Written and Illustrated byThe Brainy Bunch

Austin ABCsWritten and Illustrated by The Brainy Bunch

Ms. Hardin’s Second Grade Class

© November 2006The Brainy Bunch Publishing Co.

Gullett Elementary SchoolAustin, Texas

Clayton AylorJoshua BenouisDylan CruzcosaGrayson Darwin

Cami ElderAidan Evans-Strong

Saco FernandezLauren GrahamParinaz HemmatMadeline Jones

Kevin KonoEmma Melina-Raab

Allison MooreClaren MoyersIsabella Nava

Mathilda Nicot-CartsonisCory Payne

Daisy SjolsethKirby SteckelAidan Travis

Austin, Texas 30°18'01" N 97°44'50" W

A is for Austin Diner. A very cool restaurant with very good food!A is also for Amy’s Ice cream! It has very good ice cream and verygood smoothies!

B is for the bat colony that lives under the Congress Avenue Bridge. There are over 1,000,000 bats under there! Come at sunset and see the bats soar around the air!

Screech!!!!Screech!!!!

C is for capital. Austin is the capital of Texas. The capitol building is in downtown Austin. It’s where the governor and legislators meet. They decide on laws together in their meetings.

D is for Dougherty Arts Center. It’s a museum and place to learn about art. They have an after school program at our school too.

E is for Emma Long Park - the oldest park in Austin! Emma long park is beautiful.

F is for Frost Bank Tower. Frost Bank Tower is the biggest building inAustin. It looks like it is made out of windows.

G is for Gullett. Gullett is an elementary school. It is one of the best schools in Austin. It has lots of pets. Some of the pet’s names are Cobweb, Squeaks, Tipsy, Rose and Twix. Gullett has kindergarten through 5th grade.

H is for H.E.B. H.E.B is a very big grocery store. Probably bigger than two houses put together. There are not just H.E.B’s in Austin. There are H.E.B’s in some other places too. H.E.B’s have many types of foods.

I is for Ice Bats, our ice hockey team. Their mascot is a bat because there are bats living under a bridge in Austin.

J is for the Johnson Library. The 37th president of the United States was Lyndon Baines Johnson. He was born near Austin and there is a library with materials from his presidency on the University of Texas campus.

Johnson Library

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K is for Kerby Lane Restaurant. It has good food. It is a cool place. I like Kerby Lane and if you have haven’t been there you should go if you come to Austin.

L is for live music!Austin has lots oflive music! Austinhas big concerts!One of the big events in Austin isAustin City Limits Music Festival!Another name for itis ACL fest. ACL fest has lots of liveMusic!

M is for Mt. Bonnell. Mt. Bonnell is 785 feet tall. It was named either after Joseph Bonnell, a soldier, or George Bonnell, a newspaper publisher.

N is for NASA, Northwest Park, and the Nature Center.NASA is a soccer league. Northwest park is a parkwith a pool. The Nature Center is a place withanimals.

O is for orange. Burnt orange and white are the University of Texas colors.

P is for Pilot`s Knob. Pilot`s Knob is an extinct volcano near Austin.

Q is for queen butterfly. The queen butterfly looks like a monarch butterfly except at the top it’s all orange with white spots and black on the side. Queen butterflies live in Austin.

R is for Round Rock Express, Austin’s baseball team. They won 85 games in the 2006 season. They shoot off fire works when the game begins and when they win! Before every game we sing the Star Spangled Banner.

S is for Shoal Creek. Shoal Creek is a creek with a hike and bike trail. It’s also a street.

T is for Texas Federation of Teachers. Texas Federation of Teachers is a state wide union. Austin is the headquarters of the Texas Federation of Teachers. The abbreviation for it is TFT. TFT works for public school teachers!!

This is the TFT building.

U is for U.T. tower. The U.T. tower is on the campus ofThe University of Texas in Austin. It lights up burnt orange when U.T. wins something - like the 2005 National Football Championship!

V is for Veloway. The veloway is a place that you can go when you want to practice running for triathlons or you can just run out there if you want to have a good time running. If you’re looking for a safer, less dangerous place than the street then go to the veloway. If the dog park is full go to the veloway.

W is for Waterloo. Waterloo used to be the name of Austin before Austin was named Austin.

X is for Xeriscape gardens. These gardens with flowers do not need much water. Let me tell you some of the flowers that live in these beautiful gardens: kidney wood, lantana, and many others! These flowers are found very often in Austin because there are many xeriscape gardens in Austin!!!!

Y is for Yarborough library.Yarborough library is the local library of the Allandale neighborhood. It is a very nice library. It seems like it has a goal. It is not just a library. It has a beautiful indoors and outdoors. It has fiction books, nonfiction books, math books, science books, space books, and a lot more. It has a kid’s area with a whole shelf with nothing but kid’s books. That same area has some pretty funky chairs. That area has a metal cart that has a bunch of baby books. It is on Hancock Lane. They were recently doing work on the large parking lot. The lot backs up against Bull Creek. Inside it has a mural on the wall of a beautiful meadow scene. It has a water fountain. It used to be a one screen movie theater. When they turned it in to a library they did not bother to take the sign down. So there’s Yarborough for you. Hope you visit!

Z is for Zilker Park. A fun place to play. There is a train but it doesnot take you somewhere else. The train goes in a circle. Near Barton Springs there is a theatre. There’s a show at least every month.

AE

I

G

R

VB

C

D

F

HK

J

L

YM

U

T

Z

Greater Austin Downtown Austin

Would you like to visit the places we mentioned? Here’s a map to help you find them. (Locations are

approximate.)