My name is Sean Astin and I played Sam in "Lord of the Rings."

I love to read, especially to kids. I have a daughter whose name is Allie and she loves it when I read to her, and we both love lima beans. Hmm.

The story I'm going to read to you is called "A Bad Case of Stripes," written and illustrated by David Shannon. Allie loves this book. I hope you do too.

Camilla Cream loved lima beans but she never ate them. All of her friends hated lima beans and she wanted to fit in.

Camilla was always worried about what other people thought of her. Today she was fretting even more than usual.

It was the first day of school and she couldn't decide what to wear. There were so many people to impress.

She tried on forty-two outfits but none seemed quite right. She put on a pretty red dress and looked into the mirror.

And then she screamed, her mother ran into the room and she screamed too. "Oh my heavens" she cried, "you're completely covered with stripes."

This was certainly true. Camilla was striped from head to toe, she looked like a rainbow.

Mrs. Cream felt Camilla's forehead "Do you feel alright"? she asked. "I feel fine" Camilla answered. "But just look at me."

"You get back in bed this instant!" Her mother ordered. "You're not going to school today!"

Camilla was relieved, she didn't want to miss the first day of school but she was afraid of what the other kids might say.

She had no idea what to wear with those crazy stripes.

That afternoon, Dr. Bumble came to examine Camilla. "Most extraordinary!" He exclaimed "I've never seen anything like it!"

"are you having any coughing, sneezing, runny nose, aches, pains chills, hot flashes, dizziness, drowsiness, shortness of breath, or uncontrollable twitching?!"

"No" Camilla told him, "I feel fine". "Well then" Dr. Bumble said, turning to Mrs. Cream "I don't see any reason why she shouldn't go to school tomorrow,

here is some ointment that should help her clear up those stripes in a few days. If it doesn't, you know where to reach me" and off he went.

The next day was a disaster. Everyone at school laughed at Camilla. They called her Camilla Crayon and Night of the Living Lollipop.

She tried her best to act as if everything were normal. But when the class said the Pledge of Allegiance her stripes turned red, white and blue and she broke out in stars.

The other kids thought this was great. One yelled out "let's see some purple polk-a-dots"

Sure enough Camilla turned all purple Polk-a-dots. Someone else shouted "Checkerboard" and a pattern of squares covered her skin.

Soon everyone was shouting out different shapes and colors, poor Camilla was changing faster than you can change channels on a TV.

That night Mr. Harms, the school principal, called "I'm sorry Mrs. Cream; I am going to have to ask you to keep Camilla home from school.

She is just too much of a distraction and I have been getting calls from the other parents, they are afraid those stripes may be contagious."

Camilla was so embarrassed. She couldn't believe that 2 days ago everyone liked her. Now, nobody wanted to be in the same room with her.

Her father tried to make her feel better "Is there anything I can get you, sweetheart?" he asked.

"No thank you" sighed Camilla. What she really wanted was nice plate of lima beans but she had been laughed at enough for one day.

"Hmmm, well yes, I see" Dr. Bumble mumbled when Mr. Cream phoned the next day. "I think I better bring in the specialists, we'll be right over."

About an hour later Dr. Bumble arrived with 4 people in long white coats.

He introduced them to the Creams "This is Dr. Grop, Dr. Sponge, Dr. Cricket and Dr. Young". Then the specialists went to work on Camilla.

They squeezed, jabbed, tapped and tested. It was very uncomfortable. "Well it's not the mumps" concluded Dr. Grop.

"Or the measles" said Dr. Sponge. "Definitely not chicken pox" put in Dr. Cricket. "Or sunburn" said Dr. Young.

"Try these" said the specialists. They each handed her a bottle filled with different colored pills.

"Take one of each before bed" said Dr. Grop. Then the filed out the front door followed by Dr. Bumble.

That night Camilla took her medicine. It was awful, when she woke up the next morning she did feel different but when she got dressed her clothes didn't fit right.

She looked in the mirror and there staring back at her was a giant multi-colored pill with her face on it.

>Dr. Bumble rushed over as soon as Mrs. Cream called but this time instead of the specialists he brought the experts.

Dr. Gourd and Mr. Melon were the finest scientific minds in the land. Once again Camilla was poked and prodded, looked at and listened to.

The experts wrote down lots of numbers and then they huddled together and whispered.

Dr. Gourd finally spoke "It might be a virus" he announced with authority. Suddenly funny little virus balls appeared all over Camilla.

"Or possibly some sort of bacteria" said Mr. Melon.

Out popped squiggly little bacteria tails. "Or it could be a fungus" added Dr. Gourd. Instantly Camilla was covered with different colored fungus blotches.

The experts looked at Camilla and then at each other. "We need to go over the numbers again back at the lab" Dr. Gourd exclaimed.

"We'll call you when we know something" but the experts didn't have a clue much less a cure.

By now the TV news had found out about Camilla.

Reporters from every channel were outside her house telling the story of the bizarre case of the incredible changing kid.

Soon a huge crowd was camped out on the front lawn.

The Creams were swamped with all kinds of remedies from Psychologists, allergists, herbalists, nutritionists, psychics, an old medicine man,

a Guru and even a Veterinarian.

Each so called cure only added to poor Camilla's strange appearance until it was hard to even recognize her.

She sprouted roots and berries, crystals and feathers and a long furry tail but nothing worked.

One day a woman that called herself an environmental therapist claimed she could cure Camilla.

"Close your eyes" she said "breathe deeply and become one with your room."

"Oh, I wish you wouldn't have said that" Camilla groaned. Slowly she began to melt into the walls of her room.

Her bed became her mouth, her nose was a dresser and 2 paintings were her eyes. The therapist screamed and ran from the house.

"What are we going to do?" cried Mrs. Cream. "It just keeps getting worse and worse" she began to sob.

At that moment Mr. Cream heard a quiet little knock at the front door.

He opened it and there stood an old woman who was just as plump and sweet as a strawberry.

"Uh, excuse me" she said brightly "but I think I can help."

She went into Camilla's room and looked around "my goodness" she said with the shake of her head.

"What we have here is a bad case of stripes, one of the worst I have ever seen."

She pulled a container of small green beans from her bag "here" she said "these might do the trick." "Are those magic beans?" asked Mrs. Cream.

"Oh my no" replied the kind old woman "There is no such thing, these are just plain old lima beans, I bet you'd like some wouldn't you?" she asked Camilla.

Camilla wanted a big heaping plate full more than just about anything but she was still afraid to admit it. "Yuck," she said, "no one likes lima beans, especially me."

>"Oh dear" the old woman said sadly "I guess I was wrong about you." She put the beans back in her bag and started toward the door.

Camilla watched the old woman walk away. Those beans would taste so good.

Being laughed at for eating would be nothing compared to what she'd been going through.

She finally couldn't stand it, "wait" she cried! "The truth is that I really love lima beans"

"I thought so" the old woman said with a smile. She took a handful of beans and popped them into Camilla's mouth.

"Mmmm" said Camilla. Suddenly the branches, feather and squiggly tails began to disappear,

then the whole room swirled around and when it stopped there stood Camilla and everything was back to normal.

"I'm cured!" she shouted.

"Yes" said the old woman. "I knew the real you was in there somewhere" she patted Camilla on the head, then she went outside and vanished into the crowd.

Afterward Camilla wasn't quite the same, some of the kids at school said she was weird but she didn't care a bit.

She ate all the lima beans she wanted and never had even a touch of stripes again.

Well, pretty good right? I liked it, my daughter likes it, and we like lima beans.

So I don't know about you, but if you can get a hold of some of these things. . . well, books. . . lima beans, whatever, I recommend it.