by Nancy Krulik
But that wasn’t true at all. Katie knew lots of people who loved reading books. She was one of them. And she really wished she’d taken the time to read Nellie Farrow’s.
Katie spotted Nellie right away. The author was seated on a big rolling chair on the auditorium stage. Her hair was tied back in a long brown braid. She wore round-framed glasses and a long, flowing dress. She had a huge smile on her face. Nellie and Mr. Kane, the school principal, were busy chatting.
“There she is!” Emma W. whispered excitedly to Katie. “I can’t wait to meet her and ask her to sign my book.
Katie looked at the book in her friend’s hands. “We’re allowed to do that?”
“Sure,” Emma told her. “I asked Mr. Guthrie. He said he thought Nellie would be happy to sign books for kids who loved to read as much as we do.”
Wow! Katie wanted an autographed book. She turned and headed toward the door of the auditorium.
“Where are you going?” Emma asked her.
“Back to the classroom,” Katie told her. “I want to get my book, too.”
Class 4A was empty when Katie entered the room. The only one there was Slinky. He didn’t seem to notice Katie at all.
Katie hurried over to her backpack. She unzipped the front pouch. But before she could reach in and get the book, Katie felt a strange draft on the back of her neck.
The draft grew colder and stronger, becoming a breeze and then a full-fledged wind. Katie gulped. This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind. It was back! And it was going to turn her into somebody else. It swirled harder and harder, until it became a tornado, spinning just around Katie. She closed her eyes tight and grabbed onto her beanbag, hoping it would keep her from blowing away.
Not now! Katie thought.
And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone. And so was Katie Carew.
The question was, who had the magic wind turned her into this time?
Chapter 8
Katie sat there for a minute, afraid to open her eyes. She wasn’t sure where or who she was. All she knew was that she could hear lots of kids talking. Okay, so now she knew she wasn’t alone in her classroom anymore. But where was she? Slowly, she opened her eyes.
Unfortunately, that didn’t help much. Everything around her was blurry. She could sort of make out some rows of chairs with people in them. But that was all.
“Okay, boys and girls, settle down.” Katie heard a man’s deep voice. It sounded like Mr. Kane’s.
“I want you to give a warm, Cherrydale Elementary School welcome to Nellie Farrow!” Mr. Kane continued.
Katie heard all the kids clapping and cheering wildly. Mr. Kane placed a microphone in her hands. “Whenever you’re ready, Nellie,” he told her.
Nellie? Oh, no! Was it possible? Had the magic wind switcherooed Katie into Nellie Farrow?
Slowly, Katie reached up and touched her face. Sure enough, Nellie’s round glasses were resting on her nose. That explained why everything was so blurry. Katie didn’t need glasses. But Nellie Farrow did. It was hard for Katie to see through Nellie’s thick lenses.
The kids quieted down quickly. They all sat there, waiting for Katie to say something about Only Orangutans Hang from Trees.
But what could Katie say? She didn’t write the book. She hadn’t even read it!
This was all Suzanne’s fault. If Suzanne hadn’t made Katie work on the website, she would have read the book. It was Pepper’s fault, too. If he had just let her read last night, she would have been able to . . .
No. Katie couldn’t really blame Suzanne or Pepper. It was her own fault she hadn’t read the book. And now Nellie Farrow’s speech was going to be ruined.
Unless . . . what if Katie read the book right now?
“I’m going to read out loud a few pages from the first chapter, and then we can talk about them,” she suggested. There. That sounded like something a real author would say.
Katie looked down at the book in her hand and tried to read. But she was looking at the words through Nellie Farrow’s glasses. She couldn’t read them at all. She reached up and took the glasses from her face.
“Don’t do that!” Jeremy Fox shouted from the front row.
“Huh?” Katie asked. “Why not?”
“You shouldn’t take off your glasses if you need to wear them,” Jeremy said, pointing to his own frames. “Not even if you want to look good in front of an audience. Besides, glasses are cool.”
“Um . . . well,” Katie stammered. “Some people take their glasses off to read, you know.”
“But you don’t,” Jeremy said. “We saw a picture of you reading to a class of kids. You had your glasses on then.”
Katie sighed. She didn’t want the kids to think that Nellie Farrow was embarrassed to be wearing glasses. She would have to wear them. Even though it meant she couldn’t see the book in front of her.
So, now how was she supposed to read anything?
“You know what?” Katie said finally. “You guys don’t need me to read this book to you. You’ve already done that. Why don’t you just ask me some questions about what it’s like to be a writer?”
Katie figured she could answer questions about that. After all, she was an author, too. At least sort of.
The kids had plenty of questions for Nellie Farrow.
“Where do you get your ideas?” Emma W. asked.
“From things in my life,” Katie told her, remembering what she and her mom had talked about. “That’s where all the best authors get their ideas.”
“You mean you actually got stuck on a deserted island for three weeks?” Kevin asked excitedly.
“Well . . . uh, no,” Katie said.
“Did you leap across the desert on one foot with a parrot on your shoulder?” Manny Gonzalez asked.
Katie frowned. What kind of weird book was this, anyway?
“No, of course not,” Katie said. “At least I don’t think I did.”
“But that’s in the book,” Kevin reminded her. “And you said . . .”
“Well, not everything is from my life,” Katie stammered. “Just some stuff.”
“Did you at least get stuck on the top of a rope during gym class?” Kadeem asked.
“Um . . . sure,” Katie answered. That one at least sounded like it could have happened.
“Which is your favorite chapter in the book?” Jessica Haynes asked.
“Uh . . . four,” Katie said quickly, picking any number.
“Why?” Jessica said.
Katie gulped. She had no idea why. But she was going to have to say something. Everyone was staring at her, waiting for an answer.
Katie looked down at the book in her lap. She squinted hard, trying to see through Nellie’s thick lenses, searching for chapter four. Maybe the chapter title would tell her what it was about.
If she could just hold the book a little farther away . . . Katie stretched her arms out as far as they would go. The words got a little clearer. But her hands were getting sweaty. So sweaty that the book slipped right out of her fingers.
“Oops,” Katie said as she got up and tried to reach for the book. But her balance was off because she couldn’t see. Katie tripped over the wheel on her rolling chair. Thud. She fell flat on her face.
The kids all giggled.
“Here, let me help you,” Mr. Kane said quickly, reaching for the book.
“No, that’s okay,” Katie assured him. She reached out and tried to get the book herself. But as she grabbed for it, the skirt of her long dress got caught in the wheels of the chair. The chair went rolling across the stage, pulling Katie with it.
“Whoa!” Katie shouted. She reached out her foot and used it as a brake to stop the rolling chair. Sure enough, the chair came to a quick stop—right on top of Nellie Farrow’s copy of Only Orangutans Hang from Trees.
When Katie reached over to pull the book out from under the chair, the cover snapped in two. Pages of the book went flying all over the place.
&nbs
p; The kids laughed even harder.
“She’s funnier than the clown I had at my fifth birthday party,” George joked.
“She’s even funnier than me,” Kadeem added. “And that’s hard to do.”
Suddenly, Katie didn’t feel like a grown-up author. She felt like a fourth-grader who was being laughed at by all her friends. She wanted to get away from everyone.
But how?
As Katie scrambled to her feet, she heard something jingling in her dress pocket. She reached in and pulled out a set of car keys.
Excellent! For the first time all morning, Katie knew exactly what to say to the kids. “Excuse me, boys and girls. I’ve got to run out to my car and get some of my notes. I’ll be back soon.”
Katie ran out of the auditorium as fast as Nellie Farrow’s feet would carry her.
Chapter 9
As soon as she was out of the school building, Katie whipped Nellie’s eyeglasses from her face. It was good to see things clearly again. She took a deep breath. She was so glad to be out of that auditorium. This had been the most embarrassing morning of her entire life.
Make that the most embarrassing morning of Nellie Farrow’s life!
Katie felt really bad. The kids didn’t know that it had been Katie up there. They thought it was Nellie Farrow who couldn’t answer their questions or read a chapter of her own book. They were all laughing at Nellie. They thought she was really weird.
But Katie didn’t have much time to think about Nellie’s problem. At that very moment, a breeze began to blow . . . just around Katie.
The magic wind was back!
The wind picked up speed, whirling and swirling around Katie. Before long it was a full-blown tornado.
“Aaahhhhh!” Katie cried out. The magic wind was blowing so hard, it actually lifted Katie off the ground!
And then it stopped. Just like that.
Katie fell to the ground with a thud. “Ow,” she moaned, rubbing her sore bottom.
“Are you okay?” Katie heard a woman ask her.
Katie opened her eyes slowly and looked up at Nellie Farrow. Nellie was standing right beside her in the school parking lot.
“Um, yeah, I think so,” Katie said as she struggled to stand up.
“Good,” Nellie said. Then she frowned. “I wish I could say I was okay. I’m very confused. How did I get out here?”
“Um, you said you were going to your car to get a copy of your notes,” Katie told her.
Nellie thought for a minute. “Did I? I’m not sure. It’s all kind of blurry. I remember talking to your principal on the stage, and then . . . well . . .”
Katie frowned. She didn’t really want Nellie to remember everything about what a mess the presentation had been.
“Everyone’s waiting for you,” she reminded Nellie. She spotted a fresh copy of Nellie’s book sitting on the front seat of the car. “You’d better bring that with you. Your other copy is kind of messed up.”
Nellie shook her head. “This is the strangest school visit I’ve ever made,” she told Katie. “It’s almost as though I were someone else up on that stage.”
Katie sighed. Nellie didn’t know the half of it.
“I’m not sure what I can say to your friends now,” Nellie continued. “I can’t just go up there. I’m at a loss for words!” Tears began to form in Nellie’s eyes.
Katie felt awful. Here she was, talking to her most favorite author in the whole world, and what did Katie do? She made her cry!
Katie had to do something, and fast. But what?
Nellie took a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose. “I think I just better go,” she said with a sniffle.
“Wait! I have an idea!” Katie shouted. “Maybe you could teach us how to be authors.”
“What do you mean?” Nellie asked.
“Well, we’ve all written stories, but none of them are as good as your books. Maybe if you gave us a few writing tips, we could write a book, too,” Katie suggested.
“Do you think your friends would like to do that?” Nellie asked Katie. “I’ve never given a writing class to fourth-graders before.”
“Oh, I’m sure they’ll like it. Fourth-graders love to write,” Katie assured Nellie.
Nellie and Katie walked back to the auditorium together. At first the kids started laughing again when they walked in.
Mr. Kane wasn’t laughing, though. He just looked angry. After all, Nellie did run out on the assembly. Katie gulped. Mr. Kane could get pretty mean when he was angry.
Luckily, everyone seemed to forget about Nellie’s mistakes once she told the fourth-graders about Katie’s idea. They couldn’t wait to get started on their book.
The first thing they had to decide was what their story should be about.
“You said you write about things that happen to you,” Kevin told Nellie.
“I did?” Nellie asked. “Oh, yes. I guess I did.”
“But our lives are boring,” Kevin told her.
“When I write, I begin with people or places I know very well. Then I change them around and liven them up a bit,” Nellie explained.
“Let’s write about our class snake, Slinky,” Emma W. suggested. “He’s nice and really pretty.”
“Ooh, a snake. What a good main character,” Nellie agreed.
“That’s not fair,” Jeremy piped up. “Our class has a pet, too. Fluffy, the guinea pig.”
“Well, why not write a book about Slinky and Fluffy?” Nellie suggested. “They could be friends.”
“No way,” Andy Epstein argued. “Snakes eat rodents. And guinea pigs are just big rodents.”
“True,” Nellie agreed. “But this is fiction. That means we can make up anything we want. It would be kind of funny to have a snake and guinea pig be best buddies.”
“Yeah,” George shouted out. “We could call the book Funny Buddies.”
Katie smiled. Her friends were really excited about their new project. Nellie Farrow’s visit hadn’t turned out to be a disaster at all. It had turned out to be great!
Chapter 10
That afternoon, Katie, Suzanne, and Emma W. were all standing outside the school building, clutching books that had been signed by Nellie Farrow.
Katie loved what Nellie had written in her book.
For Katie,
You have great ideas.
Your fellow writer,
Nellie Farrow
“That was so much fun!” Emma exclaimed. “I think Funny Buddies turned out really well.”
“Can we go visit your mom at work today, Katie?” Suzanne asked. “I want to buy some of Nellie Farrow’s other books.”
Katie was glad that her friends only seemed to remember the good parts about Nellie’s visit. And it was nice to see Suzanne so excited about reading.
Maybe this was a good time to tell Suzanne about her new idea for the website. “I was thinking it would be fun to do a book review site,” Katie said.
Suzanne thought for a minute. “That could be interesting.”
“Can I help, too?” Emma asked.
“Sure,” Katie said. “It’s good to get different opinions.”
“I know what book we should review first,” Suzanne announced.
“Let me guess, a fashion book,” Katie said.
Suzanne shook her head. “I think we should review Only Orangutans Hang from Trees.”
Finally Suzanne had an idea that they could agree on!
“And then we can review a fashion book,” Suzanne continued.
Katie laughed. She knew it. Suzanne was as easy to read as a book.
“Come on,” Katie urged her friends. “Let’s go to my house and get started on our website.”
“What should we call it?” Suzanne wondered.
Katie knew just the perfect title. “We’ll call it Reading Rocks!” she said.
No one could argue with that.
Go Bananas!
Orangutans aren’t the only ones who like bananas. Kids love them, too! This yummy b
anana recipe comes from Katie’s Wednesday afternoon cooking class. You can try making it at home.S‘More Bananas
You will need:
5 bananas
5 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
Here’s what you do: 1. Ask an adult to preheat your oven to 400ºF.
2. Then ask for help making one slice on each banana skin’s inside curve with a sharp knife. Make sure not to cut the banana itself.
3. Use your hands to loosen the skin a little bit, but leave the ends of the skin together.
4. Tuck one tablespoon of chips and some of the marshmallows between the banana and the skin.
5. Push the skin back together and wrap the banana in aluminum foil. Repeat this for each of the five bananas.
6. Ask an adult to place the bananas on a baking sheet in the oven. Bake them for 10 minutes.
7. Have an adult remove the bananas from the oven. Allow them to cool for a few minutes.
8. Then open the foil, grab a spoon, and dig in!
