Milo rides in the blue wagon beside the full button basket and waves as the drummer and button keeper lead the parade along the lane.

A LITTLE WORLD AWAITS

Milo’s Backward Parade

Get comfy, come a little closer, and let a new adventure unfold.

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Milo’s Backward Parade

Milo, a small blue snail with a coral shell, peeks from a large flowerpot as a drummer, yellow flags, and a blue button wagon pass by.

Milo the snail woke to a bright, busy sound outside his garden pot. Tap-tap! Clatter-clatter! The town parade was marching down the lane.

Milo peeked around a mint leaf. First came a red drum. Then two yellow flags. At the very end bumped a little blue wagon with a basket of shiny buttons.

“I want to see the parade!” said Milo. He slid down the pot and followed the wagon. But Milo was slow, and the parade was quick.

The blue wagon tips near a bench, spilling colorful buttons into a puddle and across the lane as Milo watches in surprise.

Then the blue wagon bumped over a pebble. The basket tipped. Buttons bounced everywhere—under a bench, into a puddle, and behind a marching boot.

The parade stopped at once. “Oh no!” cried the button keeper. “Those buttons make the clinky sound in our song!”

Under a large bench, Milo nudges a green button with his shell while the button keeper reaches toward him.

Milo saw a green button under the low bench. He could fit where the others could not. He slid underneath and nudged it out with his shell.

Milo glides through a blue puddle with three buttons on his wet trail while the drummer points down happily.

Three more buttons lay in the puddle. Milo crossed the water, leaving a wet, shiny trail. One button stuck to it. Then another. Then another.

“Look at Milo go!” said the drummer.

The drummer carefully lifts a yellow boot to reveal the last pale button beneath it as Milo watches and the button keeper holds the basket.

Milo turned around and slid back along the lane. Because he moved slowly, he saw every small, round sparkle: a blue button by a stone, a red one beside a flowerpot, and a gold one under a leaf.

The button keeper dropped each button into the basket. Clink! Clink! Clink! Soon there was only one missing.

It was stuck to the bottom of a marching boot.

“Excuse me!” called Milo. The drummer looked down. Very carefully, she lifted her boot. There was the last silver button.

The button keeper tucked it into the basket. Clink-clink-clink! The parade song began again.

“Come with us, Milo!” called the drummer. Milo rode in the blue wagon beside the button basket. As the parade marched forward, he looked at the lane behind them and gave it a happy little wave.