you have a dream or adventure you'd like to share?

- Well, actually, yes, I do have an adventure.

I would like to travel to the North Pole.

- Ooh, why?

Why would you like to go an adventure to the North Pole?

- So, I could throw snowballs, and make snowman, and igloos.

- Any other activities that you'd like to do while you're at the North Pole?

- Maybe sledding, ice skating, a snow fort.

- Nice.

I think that snow fort would be really cool and a snowman might guard your snow fort.

So, today, we would like to share a story with you, and it's all about this character who also goes on an adventure and has dreams.

The book is called "Dandan's Dream", by Xiaowen Zhu, and illustrated by Yanling Gong.

So, let's see what adventure this character right here goes on.

- [Elena] When the post office announced that children, in addition to letters and packages, could now be mailed, Dandan could hardly believe the news.

- Many nights, Dandan had dreamed of visiting her father at the South Pole, where he studied icebergs.

He was far away and had been gone for a long time.

Now, she would be able to see him.

So, one day, smash, Dandan broke her piggy bank and took all of her money to the post office.

- [Elena] What would you like to mail?

- [Shana] A woman in a green uniform asked Dandan.

- [Elena] Me.

- [Shana] Dandan replied.

I want to mail myself to the South Pole to see my... - Dad.

- The woman brought Dandan out to the balcony and handed her a stack of stamps.

On each was a pair of green wings.

- Green wings.

- [Shana] Stick these on your clothes, she said.

- [Elena] There were so many colorful stamps.

Dan looked as though as she was wearing a beautiful skirt.

- [Shana] After Dandan stuck on the last stamp, she felt her body grow lighter, gentle breezes swirled, picked her up off the balcony, and whisked her into the air.

Dandan felt as if she were on a magical flying horse.

She's flew faster and faster, higher and higher, over mountains that rose like steamed buns, and green prairies that carpeting the earth.

Before long, she soared above blue seas where too many ships to count floated on the water.

- [Elena] Suddenly, a huge whale lifted a big red ship from the ocean and pushed it against an island.

- The ship couldn't move, even though the frightened crew cried for help, help, the whale would not set the ship free.

Dandan wanted to help free the ship, but how?

The woman in the green uniform had told her how to fly, but not how to land.

Uh-oh.

I wonder how she's gonna figure this out.

Doing the only thing she could think of, Dandan tore several stamps off herself and dropped them into the sea.

It worked.

She flew lower.

She removed more stamps.

Down, down, down she went, and closer and closer to the island.

- [Elena] Once she had landed, Dandan raced to the shore with all her strength.

She gave the ship a powerful push.

The whale was no match for the girl.

- As the whale swam away from the newly freed ship, the crew waved to Dandan from the deck to thank her.

Delighted, Dandan nearly forgot she still had to mail herself to the South Pole.

But, where would she find stamps on an island with no people and no post office?

Dandan checked her pockets and found a box of watercolor pens.

She knew just what to do.

What do you think she's gonna do with those water pens?

- I don't know.

- Let's read to find out.

Dandan use the pens to make her own stamps.

She painted the fish she saw swimming in the sea, then she drew a pair of large red wings.

- Red wings.

- Ah, I see.

she's making the stamps, because those are the things, the very things that helped her fly.

So, now that she had to get rid of them to go lower to the island, she has to use the watercolor pens to create a new stamp to put on her body, so she can fly back up, and continue on her adventure.

- Let's see if she can find her dad.

- Yes, I hope she does.

Okay, let's keep reading.

Together, The strong red wings flapped, lifted her out over the sea, so she's flying, right?

Soon, Dandan reached a world of ice and snow.

- [Elena] The South Pole.

- A tall man in a green coat waved to her surrounded by penguins and seals.

Who do you think it is?

- It's Dandan's father.

- I agree with you.

I think the same.

Let's see.

Dad.

- [Elena] Dad.

- [Shana] Dandan called out.

I'm here.

- [Elena] My dream came true.

- The end.

So, she got to go not only on an adventure, but also achieve her dream of seeing her father again.

Thanks for listening in on the story.

And, we just wanna turn back to this page.

So, remember on this page, the little girl, who's the main character in the story, she had to start creating her own stamps.

So, we thought it would be a fun, creative idea, right?

To create our own stamp.

Now, remember, Elena said that she wanted to go on an adventure to... - The North Pole.

- Right.

So, in the book, the little girl went to the South Pole, but we had spoke about going to the North Pole, and that's okay.

But, we wanna really take all the things we said and make our own stamp just like her.

So, we're gonna explain to you the steps.

Before we do that though, let's tell you some materials that you can gather at home to help you create your own creative stamp, showing what your adventure and dream looks like.

So, first, you need white paper, plain white paper.

And, then you need a pencil.

And, then you're going to draw the border of your stamp.

When you do it, it can look like this.

And, then on this inside part, you're going to draw the actual adventure or dream.

Now, if you need help, please, always ask a trusted adult to help you cut, because scissors can be sharp.

We always want to practice safety.

When you cut it out, from the border, right?

When we cut that out, it now looks like this.

Then, you can take a piece of colored paper.

We chose the color blue.

This, what's your favorite color?

- Blue and teal.

- Right.

And, because this is her adventure, we wanna really show her favorite things and tell her story on her stamp.

And, we take this, our creation, and we glued it with a glue stick to the back of the paper.

Now, if you don't have a glue stick, that's fine, you can use tape.

If you need help cutting, that's fine.

Please, ask a trusted adult.

And, if you don't have blue paper or your favorite paper, it's okay.

You can use any coloring utensil to color it in.

We used color pencils.

Can you please show our color pencils?

And, what's so cool is that those color pencils have an eraser in case you make a mistake.

Now, if you do not have colored pencils at home, it's okay.

You can use crayons, you can use markers, any type of coloring tool.

Elena, would you like to show your finished masterpiece?

- So, I wanted to go to the North Pole, so I decided that there was gonna be lots of snowflakes.

Also, did you know, fun fact, that cardinals and bluejays are normally found in the wintertime?

- Wow, I didn't know that.

That's so cool.

Did you include that in your stamp?

- Yeah, this is a bluejay.

- So, like how the girl was riding on an animal, you were riding on an animal, great connection, and you chose an awesome animal, that now it makes sense.

They will definitely help you get to the North Pole.

What else do you have here?

Who's this?

- That's me.

- Very cute.

And, I love how realistic it is, and it looks just like you.

Awesome job.

Thanks for joining us, guys.

See you next time.