“Don’t be silly,” said his grandmother. “You must be curious to see your new sister. And what about seeing your mom?”
“I’ve been to the hospital three times already,” Monty replied. “Twice I went in an ambulance and once Dad drove me. It was when I had bad asthma attacks. So I’d rather go home now, especially since I feel all right.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling okay,” Grandma said. “But actually you’ve been to the hospital four times.”
“No,” said Monty shaking his head. “I remember. I only had to go three times.”
“Four,” his grandmother insisted. She started laughing. “You forgot to count when you were born.”
Monty laughed. “I didn’t forget,” he said. “I can’t remember that far back.”
“This will be your fifth visit. And let’s hope all your future visits will be happy ones like this,” Grandma said.
“All right,” Monty agreed. “Let’s go.”
And just a few minutes later, Monty got his first look at his sister, Mandy. She was tiny and bald and wrinkled and red.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” his mother asked him.
Monty didn’t want to hurt his mother’s feelings so he nodded.
But his grandma bent down and whispered, “You’ll see. In a few days she will be very beautiful. I promise. It’s like magic.”
Magic. Monty suddenly remembered the magic show at school that he had missed. But the truth was, he didn’t care. It was a different kind of magic to have a new baby when yesterday she didn’t exist at all. Now he had a sibling and he was a big brother. It was just amazing!
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2010 by Johanna Hurwitz
Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Anik Scannell McGrory
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2013
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Hurwitz, Johanna.
Amazing Monty / Johanna Hurwitz ; illustrated by Anik McGrory. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: First-grader Montgomery Gerald Morris enjoys an exciting year as his class acquires a pair of parakeets as pets, he loses his first tooth, and he becomes a big brother.
ISBN 978-0-7636-4154-2 (hardcover)
[1. Schools — Fiction. 2. Family life — Fiction. 3. Pets — Fiction. 4. Babies — Fiction.] I. McGrory, Anik, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.H9574Au 2010
[E] — dc22 2008045982
ISBN 978-0-7636-6561-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7636-6706-1 (electronic)
The illustrations were done in watercolor.
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