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| Written by | Janet Campbell |
| Illustrator | Tom Cooke |
| Published | 1979 |
| Publisher | Western Publishing |
| Series | A Kid's Paperback |
| ISBN | 0307120805 |
Sesame Stories is a collection of five Sesame Street stories. A few of the stories are variants of Aesop's Fables (or similar folktales often falsely attributed to Aesop): "The Monster in the Mirror" reworks "The Dog and Its Reflection," and "Don't Count Your Pigeons" reworks "The Milkmaid and Her Pail" (and especially the moral, first attached in Aesop in Rhyme from 1820, about counting chickens before they hatch).
- "The Monster in the Mirror": Cookie Monster has a big bag of cookies. He sees another monster with an equally big bag of cookies. When the other monster won't answer his questions, he decides to outsmart him and grab his cookies. Instead he ends up falling down and smooshing his own cookies to crumbs. So he decides to make cookie crumb-cake.
- "Prairie Dawn the Grouch": Prairie Dawn is on her way to visit her Aunt Matty, who always tells her how nice and sweet she is. But Prairie feels grouchy today. Noticing a sign on Oscar's can that says "Gone Fishing", she decides to go inside and pretend to be Oscar, so she can be as grouchy as she wants. But it isn't much fun, as first Grover throws a fish-head into the trashcan, and then Cookie Monster doesn't share his cookies because grouches don't like cookies. Finally, Roosevelt Franklin comes by looking for some homework he threw out by mistake. After rummaging through the trash to find it for him, Prairie Dawn is ready to get out of the can and go be sweet and nice with her Aunt Matty.
- "Don't Count Your Pigeons": Ernie finds Bert setting up an Oatmeal stand. When he asks what he's doing, Bert explains that he's going to cook oatmeal and sell it on the street to make a lot of money. Then he's going to use the money to pay for 25 banana crates to be shipped to him. He'll use the crates to set up pigeon coops for the 12 dozen pigeon eggs he just ordered from the J.C. Pigeon Company. After they hatch he'll have a pigeon farm with 144 pigeons, and will achieve fame and success with the global pigeon fanciers' community. He gets so excited explaining this to Ernie that he accidentally knocks over the bag of oatmeal, and it spills onto the street. Horrified, he watches as a flock of pigeons swoop in to eat it. Ernie points out that he got his pigeon farm after all.
- "Look Before You Lift": Grover is strolling past the park when he trips over a large laundry bag. He decides to be helpful and take it to the laundromat where it belongs. But he cannot lift the bag, or pull it by its rope, and when he kicks it he hurts his foot. As he sits to rest, Roosevelt Franklin comes by and offers to help, but even together they cannot lift the bag. He questions whether they should check if the bag really has laundry but Grover says there is no time to check. Betty Lou and Cookie Monster come by, and all four try to move the bag together, finally managing to get it off the pavement and to the laundromat. Herry Monster comes running up to them and says it's his bag, but it is full of his weight-lifting equipment!
- "The Big Game": Betty Lou is bored, so Big Bird suggests they play hide-and-seek, but Big Bird is too big to hide anywhere. They see some kids playing jump rope, and join them, but the rope keeps getting tangled up around Big Bird. His feet are too big for hopscotch, and he is too tall for leapfrog. Big Bird decides to go back to his nest. But Prairie Dawn comes by and convinces him and Betty Lou to go to the park with her. Big Bird finally finds a game that he is good at -- basketball!
Characters[]
Cookie Monster, Prairie Dawn, Grover, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Betty Lou, Roosevelt Franklin, Herry Monster, Aunt Matty, Sherlock Hemlock, Granny Fanny Nesselrode, Farley, Bill N. Coo