Judy Moody Saves the World!

by Megan McDonald

  “How about a car wash?” said Lucy.

  “We could sell stuff,” said Adam. “Like cookies!”

  “My sister put on a play in fifth grade and made money to help save the whales,” said Jessica. “She even won a Giraffe Award for it.”

  A Giraffe Award! For somebody who sticks their neck out for a good cause. Judy could hardly wait till fifth grade!

  “Maybe we could put on a magic show,” said Rocky.

  “Or we could collect a bunch of stuff to recycle,” said Frank, “and get money for it. The Recycle Center gives five cents each for pop bottles and milk jugs.”

  “Rare!” said Judy.

  “Double cool!” said Rocky.

  “A bottle drive sounds like a fine idea,” said Mr. Todd. “We could raise money while recycling at the same time. What do you say, class? Do you think we could collect enough bottles?”

  “Yeah!” everybody yelled.

  It was settled. The Virginia Dare School, Class 3T, was going into the bottle business. Starting with their very own cafeteria.

  The third-graders spent the afternoon rounding up milk jugs from all over the school. They piled up plastic bottles from the kindergarten classes, and from the teachers’ lunchroom. They even rescued some from the trash.

  Class 3T worked as hard as an army of leaf-cutter ants. “That was cool how you got us out of Math,” whispered Frank.

  “This is more fun than when you put my arm in a cast,” said Jessica.

  “We still need a ton more bottles if we’re going to save the rain forest,” said Rocky.

  “Rocky’s right,” said Mr. Todd. “Let’s go home and see how many bottles we can collect over the weekend. Ask your family and neighbors. Tell your friends.”

  Judy Moody felt as sharp as a pencil point. They were just a few days and a few hundred bottles away from saving the rain forest.

  She was in a Judy-Moody-best-mood-ever. At last she was on her way to saving the world. And the best part was she no longer had to do it all by herself. Class 3T would save the world together. Like an ecosystem!

  She, Judy Monarch Moody, knew just how a butterfly felt coming out of the chrysalis. Light as a feather.

  “Let’s go on a bottle hunt,” said Rocky. “After school.”

  “I sure hope bottles are easier to find than northeast beach tiger beetles,” Judy said.

  They raided Rocky’s garage first and found two milk crates full of bottles that had not been recycled. “Rare!” said Judy. “Twenty-seven bottles!”

  “But they’re all smooshed. I forgot my mom stomps them.”

  “That’s okay,” said Judy. “They’re ABC bottles. Already Been Crushed!”

  At Judy’s, her mother let her have the stash of milk jugs she was saving to make bird feeders. Dad didn’t have any bottles, so he gave Rocky and Judy one dollar bill each to plant a tree.

  “Thanks, Mr. Moody!” said Rocky.

  Judy kissed George Washington right on his presidential nose.

  “Does this mean I can wear lipstick again?” asked Mom.

  “And I can drink coffee?” said Dad.

  “Yes. But not too much,” laughed Judy.

  “No fair,” said Stink. “I’d plant a tree, too, if I could have a dollar or something.”

  “Or something,” said Judy.

  All the next week, Class 3T piled up a mountain of bottles in the multipurpose room. Bags of bottles, boxes of bottles, bins full of bottles. “Great teamwork, class,” said Mr. Todd. “Did you know we throw away two and a half million plastic bottles every hour in this country? In three months, we throw away enough bottles to circle the globe.”

  “Look out!” said Rocky. “Bottles are taking over the earth!”

  “People should recycle them,” said Jessica Finch. “My dad has a jacket made out of recycled plastic bottles. My socks are made out of bottles, too.”

  “No way,” said Judy. She turned around to take a look at the plastic-bottle socks. They looked regular. They did not look plastic at all.

  “It’s true,” said Mr. Todd. “All that plastic can be recycled to make toys and coat hangers and picture frames. Even recycling bins!”

  “How many bottles do you think we have so far?” asked Jessica.

  “Let’s pile them up all together to see how high they go,” said Brad.

  Class 3T spent their Math class piling up bottles and more bottles.

  “We should call it Bottle Mountain,” said Rocky.

  “Double cool,” said Frank. “It looks like a giant igloo.”

  When they had added every last bottle, Mr. Todd said, “Tomorrow’s the big day. Tomorrow we’ll find out the grand total number of bottles we have. Our principal, Ms. Tuxedo, will make an announcement to tell the school how much money we’ve raised. Now let’s hurry back to class so nobody misses the bus.”

  “Tomorrow!” said Judy. “That’s twenty-four more hours!” She couldn’t wait to find out how many trees would be planted in the rain forest for the Virginia Dare School.

  When Judy and Rocky stepped off the bus on Friday morning, Ms. Tuxedo was standing outside the school doors. “How’s it going, you two?”

  “Pretty good, I guess,” said Judy.

  “Today we find out how many trees we’re going to plant,” said Rocky.

  “That’s right,” the principal said. “You both have a good day.” And she winked. Judy looked at Rocky. Rocky looked at Judy. In Judy Moody’s entire third-grade life, she was sure she had never seen the principal wink at anybody.

  Judy and Rocky hurried to the multipurpose room before class to look at the mountain of bottles again, but the doors were locked. When they got to 3T, Mr. Todd was standing in the doorway. “Isn’t it a lovely Friday?” he said. Then he winked. In Judy Moody’s entire third-grade life, she had never heard Mr. Todd say the word lovely. And for sure and absolute positive, she had never seen him wink.

  “Something’s up,” she told Rocky.

  Judy sat down next to Frank. “Know what? Something’s funny. All the teachers have a winking disease today.”

  “A winking disease?”

  “Yeah, you know, when they wink at you and say nice things.”

  While Judy waited for the day to begin, she looked around the room at all the kids in her ecosystem. Not one third-grader was absent. And every single person in Class 3T had pitched in and collected bottles.

  “Class,” said Mr. Todd, blinking the lights to get their attention. “Announcements. Listen up.”

  Judy Moody squirmed all through morning announcements. A Mexican jumping bean could have done a better job of sitting still.

  “And now,” came Ms. Tuxedo’s voice over the PA system, “the moment you’ve been waiting for . . .” Judy Moody sat up super straight and used her best third-grade listening ears.

  “As you know, Mr. Todd’s room, Class 3T, has been collecting bottles this week to raise money for the rain forest. This money will go, on behalf of the Virginia Dare School, to plant trees in the Children’s Rain Forest in Costa Rica. Thanks to Class 3T, the Virginia Dare School has collected 1,961 bottles. That means we will be planting ninety-eight trees to help save the rain forest.”

  Ninety-eight! Suddenly, Judy remembered the dollars from her dad. Two more dollars meant two more trees. One hundred trees! Class 3T went wild, jumping up and down, clapping and whooping and hooting like owls.

  “We’d like to show our appreciation to our third graders in a special assembly today at 2:30. This will provide the whole school with a chance to give them a big hand and show them how proud we are of their hard work and their efforts for such a good cause.”

  “Lunch today is Sloppy Joes,” Ms. Tuxedo continued. “Tickets go on sale Monday for the school fair. And will Judy Moody please report to the front office?”

  “Uh-oh. Judy’s in trouble,” Jessica Finch said.

  “Nobody’s in trouble,” said Mr. Todd. “Judy’s going to represent our class at the assembly today. After all, she go
t us thinking about our pencils, and before we knew it, we were planting trees in the rain forest. Judy, go ahead down to the office and find out what Ms. Tuxedo would like you to do.”

  Judy walked as fast as she could without running down the great green halls of the Virginia Dare School to the front office. The third-grade papier-mâché masks outside the classroom seemed to wink at her. The second-grade self-portraits grinned. And the first-grade sunflowers on the wall stood up prouder.

  Ms. Tuxedo took Judy into the multipurpose room. The principal showed Judy where to sit in the front row and told her when to come up on stage.

  “When I call you up on stage, I’ll hand you something for your class. You accept it, then walk across the stage and rejoin your class.”

  “Is it a certificate?” asked Judy.

  “It’s a surprise! It’ll be fun. You’ll see,” said the principal. And she winked. So this is what all the winking is about, Judy thought.

  At 2:25, Mr. Todd’s class hurried to the multipurpose room. Judy took her seat in the front row.

  The room was dark. The curtains went up. A single spotlight shone on Ms. Tuxedo. Everybody clapped.

  “Today, boys and girls, we are here to show how proud we are of Class 3T. They showed excellent teamwork on a project raising money to plant trees in the Children’s Rain Forest in Costa Rica. Because of them, one hundred trees will be planted for the Virginia Dare School. Margaret Mead says, ‘Never doubt that a small group of concerned people can change the world.’ Our special thanks to 3T for helping to change the world!”

  Everybody cheered and clapped some more.

  “Ranger Piner is here as our special guest from the County Parks Department. They have donated a cedar tree, like the ones in the rain forest, to the Virginia Dare School. Right after the assembly, Ranger Piner will help Mr. Todd’s class plant the tree in front of our school.

  “To show our appreciation, I have here, for every member of the class, a T-shirt and a gift certificate for one free Rain Forest Mist ice-cream cone from Screamin’ Mimi’s.” Ms. Tuxedo waved an envelope in the air, and held up one of the T-shirts. It said TURN PLASTIC INTO TREES under a picture of a tree made out of bottles.

  Judy’s class jumped up and down and hooted some more. A T-shirt with words! And the kind of certificate that got you a free ice cream! Saving the world was even better than Judy thought.

  “There’s one person who proved to be a good friend to the whole planet and I’d like her to come up on stage — Judy Moody!”

  Judy looked back at Mr. Todd. He motioned for her to go up on stage.

  Judy Moody stood in the bright beam of light and tried not to squint. She looked out at all her classmates from 3T who had helped plant trees to save the rain forest. They waved their hands in the air and gave a howler-monkey hoot.

  Ms. Tuxedo continued. “Usually this award goes to one fifth-grade student, but today, I think the whole third-grade class is deserving.”

  Award! Judy stood up straighter.

  “Class 3T has made a contribution that will help not only our community, but the larger community — our planet, our world. Judy Moody and Class 3T, let me present — the award for somebody who really sticks their neck out — the Giraffe Award!”

  The Giraffe! Judy could not believe her ears. Even her best third-grade listening ears. Everybody wanted to be a Giraffe when they got to fifth grade. She, Judy Moody, was a Giraffe in third grade!

  Ms. Tuxedo handed her a gold trophy of a giraffe. “Let’s give a big hand for 3T!”

  Then, all of the third-grade Giraffes came up on stage to join hands and get their pictures taken in their new bottle-tree T-shirts. Cameras snapped and bulbs flashed. One of the cameras was Dad!

  Dad reached up to give Judy a hug. “I brought the car,” said Dad. “Thought I’d help take bottles to the Recycling Center after school.”

  “Rare!” said Judy.

  “We’re proud of you, kiddo,” said Dad. “All of you.”

  Judy smiled. Not a Siberian-tiger smile. A real smile. The kind the dentist would really miss seeing.

  Class 3T had joined together to make a difference. One hundred brand-new trees would be planted, like a Band-Aid for the rain forest. And she, Judy Moody, had played a small part in saving the world.

  Judy stood in the center of the 3T ecosystem. She held the trophy high, and stretched her neck tall as a true Giraffe.