I'd Rather Read It Myself

"I'd Rather Read It Myself" is the second story in the 2nd episode of Season 3 of the animated children's series Arthur. It originally aired on September 28th, 1998.

Summary
D.W. wants to prove to the Tibble twins that she can read so she picks up one of Arthur's books and makes up a story because the Tibbles can't read either. The Tibbles are impressed as she rehashes events from the last two seasons into a sci-fi/fantasy adventure story about B.W.

Trivia

 * This episode complicates events from episodes from seasons 1 and 2, such as D.W. All Wet, D.W. Thinks Big, D.W.'s Snow Mystery, So Long, Spanky, D.W. Goes To Washington, and D.W. Gets Lost.
 * Arthur's ability to transform into whatever he pleases in D.W.'s story may be a parody of Transformers.
 * The snowball incident is a central plot element in D.W.'s story, in which Arthur really did steal it.
 * The book is about Leonardo da Vinci.
 * Numerous incidents from the first two seasons are prominently featured in this episode:
 * Aunt Lucy's wedding.
 * D.W.'s hatred for spinach.
 * D.W.'s missing blanket.
 * The death of D.W.'s bird Spanky.
 * Getting lost in the mall.
 * D.W.'s friend Walter the deer.
 * D.W.'s fear of octopi at Bear Lake.
 * D.W. and the balance beam.
 * D.W. learning to ride a two-wheel bicycle.
 * D.W. meeting the President. (William J. Clinton)


 * Arthur says he has 107,000 math problems for homework from Mr. Ratburn; this is an insane amount of work even for Mr. Ratburn to pass out. This definitely could be an exaggeration.

Goofs

 * In the wedding scene that is based upon D.W. Thinks Big, the bride who may or may not resemble Lucy is not shown at the wedding and only the look-alike of Lucy's husband was shown there; and the Cora-like girl was being the ring-bearer instead of any male, although being a ring-bearer is a job for males.
 * In the scene where the Crazy Bus is actually the evil Arthur-like mega-transforbalizer, the Blankie is shown to be blue; although it is pink in all of its other appearances.
 * D.W. states in the story she made up that the lake had 7,000 octopuses in it, but it was a giant sea creature with eleven tentacle legs, which is three more legs than an actual octopus has. However, it might be likely that she cannot precisely determine multiple quantity due to her young age.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur Writes a Story (video)