To the dedicated teachers and principals, who perform magic every day
—S. C.
Cast of Characters
Mr. Barnaby Bundy: Principal
Dr. Olivia Martin: Sorcerer
Roger Patel: Top student and class leader
Ms. Ellie Tilly: Kindergarten teacher
Mrs. Gwen Feeny: Third-grade teacher
Ms. Marilyn Moore: Assistant principal
Hector Gonzalez: Loves making his friends laugh
Nancy Wong: Hopes to be a zoologist
Alice Wright: Kindergartener who always tells the truth
1
Principal’s Helper
Mr. Bundy is the principal of PS 88. He plans great assembly programs. He had just started planning a new one when a letter in a glittery envelope arrived.
Mr. Bundy quickly tore open the envelope. The letter said:
Are you looking for a NEW and EXCITING program for your students? Look no further!
The answer is right in your hands.
Sincerely,
Olivia Martin, DS
A visitor from the department of sanitation—the DS—is just what PS 88 needs, thought Mr. Bundy. Dr. Olivia Martin can help us keep our school neat and clean.
Inside the envelope was a packet that said Dr. Martin’s Magic Powder.
Great! We can always use a free sample of cleaning powder, thought Mr. Bundy.
He was quite impressed and was about to read more when Roger knocked on his door.
“Hi, Mr. Bundy! What’s my job today?” Roger asked.
Every couple of weeks, a different student had the honor of being the principal’s helper. Today was Roger’s turn.
“Welcome, Roger,” said Mr. Bundy. He glanced at his watch. “I’m due at Ms. Tilly’s kindergarten class in a couple of minutes for a poetry reading,” he said. “Here’s what I’d like you to do while I’m gone.”
Mr. Bundy had a stack of newsletters on his desk for the PS 88 parents.
“Count out the correct number of newsletters for each class,” said Mr. Bundy. “When you’re done, please drop them in the teachers’ mailboxes.”
“Sure thing, Mr. B!” said Roger.
This job was a no-brainer. After all, Roger was one of the smartest kids in the school.
2
Zippity, Zoom!
As soon as Mr. Bundy left, Roger got to work. But he wasn’t in any great hurry to count the newsletters. His classroom cleanup job for the day was to sweep. Roger hated sweeping, but his teacher Mrs. Feeny said he had to do it anyway.
He was trying to think of a way out of his sweeping job when Mr. Bundy’s phone rang.
Ring-ring! Ring-ring!
Answering the phone was not one of Roger’s jobs for Mr. B.
Ring-ring! Ring-ring!
I wish that ringing would stop, thought Roger.
He was glaring at the phone when a glittery envelope on the desk caught his eye. Next to it was a letter with a packet that said Dr. Martin’s Magic Powder. Roger knew the “don’t read, don’t touch” rule for Mr. Bundy’s helpers. But this was too hard to resist!
He tried to peek at the letter without touching it. That didn’t work. Suddenly, his hand took on a life of its own. It floated to the letter and opened it with the flick of one finger. Roger couldn’t read fast enough.
The letter offered a “new” and “exciting” program for students. It was signed by a sorcerer named Olivia Martin, DS.
On the back it said Enjoy your free sample—good for one job of your choice. Your students will thank you!
There was a list of magic spells and a phone number: 989-IMA-SORCERER.
Roger studied the list. His eyes popped open when he saw “Magic Broom Spell.”
“Wow!” he said aloud. “This is exactly what I need! If it works, I’ll never have to do my job sweeping our classroom again!”
According to the instructions, all he needed to do was sprinkle a broom with the magic powder and say the magic spell.
Roger remembered that Mr. Bundy kept a broom in his closet. He went and got it.
He felt bad about breaking the principal’s “don’t read, don’t touch” rule, but curiosity was making his fingers itchy.
Suddenly, he was ripping open the packet, sprinkling the powder and saying the magic spell:
“Zippity, zap!
Zippity, zoom!
Get to work,
you lazy broom!”
In the blink of an eye, the broom jumped to life and started sweeping every inch of Mr. Bundy’s floor.
Roger couldn’t believe it. A broom sweeping with no person and no motor?
Amazing! It really was magic.
3
Catch That Broom!
When the broom finished the office—ZIP!—it flew out into the hall. Roger pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
Ouch! He wasn’t.
“Come back!” he cried. Roger had to catch that broom before anyone—especially Mr. B—saw it!
But the broom was fast. It was faster than Roger. It zipped up one hall and down another.
It swept the whole first-floor hallway, then headed up the stairs with Roger racing behind.
“Stop! Please!” he called.
He thought he heard the broom say “Nyah, nyah!”
Uh-oh! Roger had just about reached the stairway when Ms. Moore, the assistant principal, appeared.
“Where are you going in such a rush?” she asked.
Roger had to think fast.
“Um, my science project got a little out of hand,” he said. “It’s . . . it’s a battery-operated broom.”
“You are PS 88’s very own Einstein!” said Ms. Moore proudly. “But even Einstein would not be allowed to run in the halls.”
“Yes, Ms. Moore,” said Roger.
Roger felt terrible about telling Ms. Moore a lie. But he had no time to think about that now. He had to catch that broom!
Roger raced up the stairs. On the second floor, his luck changed. He saw his good friends Hector and Nancy coming his way.
“You’ve got to help me!” cried Roger as the broom went careening around a corner.
“What was that?” asked Hector.
“There’s no time to explain,” said Roger. “That broom’s under a magic spell, and we’ve got to stop it!”
“It’s heading for the stairs!” said Nancy. “Let’s go!”
Roger, Nancy and Hector followed the broom downstairs and cornered it in the lunchroom. Thank goodness no one was around to see what was going on.
“Gotcha!” said Roger.
He grabbed one end of the broom. Nancy grabbed the other end. Hector held on in the middle.
They were trying to keep the broom still when—SNAP!—it broke in half. The kids fell back. When they looked up, they saw two brooms racing toward the stairs.
“Oh no!” said Roger. “This is going from bad to worse.”
“Don’t worry,” said Nancy. “We’ll catch them.”
The three friends were closing in on the brooms when one broom tripped the other. That tripped the kids who stepped on the brooms and—WHAM!—the two brooms broke into countless pieces.
4
Help in a Hurry
The kids fell over one another in a heap and landed on top of the brooms. Arms, legs and broomsticks were all in a jumble.
“These brooms are history!” said Hector, untangling, then brushing himself off.
But he spoke too soon. Right before their eyes the army of broken brooms stood up and each grew back to its original size. The brooms headed for the first floor.
The kids followed.
“We need
help,” said Hector.
“We’ve got to find Mr. Bundy,” said Nancy.
The brooms were out of control! They were sweeping and re-sweeping the floors. They were climbing the walls and dancing across the ceiling.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bundy was in the kindergarten class listening to Alice read the poem she had written.
“I like flowers.
They have cheering powers.
I like birds.
They sing without words.
I like . . .
BROOMS?
In the halls?”
Alice stopped and stared. Mr. Bundy thought she had finished her poem, and he began to clap.
“Wonderful poem!” he said. “That ending was a refreshing surprise.”
“No, there really are brooms!” said Alice. “Look! They’re flying around the hall.”
Alice always told the truth, so if she said there were brooms flying in the hall, it had to be true. Everyone turned to look.
“Eeeek!” the kids shouted.
Ms. Tilly gathered all of them behind her to keep them safe. But she couldn’t stop them from being curious. They kept peeking out from either side of her, making frightened little noises.
When Mr. Bundy opened the door to find out what was going on, a group of brooms zoomed into the kindergarten. They began sweeping every nook and cranny.
More and more teachers opened their doors to see what the commotion was about. The brooms swept into their classrooms. Kids were jumping on chairs and diving under desks. Teachers scolded the brooms as they tried shooing them out.
There was chaos at PS 88!
Mr. Bundy noticed Roger in the hall slinking away, looking very guilty. Mr. Bundy stopped him.
“Do you know anything about this?” he asked.
Roger wished he didn’t have to tell Mr. Bundy every last detail of the story. But he knew it was the only way to get the school out of the mess he’d made. So he told Mr. Bundy everything as fast as he could.
Mr. Bundy raced to his office. Fighting off the brooms flying around his desk, he found Olivia Martin’s letter with her phone number and quickly called her.
Ring-ring! Ring-ring!
She finally answered on the fourth ring. Thank goodness!
“Olivia Martin, Doctor of Sorcery, here,” she said. “Are you ready to put magic in your life?”
“This is Mr. Bundy, principal of PS 88, and we’ve got way too much magic already. There’s an out-of-control army of brooms racing around our school,” he said, batting an especially frisky broom off his head. “We need help in a hurry!”
5
Breaking the Spell
Mr. Bundy listened carefully to Dr. Martin and took notes on how to break the spell. “Got it!” he said. “Thank you.”
He ran back out into the hall and did exactly what Olivia Martin told him to do. He clapped his hands three times and said,
“Zippity, zap!
Zippity, zum!
Thank you, brooms.
Your work is done!”
The brooms froze in their tracks, then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The only broom left was the one from Mr. Bundy’s closet. It fell to the floor just the way a broom should when no one is holding it up.
“Roger, may I see you in my office, please?” said Mr. Bundy, leading the way.
As soon as they reached the office, Roger blurted out, “I’m really, really sorry for what I did.”
Mr. Bundy sighed. “I guess all kids do foolish things sometimes,” he said. “I’m just grateful no one got hurt or swept away.”
“Me too!” said Roger. “I promise I won’t break any more school rules.”
“I’m going to help you remember that,” said Mr. Bundy. “For the next month, you have after-school sweeping duty. I don’t mean just your own classroom. I mean the whole school.”
“Along with every classroom,” he added, “you’ll be sweeping the library, the gym, the lunchroom.” Mr. Bundy paused. “And don’t forget the bathrooms!”
When Roger heard “bathrooms,” he wanted to run. He wanted to hide! But he stayed right where he was because he knew he deserved it.
Later that week, Mr. Bundy held a special assembly to speak about the importance of following school rules.
“Rules help us get along with one another. They help keep order. They help keep us safe,” said Mr. Bundy.
A smile spread across his face as he walked across the stage and dimmed the lights.
“Yes, rules are important,” he continued. “But sometimes, rules are meant to be broken.”
Olivia Martin, Doctor of Sorcery, came flying across the stage on a glow-in-the-dark broom. As she glided out into the auditorium, she nodded to Mr. Bundy, and together they called,
“Zippity, zap!
Zippity, zoom!
Everybody,
grab a broom!”
They sprinkled magic powder in the air, and suddenly brooms were floating all around. Every kid and teacher grabbed one and went flying out of the auditorium.
Mr. Bundy led the way. He had done it again. He had made the most exciting assembly program in town.
Word List
blurted (BLUR·ted): Said something suddenly, often without thinking
careening (ca·REEN·ing): Moving quickly from side to side in an uncontrolled way
commotion (cuh·MO·shun): Noise and confusion; a noisy disturbance
cranny (CRAN·nee): A small, narrow space
curiosity (cure·ee·OS·i·tee): Interest in finding out about something
dimmed (DIMMED): Made less bright
frisky (FRI·skee): Playful, lively, or full of energy
glaring (GLARE·ing): Staring in an angry way
impressed (im·PRESSED): Thinking something is great
nook (NOOK): A small, private corner
resist (ree·ZIST): To stop yourself from doing something you want to do
sanitation (san·i·TAY·shun): The process of keeping places clean and healthy
sorcerer (SOR·ser·er): A magician or wizard
Questions
1. What chore do you dislike the most?
2. Would you like to be the principal’s helper? What would you do?
3. If you were a sorcerer, what magic spell would you cast?
4. Imagine you’ve been given a magic broom. Where will you fly?
5. If you were allowed to break one rule, which rule would it be?
About the Author
Stephanie Calmenson is the acclaimed author of many popular books for young readers, including Dinner at the Panda Palace; May I Pet Your Dog?; and the Ready, Set, Dogs! series, written with Joanna Cole. We asked the author about school principals she’s known. “I’ve been fortunate to have terrific principals,” she said, “but not one has been able to fly out of the auditorium on a broom.”
Aaron Blecha is an artist who designs funny characters and illustrates humorous books. His work includes the Shark School series and Goodnight, Grizzle Grump! Originally from Wisconsin, Aaron now lives with his family by the south English seaside.
ALADDIN QUIX
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
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Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Aaron-Blecha
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/> By Stephanie Calmenson
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Book 3: Stolen Jewels
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Bicycle to Treachery
Gondola to Danger
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Book 1: Athena & the Magic Land
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Aladdin QUIX paperback edition May 2019
Text copyright © 2019 by Stephanie Calmenson
Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Aaron Blecha
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Our Principal Breaks a Spell! Page 1
