Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Storytime Family. How are you all doing today? I hope you’re having fun at school and reading lots of books. It’s great to see friends and learn new things, isn’t it?
Today, we’re going to talk about a book called “Milo Imagines the World” by Mike de la Peña and Christian Robinson. Let’s find out how Milo uses his imagination!
Milo is on a train with his sister. The train makes a loud noise as it moves along the tracks. Milo looks at the people around him and starts to imagine what their lives are like.
He sees a man with a serious face, a businessman who looks lonely, and a woman in a wedding dress with a bright face. There’s even a dog with a funny tongue sticking out!
Every month, Milo takes this train ride. He feels excited but also a little worried. To keep himself busy, he imagines stories about the people he sees.
When the man with the whiskers leaves the train, Milo imagines him going home to his cats and birds. He thinks about how the birds might fly away one day.
Suddenly, a group of breakdancers jumps onto the train. They start dancing and doing cool tricks. Everyone watches them, and Milo imagines them performing on different trains.
Milo wonders what people think when they see him. Do they imagine him reading a poem or listening to his mom’s bedtime stories? He thinks about the delicious food his auntie makes.
When the train stops, Milo and his sister get off. They see the boy in the suit again. Milo’s sister gives him a hug and asks if he’s ready with his picture.
Milo realizes that you can’t really know someone just by looking at them. He thinks about all the pictures he imagined and how they could be different.
Finally, Milo sees his mom in the crowd. He feels so happy and shows her a drawing he made. His mom smiles, and Milo feels proud.
Do you enjoy drawing like Milo? “Milo Imagines the World” is a sweet and poetic story. If you want to read it, you can find it in the description below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this story. We love hearing from you, so leave a comment! See you next time, and take care!
Imagination Drawing: Just like Milo, use your imagination to draw a picture of someone you see every day. It could be a family member, a friend, or even a pet. Think about what they might do when you’re not around. What hobbies do they have? Where do they go? Share your drawing with the class and explain the story you imagined for them.
Storytelling Train Ride: Pretend you are on a train ride like Milo. Look around your classroom or home and pick three objects or people. Imagine a story about each one. What adventures do they go on? What are their favorite things to do? Write a short story or tell it to a friend or family member.
Observation Walk: Go on a short walk with a parent or guardian around your neighborhood. Look at the people, animals, and things you see. Choose one person or animal and imagine what their life might be like. Do they have a favorite place to visit? What do they do for fun? Share your observations and imagined stories with your class or family.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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[Music] Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Storytime Family. How are you all doing today? Have you been good? I hope you’ve been enjoying school and reading lots of books on your own. That’s nice to hear! I hope you’ve been super happy seeing and playing with your friends at school and learning lots of new things.
[Music] Today, we have “Milo Imagines the World” by Mike de la Peña and Christian Robinson. Let’s see how Milo imagines the world, shall we?
Milo imagines the world. What begins as a slow, distant glow grows and grows into a train that clatters down the tracks. A cool rush of wind quiets into a screech of steel when the doors slide open. Milo slips aboard. The train bucks back in motion as he and his sister squeeze onto bench seats. The whiskered man beside Milo has a face of concentration. A businessman has a blank, lonely face. A woman in a wedding dress near the far door has a face made out of light, while the dog peeking out of her handbag has no face at all—just a long, lolling tongue.
These monthly Sunday train rides are never-ending, and as usual, Milo is a bundle of excitement mixed with worry and confusion. To keep himself from bursting, he studies the faces around him and imagines their lives.
At the local stop, the whiskered man folds up his crossword and hurries off the train. Milo imagines him trudging through brown mounds of slush to his cluttered apartment, where he’s greeted by meowing cats and borrowing rats. Parakeets tweet songs of longing as the man sips tepid soup hunched over a game of solitaire. Late that night, the door to the parakeet cage mysteriously falls open, and the cats gather on the windowsill to watch the birds fly free above the city.
Milo tugs his sister’s sleeve and holds up his picture, but even when she turns to look, he can tell she doesn’t see. She says she’s busy playing her game. He watches her thumbs bang around her smudged screen and then turns back to the boy in the suit. Their eyes lock for a few long seconds, and suddenly it feels like the walls are closing in around Milo.
The spell is broken when a crew of breakdancers bounces onto the train, announcing they’re ready for a show. Several curious faces look up as the beat drops, and now the girls are walking up walls, whirling around poles, and backflipping over shopping bags. When the train pulls into the next stop, they collect a few coins and scramble to another carriage. Milo imagines them going from train to train, performing as everyone watches.
But even after the performances are over, faces still follow every move when they walk down the electronics aisle at the department store and cross into the fancy neighborhood. Milo doesn’t really like this picture, so he puts away his pad and turns to his reflection in the window. What do people imagine about his face? Can they see him reciting his volcano poem to the class? Can they hear his mom’s soothing voice reading him a bedtime book over the phone? Can they smell the chili Colorado bubbling in a pot in his auntie’s apartment near the cemetery?
Butterflies flood Milo’s stomach when it’s finally their stop. He follows his sister onto the station platform and up the stairs. Above ground, he’s surprised to see the boy in the suit a few paces ahead. He’s even more surprised when the boy joins the long line to pass through the metal detector. Milo’s sister suddenly bends to give him a hug. “I didn’t mean to snap at you,” she says. She takes his hand, adding, “Do you have your picture ready?” He nods, feeling the warmth of her fingers as they slowly shuffle forward.
Milo studies the boy in the suit, his dad rubbing his thin shoulders, and that thought occurs to him: maybe you can’t really know anyone just by looking at their face. Milo tries to re-imagine all the pictures he made on the train. Maybe he could have done it just like this, instead, or this, or this.
Milo’s chest fills with excitement when he spots his mom through the crowd. His sister rushes to give her a hug before pulling Milo into a tight tangle of familiar arms. It’s in this moment that he feels most alive. When they separate, Milo flips through his pad until he finds the right picture. “I made this for you,” he says, holding it up, and he watches for the smile he hopes will spread across his mom’s face. “Oh, this is such a cute drawing, don’t you think?”
[Music] Do you enjoy drawing like Milo? Well, I hope you like “Milo Imagines the World.” It’s a pretty long story but super sweet and so poetic. If you’d like to own a copy of this book, the links to purchase it are in the description below. Do give us a like and subscribe if you haven’t. Leave us a comment; we always love to hear from you. We’ll see you again back here soon. Until then, take care of yourself and your family. Bye-bye!
[Music]
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