Chapter 3: Double Trouble Crunch! Boom! Bang! Blast! Crash! Clang! When trouble comes, Crunch and Thunder must obey! It’s their duty to save the day. The ground rumbled, and the forest shook. Letters bounced beside a brook. “Running!” “Hopping!” “Swimming!” too! Thunder asked, “What should we do?” Crunch shook his tiny, furry mug. “We must catch the sinful thug!” Thunder asked, “Why do all the letters grow?” Crunch replied, “I do not know.” A beaver builder tapped a log. “To keep short vowels safe and strong, The letters are making double consonants all day long.” Let me show you, and you will see. Come and learn. Come with me! Building a consonant is fun to do. They make short words into something new. If a short, one-syllable word ends in the sounds f, l, s, or z, You double the letter at the end! “Hop turns into hopping, Run turns into running, Sit turns into sitting, Isn’t spelling really funny—right?” “But not all words must double tight!” “Jump turns into jumping, Land turns into landing, Some words don’t need extra standing! Base verbs can change, and then they can grow. The more that you practice, the more you will know! “I think that I understand the rule!” Crunch replied, “Short vowels need protection too!”
