A Book Is Like a Milkshake: If you don’t like one flavor, try a different one.
A Book Is Like a Piece of Toast: Some days, you want to eat toast. Some days, you do not want toast. Some days, you want to eat two or three pieces of toast!
Some Books Are Like Cakes: It takes ages for cakes to bake. Sometimes it takes ages to read a book. But then it’s really good!
A Book Is Like a Meal: It fills you up. But then later you want another one!
For my last rule, I wanted to write Treat ALL books like they can write back to you. Like Spell. But Spell is my magic secret. In the end, I put:
Treat books like they are scrumptious and full of magic!
“Super-duper poster, Polly D,” Dad says. He is beaming. Ms. Hairball comes over and says, “Polly’s poster is excellent work.”
“Hi, Lori!” Mom says.
Mom’s best friend is named Lori Arbul. (We call her Ms. Hairball!) This means that sometimes Ms. Hairball comes to babysit. This is the best. Other times, Ms. Hairball’s niece Shaylene comes to babysit. This is not the best.
A List of Annoying Things About Shaylene
1. She says I read too many books and they will make my eyes go googly.
2. She does not know how to spell turquoise.
3. She has green hair. Not turquoise hair.
Wow! Just when I thought about Shaylene, she appeared in Ms. Hairball’s classroom. Maybe I have magic powers. I scrunch up my nose and try to make her disappear.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Diamond. Hello, Auntie Lori,” Shaylene says.
My magic trick has not worked. Shaylene is still here. Being yucky polite. But she does not say hello to me. Instead, she takes a selfie. Then another.
Mom turns her head. “Where’s Anna?” she asks.
“She was right here a minute ago,” Dad says.
I spin around. Where is Anna?
A lurchy feeling goes through my tummy. Like I’m on Anna’s rocking horse. Anna is very annoying. Like Shaylene. But Anna is also little.
And now she is lost in my school. My big, busy, bustling school.
We race out of my classroom.
FIVE
Hannah and Luala are standing by a large sign that hangs over the walkway to the older kids’ classrooms. The bubbly letters read: BOOK ODYSSEY. I love the word Odyssey—two Ys and two Ss. But only three syllables. OD-ys-sey. The word is from a very old book called The Odyssey. Odyssey means journey. I imagine myself on a journey, perhaps to the moon in a rocket. I circle the moon three times. Then I zoom back to my school walkway to find Anna.
The walkway is filled with lots of large posters. They are designed like travel ads.
“We’re looking for Anna. Have you seen her?” I ask Hannah and Luala.
They shake their heads.
“What if she is lost forever!” Shaylene cries.
“It’s okay, Shaylene, she won’t be far,” says Dad. But his eyebrows are frowning and his eyes are darting left and right.
I think, think, think about my sister. I search, search, search my brain for the answer, like I am looking for my turquoise pen. I lose my turquoise pen so often that Mom says we should glue it to my hand.
Where would Anna go? I think about what she said as we walked to my classroom.
Oh, yeah, she was being Queen of the Whiners. She wanted Pop-Open-A-Book-Corn. And Cotton-Cloud-Candy. And Book-Face-Painting.
“I think I know where she is,” I call over my shoulder. I’m already running. My family and Shaylene run after me.
We check the Pop-Open-A-Book-Corn stand. And the Cotton-Cloud-Candy stall. Then we race to the Book-Face-Painting booth. Anna is surrounded by older kids. The tallest Eighth Grader is saying to her, “You are so cute!”
“I know,” Anna replies. She takes a huge mouthful of popcorn. “Oh, hi, Mom.”
I am so glad to see her! I squeeze her like she is my favorite stuffie.
Mom grabs Anna from me. She hugs her, too.
Then she starts a lecture about staying where we can see her.
“I can help look after Anna,” Shaylene says.
“Oh, thank you, Shaylene,” Mom says. “Maybe you can wait in the face-painting line with her?”
“Of course, Mrs. Diamond.”
“I want to be a fairy,” Anna says.
I have an idea! Maybe I can help Anna’s face-painting be super special for her!
I hurry down the hallway to get Spell from my cubby.
My classroom is quiet and the fairy lights make it feel magical. I’ve never been alone in here before. It’s weird. I tiptoe over and grab Spell.
I write: The character face-painting is the best ever! The paint colors are so bright, we will look just like the pictures in our favorite books. The glitter paint sparkles so much, we will be magical. We will look so . . .
I try to think of a good adjective. One pops into my head.
I write: . . . realistic that our teachers and parents will be super surprised!
Spell writes: Okay, Polly.
I carry Spell back with me to the Book-Face-Painting table. An Eighth Grader sits opposite Anna carefully drawing a fairy onto Anna’s left cheek. She dabs a final brushstroke.
Then she adds a little silver glitter paint, and— poof!—the fairy from my sister’s cheek zings to life! It flutters around Anna’s head.
The Eighth Grader giggles. “Wow. This is cool!” She draws more little fairies, and they all zip and spark to life and fly around Anna’s head.
I didn’t expect this! I think about what I wrote in Spell. Oh! Spell has made the face-painting magical and REAL-istic! Wow!
Now Anna’s face is being painted with swirls and sparkles to make her look like a fairy, too. She begins to glow. Anna is turning into a fairy!
A pink-and-silver fairy! With glorious wings! She reminds me of Carmen the Cheerleading Fairy. That is Anna’s favorite fairy from one of my books! She always wants to read my books.
At the next table over, Dawson Dawsons is being painted green. He is beginning to glow, too. His green face gets fiercer. The scales painted on his face start to glow. Dawson Dawsons is turning into the green dragon from How to Train Your Dragon.
The one with TWO HEADS! Maybe I should call him Dragon Dragons!
He flicks his two dragon tails.
I overhear a parent say, “That dragon is so realistic!”
“Verrrrrrrrry realistic,” our principal, Mr. Love, replies slowly, like his mouth is pulling the letters from deep in his tummy! “We have Merrrrrrrrlin over there. He looks a bit like Mr. Novakoski.”
I hear Anna say, “You should get your face painted, Shaylene!”
“Um, I don’t know,” Shaylene replies.
“You could be Super Diaper Baby,” I suggest.
“Ewwww,” Shaylene says.
“What about Ulysses from the book Flora & Ulysses?”
“What is that?” Shaylene asks. Her eyes narrow.
“Ulysses is very smart,” I say. I do not say that Ulysses is also a squirrel.
“Okay. Good idea, Polly.”
It’s fantastic! The school fair is becoming spectacular!
Ideas pop into my head like popcorn from a Pop-Open-A-Book-Corn book.
I remember the names that Spell and I came up with. I find a quiet spot and start writing.
The Book Carousel has characters from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on it. They can move and talk! And the Read-A-Coaster has wagons that we can sit in.
I think about how Luala and Hannah did handstands this morning.
I write: The wagons go upside down, like on a real roller coaster. And the Book Odyssey is a fantastic . . .
I think of some more adjectives.
I write: . . . magical, extraordinary journey.
Spell writes: A Read-A-Coaster? Great!
I write back: It is great. And, double-great, Shaylene is going to turn into a squirrel!
I hear someone yell, “A unicorn!” Like the one from the book Phoe
be and Her Unicorn!
I’m about to go and look when I hear a scratching at my feet. A very angry little squirrel, with a tuft of green hair, natters at me. Shaylene! I look at what I just wrote.
I guess now Shaylene is just a regular squirrel. Not as smart as Ulysses the squirrel.
She chatters at me and I smile at her. “Let’s go and have fun, Shaylene!”
Shaylene sticks her squirrel tongue out at me and runs in the other direction.
SIX
I find Mom, Dad, and Anna in the crowd in the foyer waiting to see the Book Carousel. Shaylene the squirrel runs up to them.
Anna bends down and waves a finger.
“Hi, Shaylene!” she says. She really is very smart for a three-and-a-half-year-old. Anna tries to tell Mom that Shaylene is a squirrel. But Mom is shushing baby Finn. I put Spell down and try to help her. Baby Finn yells more. I know he loves me. But right now he’s as angry as a tiny bear.
“Don’t worry about Finn,” Mom says. “You’ve worked so hard on the fair—go enjoy it with your friends.”
I see Luala and Trixie walking together to the schoolyard. I catch up with them outside.
The chatter of excited kids fills the air. Next to Room 5A’s vegetable box is a roller coaster. A real roller coaster. I think about what I wrote in Spell. Just like a real roller coaster!
Its wagons are painted to look like books. And one of the wagons has a turquoise cover. Just like Spell.
Luala, Trixie, and I wait for the turquoise wagon to come around. Then the three of us climb in.
The wagon creaks under our feet.
We strap in. Before I can catch my breath, we whoosh into the air. Wheeee! The roller coaster loops and swoops over the school. We’re upside down! Then sideways and spinning in a corkscrew. We go around and then through the clouds.
We shudder to a halt back at school. Luala says, “Now that was a roller coaster!”
Trixie is laughing, but she looks a little green. “Let’s try something else,” she says.
Before I have time to think, Hannah and Trixie have grabbed my hands. “Off to the Book Carousel!”
When we get to the front of the line at the library, I can hardly believe my eyes. Wow! I had imagined that the Book Carousel would just be one of the regular library carousels for books—the round shelves that spin. I thought it would be decorated with all our favorite books. But Spell has made the carousel into an actual carousel, like at a carnival, with characters from the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to ride on.
The White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, and Dormouse already have people on them. I clamber onto the Cheshire Cat. Trixie sits on the Queen of Hearts. She waves to an imaginary audience. Luala gets onto the Mock Turtle. Tinkling music starts as the ride creaks and begins to move. The Cheshire Cat goes up and down—not so high at first. Then higher, higher. I can almost touch the library ceiling! We glide round and round. The books on the library shelves whiz by. So. Many. Books. I imagine exploding with happiness like a Polly-Diamond-Sparkle firework.
Trixie screams and points. “Polly! What happened to your cat?”
I look down. Whoa. It’s dizzying. It’s death-defying. It’s GONE! I remember that in the book, the Cheshire Cat vanishes. He leaves only his smile. And now my Cheshire Cat has vanished. His smile is all that is left to hold me up!
The music speeds up, and so does the carousel. The smile rises higher, then drops down. I hold my arms out for balance. We are going so fast now that I don’t dare jump off, but I don’t know how long I can sit on this smile!
With a sudden clang, the ride judders to a stop. I judder with it.
Trixie jumps off the Queen of Hearts. “This fair is wild!” she says.
“Come on!” yells Luala. “Let’s try the Book Odyssey next.”
SEVEN
The three of us head over to the Book Odyssey. But all I see is a pile of carpets. Nothing else. I guess I didn’t give Spell anything other than the word fantastic! But the Book Odyssey doesn’t seem fantastic at all. Where is Spell?
Luala shrugs and tells us she’s going to find her mom. Trixie and I look at the carpets.
“Let’s go back to the Read-A-Coaster,” she says.
“Wait!” I pull out one of the carpets and lay it in front of us. What if Spell thought that I meant an odyssey, like a real journey?! I say to Trixie, “What if it’s a magic carpet?”
Trixie giggles. But she gets onto the carpet with me.
“How do magic carpets work?” I ask.
“I think you have to say where you want to go,” says Trixie. “Like in the movies.”
“Of course!” My brain starts to swirl with ideas for all the places we could go. Terabithia from the book Bridge to Terabithia, or the Maldives, which Guinness World Records says is the world’s flattest country!
“Can we go to Hollywood?” Trixie asks.
“It has to be a place from a book,” I reply. “I can’t think of a Hollywood book right now!”
“How about London?” Trixie asks.
“I know a book. The London Eye Mystery. It’s super good.”
“To London, my good fellow!” Trixie says in what she thinks is a movie-star British accent.
The carpet wriggles and shakes underneath us. Trixie and I grab hold of each other. The carpet starts to fly down the hallway, passing the S.T.O.R.Y. Utopia posters. We’re going faster and faster. The end of the hallway is getting closer and closer.
And then I see it—a tiny door appears in front of us. It is sooo tiny, a hamster would just fit through. It makes me think of the tiny people in the book The Borrowers. The carpet shudders, then races toward the tiny doorway. Trixie and I scream. We’re going to crash!
But suddenly, the tiny door opens and we shoot through it. Somehow there is plenty of space. Space enough for a giant to go through! Trixie and I balance on the carpet. We soar through the air. We are high, high, high in the sky. But even as the carpet swishes from side to side, we don’t fall off.
We both slowly relax and start to look around.
“Look!” I point below. Through the clouds, I see green fields. In the distance are thousands of buildings. Millions. We speed over the rooftops. A white dome appears. “The Millennium Dome!” I cry. “Did you know that the world’s loudest scream was recorded at the Millennium Dome? I read about it in Guinness World Records!”
Trixie screams, just for fun. It is very loud! Maybe she has just set a new world record!
Like a glittery snake, a river wiggles along below us. The boats look like toys from up here.
“The River Thames! Look at the boats and bridges!” I see a large Ferris wheel. “That’s the London Eye,” I say. “And there are the Houses of Parliament. Did you know that the world’s tallest man and the world’s shortest man had tea on Guinness World Records Day right there!” I point at a grassy bank opposite the Houses of Parliament. “I read about it!”
We veer away from the river and glide over a park. Now below us lies a huge white building surrounded by black fences. Teeny black-fuzzy-hatted guards march around.
“It’s Buckingham Palace,” I call out. “I read about it when I was little—in the book Paddington at the Palace! And in The Royal Rabbits of London! They live in a warren underneath the palace!”
“Tea with the royal family,” Trixie says. She pretends to drink a cup of tea, her pinky raised. “I keep thinking we’ll see Mary Poppins flying past us!”
We swoop around one more corner. I remember reading about fancy English tea parties in the book The Winding Road to London, by Esmeralda Rock.
The carpet whizzes away from the palace gates and crosses the park. We see a long garden filled with roses leading to a huge house. The windows are the tallest I’ve ever seen. Inside are chandeliers, a long table, and tapestries.
I notice a small window on the top floor. I know from my word-a-day calendar that this top floor is called a garret. The carpet floats toward the garret window. Inside, a woman sits at a desk. She
is typing on a laptop. Beside her are shelves of books.
Many of the books have the same name on them: Esmeralda Rock. The author!
“I’ve read her books!” I whisper.
Esmeralda glances up. Her eyebrows gather. She squints. She rubs her eyes. Then she comes to the window and waves at us!
The carpet turns. We hurtle through the air. Glimmering in the middle of a cloud is a doorway the size of a box of crayons. Oh, no! Here we go again! Trixie and I scream. The door opens. We whiz through.
We land in our school hallway.
There is a huge roar.
Trixie and I jump off the carpet.
Then there is another roar!
EIGHT
Trixie and I push our way to the front of a crowd, and we see Dragon Dragons and a unicorn racing a shaggy dog. It looks like the dog in the book Because of Winn-Dixie. I wonder if it is Hannah. She loves that book.
Dragon Dragons is roaring very loudly. And he is definitely winning. He’s half running and half flying. Suddenly, the shaggy dog speeds up. It passes the dragon. It is definitely Hannah. She is the fastest kid in our class. She waves a paw and woofs. The dragon roars.
The clouds of cotton candy have grown bigger. Now they fill the ceilings and gloop down the walls. That is a lot of cotton candy!
Two teachers hustle past. They are chasing the Big Bad Wolf. Tweedledum and Tweedledee have escaped the carousel. They bustle toward the race.
Dragon Dragons roars at them.
The wolf runs after Little Red Riding Hood.
Polly Diamond and the Super Stunning Spectacular School Fair Page 2
