by Nancy Krulik
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
For Mandy and Ian, who give me
lots of great ideas!—N.K.
To Pat L, man of mystery and
a right on guy—J&W
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Text copyright © 2005 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2005
by John and Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark
of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. S.A.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Krulik, Nancy E.
Write on! / by Nancy Krulik ; illustrated by John & Wendy.
p. cm.—(Katie Kazoo, switcheroo ; 17)
Summary: Fourth-grader Katie forgets to read the new book of her
favorite author, Nellie Farrow, who comes to class for a discussion, but
when Katie turns into Nellie, the presentation seems doomed! Includes a
recipe for S’More Bananas.
eISBN : 978-1-101-09861-5
[1. Authors—Fiction. 2. Books and reading—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.
4. Magic—Fiction.] I. John & Wendy. II. Title. III. Series.
PZ7.K944Wr 2005
[Fic]—dc22 2004024038
eISBN : 978-1-101-09861-5
http://us.penguingroup.com
Chapter 1
“Katie, you are so lucky!” Suzanne Lock declared as she sat in her best friend Katie Carew’s living room after school on Monday afternoon. “I can’t believe your grandmother sent you computer software. All my grandmother ever sends me is socks. Not even fancy socks with glitter or rainbow-colored toes. Just plain wool socks.”
“My grandma is very cool,” Katie agreed. “I don’t know anyone else who rides a motorcycle or goes hiking in Alaska.”
“What kind of software did she send?” Suzanne asked. “Some sort of game?”
Katie shook her head. “It’s software that lets you make your own website. My grandmother had so much fun creating her site, she thought I should have one, too.”
“Wow! Your grandmother has a website?” Suzanne was really impressed. “What kind?”
“Mostly it’s about the amusement parks she’s visited. She’s been on roller coasters all over the world!” Katie boasted. “My grandma’s the one who took me on my first roller coaster ride.”
“Your grandmother’s website sounds really neat,” Suzanne told Katie. “What kind of website should we make?”
We? Katie hadn’t asked Suzanne to do a website with her. “I haven’t thought about it yet,” she answered honestly. “I only opened the package yesterday. I haven’t even read all the instructions yet.”
“Well, don’t worry. I have a million ideas,” Suzanne assured Katie.
Katie sighed. There was no way she could talk Suzanne out of this now. Once Suzanne decided she was going to do something, she did it.
But that was okay, actually. It could be kind of fun to work on a website with Suzanne. Now that the girls were in different classes, they didn’t get to spend a lot of time together.
“Actually, building a website sounds like fun,” Katie agreed.
“Let’s get started,” Suzanne squealed as she reached for the box on the computer table.
Katie frowned. “Don’t you think we should come up with an idea for our website first?” she asked her.
“Oh, that’s easy,” Suzanne replied. “We’ll do a fashion site.”
“A fashion site?” Katie didn’t sound very excited.
“Sure,” Suzanne continued. “We’ll tell people what’s in style.”
“Why would anyone listen to what two fourth-grade girls think about fashion?” Katie asked.
“Because one of those two girls is me!” Suzanne said. “No one at Cherrydale Elementary School knows more about fashion than I do.”
Katie sighed. Suzanne is such a show-off.
“How about a website that helps animals?” Katie suggested. “Maybe we could work with the animal shelter and post pictures of dogs and cats that need to be adopted.”
Katie loved the Cherrydale Animal Shelter. That was where she’d gotten her cocker spaniel, Pepper. She reached down and gave her dog a pat on the head. He looked up at her and wagged his stubby tail.
Suzanne didn’t have any pets. “The shelter has its own website,” she stated. “I think a fashion site is a much better idea. We could post photos of me modeling all kinds of outfits.”
Katie frowned. “And what would I do?”
“You’d take the pictures of me,” Suzanne said.
“That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun,” Katie said.
“You can’t be the model, Katie,” Suzanne said. “You haven’t taken any modeling classes like I have.”
“I don’t want to do a fashion website at all,” Katie insisted.
“Well, I do,” Suzanne replied just as firmly.
Katie was getting very angry. Suzanne was taking over everything. “It’s my computer software,” Katie reminded her. “Don’t you think I should get to decide what kind of website we make?”
Suzanne glared at her. “You’re not a very good sharer, Katie,” she declared.
“I am too,” Katie argued back.
“No, you’re not,” Suzanne said. “You want everything your own way.”
Katie was shocked. That was exactly how Suzanne was acting.
“I would share my grandma’s gifts with you,” Suzanne continued.
Katie frowned. Big deal. Why would she want a pair of plain wool socks anyway?
Suddenly, doing a website with Suzanne didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. It was just going to make them fight.
Just then, Katie’s mom came into the room. “Would you girls like some chocolate-chip cookies?” Mrs. Carew asked.
“You bet!” Suzanne said, forgetting all about the website for the moment.
Phew. Katie had avoided another fight with Suzanne. For a little while, anyway.
Chapter 2
The girls followed Mrs. Carew into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
“So, did you have a good day today?” Katie’s mom asked them.
“Yeah!” Katie exclaimed. “Mr. Guthrie gave us the best news! Nellie Farrow is coming to our school!”
“Nellie Farrow, the author?” Mrs. Carew asked. “That is exciting.”
“Ms. Sweet told our class that, too,” Suzanne said between bites of her cookie. “She said we’re going to get to read the new book before anyone else.”
“The whole fourth grade is going to do that. Not just your class,” Katie told her. “And it was Mr. Guthrie who got us the books. He knows someone who works at the publishing company. His friend is the one who sent us the books. We’re getting them before the stores do!”
Suzanne shrugged and ate another cookie.
“The book is called Only Orangutans Hang from Trees,” Katie told her mother.
“I know,” Mrs. Carew said. “We’re g
etting a whole carton of them delivered to the store next week. It’s supposed to be a very funny book.”
Katie smiled proudly. Her mom worked at the Book Nook bookstore in the Cherrydale Mall. She knew tons about children’s books.
“We’re supposed to start reading it right away. That way we can be finished when Nellie Farrow comes to school on Friday.” Katie smiled excitedly. “I can’t wait to meet her. She’s a real writer. That’s what I want to be when I grow up.”
“I thought you wanted to be a dog trainer,” Suzanne said.
“I thought you wanted to be a chef,” Katie’s mother added.
“I do,” Katie told them. “And a teacher, too. I could do all those things.”
Her mother laughed. “You’ll be a dog trainer, who’s also a teacher and a chef and who writes books. Wow. When will you sleep?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Katie said with a giggle.
“You have time before you’re all grown up,” Mrs. Carew told her daughter. “Right now, you girls should start on homework. Why don’t you go read for a while?”
“That’s a good idea,” Katie agreed.
Suzanne didn’t say anything. She just shoved the last cookie in her mouth and washed it down with the rest of her milk.
“You go ahead,” Mrs. Carew said, picking up the empty plate. “I’ll clean up.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Katie said as she and Suzanne left the room.
“Thanks, Mrs. Carew,” Suzanne echoed.
“Let’s read for half an hour,” Katie suggested as she and Suzanne walked into her room.
“Are you kidding?” Suzanne asked her. “We can’t read now. We have more important things to do. We’ve got to get going on our website.”
Here we go again, Katie thought.
“We don’t have to do that today,” Katie replied.
“Sure we do,” Suzanne said. “The sooner we get our site up and running, the sooner we’ll be famous.”
“Famous? Us?” Katie asked. “How?”
“Think of all the people who will visit our site. They’ll read about us and see pictures of me in all my cool clothes,” Suzanne explained.
“I don’t want to do the fashion site,” Katie reminded her.
“Well, whatever website we come up with, I’m sure thousands of people will visit it. And then they’ll recognize our names,” Suzanne told her excitedly. “We’ll be famous, and all my wishes will come true!”
Katie gulped. Wishes could be big trouble. Katie knew that better than anyone. That’s because one of her wishes had come true!
Katie’s troubles with wishes all started one day at the beginning of third grade. Katie had lost the football game for her team, ruined her favorite pair of pants, and let out a big burp in front of the whole class. That night, Katie had wished she could be anyone but herself.
There must have been a shooting star overhead when she made that wish, because the very next day the magic wind came.
The magic wind was a wild tornado that blew just around Katie. It was so powerful that every time it came, it turned her into somebody else! Katie never knew when the wind would arrive. But when it did, her whole world turned upside down . . . switcheroo!
The first time the magic wind came, it turned Katie into Speedy, her third-grade class’s pet hamster! Katie escaped from the hamster cage and wound up in the boys’ locker room! Good thing the magic wind turned Katie back into herself before the boys found out a girl had been in there!
The magic wind came back again and again after that. It changed her into all different people—Lucille, the lunch lady; Mr. Kane, the school principal; and even Katie’s third-grade teacher, super-strict Mrs. Derkman.
One time the magic wind turned Katie into her pal Emma Weber. That was awful. Katie lost Emma’s twin baby brothers! It was a good thing she found them before Emma’s mom returned from the market.
But that wasn’t nearly as bad as the time the magic wind turned Katie into Suzanne right in the middle of her best friend’s big modeling show. Katie didn’t know how to walk in high heels or twirl around on the stage. Even worse, she’d put Suzanne’s pants on backward! It was a good thing Suzanne never figured out what had really happened that day.
In fact, nobody but Katie knew about the magic wind. She figured no one would believe her even if she told them. Katie wouldn’t have believed it either, if it didn’t keep happening to her.
“So, when can we start taking pictures of me?” Suzanne demanded, interrupting Katie’s thoughts.
Katie frowned. She really didn’t want to do a fashion site. But Suzanne was never going to give in. She never did.
Then, suddenly, Katie got a great idea. “I know a way we could both be happy. We could do a fashion site, where we also tell people not to wear fur. And maybe I could say something about what it’s like to be a vegetarian.”
Suzanne considered that for a moment. “That’s not a bad idea,” she said as she picked up a paper and pencil. “Let’s write down all the things we could talk about and take pictures of.”
“Aren’t we going to read Only Orangutans Hang from Trees?” Katie reminded her.
“Later,” Suzanne insisted. “I’m already making a list of the outfits I want to put together.”
“But . . .”
“Come on, Katie,” Suzanne urged. “It’s only Monday. We have lots of time until Nellie Farrow’s visit. Besides, the sooner we do this website, the sooner you can save some animals.”
Katie pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil, too. Suzanne was right. It was a long time until Friday. They had plenty of time to read. She wanted to start saving animals now!
Chapter 3
“Isn’t Nellie Farrow’s book funny, Katie?” Emma Weber asked as the girls entered class 4A on Tuesday morning. “I loved the part when they’re on the island and the boy jumps so high that he can see over the clouds.”
“That wasn’t nearly as funny as when the gym teacher made all the kids climb the ropes,” Kevin Camilleri insisted. “It was hysterical when the girl couldn’t get down.”
Emma frowned. “I felt kind of bad for her,” she said.
“Yeah, but then the jumping boy leaps up and saves her,” Kevin reminded Emma. He turned to Katie. “What’s your favorite part so far?”
Katie didn’t want to let her friends know that she hadn’t even started the book. “I like the cover,” she said finally. She didn’t mention that she hadn’t gotten past the cover yet.
“The cover?” Kevin said. “It’s just an orangutan in a tree.”
“I know,” Katie said. “But he’s a very funny-looking orangutan.”
“You love anything with animals,” Kevin said.
“Of course I do,” Katie agreed. “In fact, Suzanne and I are starting a website to tell people not to wear fur and to be vegetarians.”
Okay, so that wasn’t completely true. But Katie was hoping that was how the website would turn out.
“Your own website, wow!” Emma W. exclaimed. “That’s so cool.”
“Okay, folks, take a seat,” Mr. Guthrie interrupted the kids’ conversation. “It’s time to start our learning adventure.”
The kids plopped down in their beanbag chairs and took out their notebooks.
“Today I want to tell you all about a lumberjack who became famous way back in the 1800s,” Mr. G. said.
“What’s a lumberjack?” Andy Epstein asked.
“A lumberjack is someone who makes his living cutting down trees in the forest,” Mr. G. explained. “Now, this lumberjack’s name was Paul Bunyan. He was the biggest, strongest lumberjack ever. He was so big that when he was born, it took five storks to fly him to his mother.”
Emma W. raised her hand. “That can’t be right, Mr. G.,” she said. “Storks don’t bring babies.”
Mr. G. didn’t answer her. He just kept talking about Paul Bunyan.
Katie looked at him strangely. That was weird. Mr. G. always stopped to answer questions. But today .
. .
“One day, Paul met a giant blue ox,” the teacher continued. “He named her Babe. Babe was so big, it took a crow a full day to fly from the tip of one of her horns to the other.”
A blue ox? Katie thought to herself. I never saw one of them in my animal books.
“Paul was really smart,” Mr. G. told the class. “One year, when there weren’t enough lumberjacks to do all the work, he brought in giant ants to help out. The ants weighed two hundred pounds apiece and could do the work of fifty men!”
“I wouldn’t want to be at a picnic with those ants,” Kadeem Carter joked.
Mr. G. laughed. “Me neither,” he agreed. “But they sure were a help to Paul Bunyan. Of course, even Paul made mistakes. Like one summer when there were too many mosquitoes in the woods. Paul went and got special bumblebees to destroy them. Unfortunately, the bumblebees liked the mosquitoes. And that made things much worse. Their babies, the bee-squitoes, had stingers on both ends.”
“Now I know you’re kidding,” Emma Stavros told Mr. Guthrie. “That’s impossible.”
“There’s no such thing as giant, two-hundred pound ants,” Emma W. said. “Or bee-squitoes.”
“Or giant blue oxen,” Katie added.
“No,” Mr. G. admitted. “And there was no Paul Bunyan, either. He was a character made up by lumberjacks who lived in the American wilderness.”
“Too bad they didn’t have Spider-Man back then,” Kadeem said. “Spiders eat mosquitoes!”
“Paul Bunyan was a superhero to the lumberjacks, just like Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman are superheroes to you,” Mr. G. explained. “The stories the lumberjacks made up about him were called tall tales. They were about a superhuman person who solved his problems in a funny way.”
“Like the boy in Only Orangutans Hang from Trees,” Kevin pointed out. “Nobody can really jump that high!”
“Exactly!” Mr. G. agreed.
