by Judy Delton
“The custodian?” asked Tim.
The rest of the Pee Wees giggled. They knew the custodian was not in charge of knowing author’s names.
“No,” said Mrs. Peters. “You ask a librarian, or a media consultant.”
After that she talked about taking care of the books.
“You have to be sure and return the book by the due date,” she said. “Others might be waiting for the book.”
“What if I’m not through with it?” asked Tracy.
“Then you have to renew it,” said their leader. “That means return it and take it out again.”
“What if I lose it?” asked Sonny.
“You have to take very good care of the books, Sonny,” said Mrs. Peters. “Be sure they don’t get wet or dirty or misplaced. Readers must be responsible borrowers.”
“Once my library book fell into the bathtub,” said Lisa. “When it dried out it was all wrinkled.”
“You have to be very, very careful with the books,” their leader said, frowning. “And always carry them in a plastic book bag in case of rain.”
“Or in case of bathtubs!” roared Roger.
After Mrs. Peters told them all the library rules and how to take books out and how to handle them, she announced, “And now I think we are ready to go and get those library cards, so that we can get started reading and reporting and earning our new badge!”
“And a prize,” said Tracy. “Don’t forget the prize.”
CHAPTER 4
Baby Books and
Dirty Looks
“If I knew what the prize was,” said Tracy on the way to the library, “I’d know how hard to work at this.”
“She’s right,” said Mary Beth to Molly. “What if it’s a dumb prize like a ruler or a box of crayons? I don’t want to write all those reports for that.”
Molly didn’t tell Mary Beth she was looking forward to writing the reports. She loved to read and write. She didn’t need any prize to make her do it. But just as at school, no one liked kids who did the most work.
“All we really have to do is get our library card and bang, we get our badge, just like that,” said Tracy.
At the library the Pee Wees filled out the forms Mrs. Nelson, the librarian, gave them. She beamed at them. “I’m so glad to have lots of new customers,” she said.
“I’m already your customer,” said Rachel, who didn’t have to fill out the form. “I love to read.”
“Me too,” said Lisa. “My mom takes out books for me on her card.”
All the Pee Wees nodded.
“But having your own card is different,” said Mrs. Nelson.
Molly wondered why it was different. The books were the same. The due date was the same. The rules were the same. Rat’s knees, it wouldn’t matter if she never got a card of her own! But if Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Nelson thought it was important, it was easier to do it than to argue. And anyway, they would get a badge for it. That was reason enough.
Molly filled in her name, address, and grade. She signed her name where it said she would be responsible for the books she took out. She noticed that Tim was having trouble spelling the name of his street. He kept erasing it and starting over. Molly told him how to sound out the word. The paper was wrinkled and messy when he was through.
“Now, before you can get your actual card,” said Mrs. Nelson in a businesslike voice, “one of your parents must sign the form. They have to say that they will be responsible in case you lose a book or don’t return it on time.”
“My mom says she has enough responsibility,” said Tim. “I don’t think she’ll sign this.”
Mrs. Peters smiled. “I’ll talk to her,” she said.
“Now, even though you can’t take the books home today,” said Mrs. Nelson, “you can feel free to read them here.”
Molly knew that. She came to the library all the time to read. And her mother took books home for her every week. This was turning out to be a baby badge. Mrs. Peters must be short of ideas. She was scraping the bottom of the barrel, as Molly’s grandmother would say. Wasn’t there a book of badges for scout leaders? Wasn’t there a leader of the leaders they could call, like a 911 number for emergency assistance?
Maybe Mrs. Peters should ask the Pee Wees to come up with badge ideas. Molly could think of lots of badges she’d like to earn! A zoo badge for tending animals, an in-line skating badge, a camping-in-the-wilderness badge, a snowshoe badge, even a video games badge. Those wouldn’t be baby badges.
Molly frowned. Perhaps those badges would be too dangerous. An animal might bite one of the Pee Wees. Someone could fall off their skates and hit their head on the sidewalk. A snake might attack them in the wilderness, or a bear might come into their tent and eat them.
All of a sudden Molly noticed everyone staring at her. She was the only one daydreaming. She was the only one not reading a book. It was her wild imagination at work. When it took over, she lost track of what was happening around her. Sometimes she didn’t even hear people talking to her!
Molly got a book from the shelf.
“I’m taking all short books,” said Sonny. “With big printing.”
Roger was doing that too, Molly noticed. He had a big pile of books that looked as if they were for babies! Some of them had only three words on a page. And some pages had no words, just pictures! Roger had a notebook and pencil, and as soon as he opened a book, he wrote a sentence about it on a sheet of paper. In a few minutes he had ten book reports done. He took the books back to the shelf and got ten more.
“Rat’s knees,” whispered Molly to Mary Beth. “That’s cheating!”
“Well, it’s his loss,” said Mary Beth, who sounded as if she was using her mother’s words. “He misses out on reading good books.”
Molly could not keep her attention on The Boxcar Children. For every page she turned, Roger had two more reports written!
Now he was reading board books.
“My baby brother has those,” said Mary Beth. “And he’s only nine months old.” Now she looked alarmed too. “No one else will have a chance,” Mary Beth grumbled.
Tim asked Molly what d-o-g was. Then he asked about g-a-r-a-g-e.
All of a sudden Lisa began to giggle at something in her book. Rachel looked over her shoulder, and she began to giggle too. Before long most of the Pee Wees were giggling, and Mrs. Peters had to hold up her hand for silence.
Molly had a hard time concentrating on her book with all the disturbances. She decided it was cozier to read in her little bed with her lamp on after supper.
By the time Mrs. Peters said it was time to go, Roger had almost filled his notebook, and Molly had read only five pages. She would not have a chance at the prize! She gave Roger some dirty looks, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Roger was definitely the thirteenth scout. He was bad luck, no matter what Mrs. Peters said. If he left there would be twelve scouts, and the prize would be won fair and square.
Roger was definitely cheating. They probably couldn’t get rid of him, but Molly could report him. If Molly reported him, would he try to get back at her? Roger liked revenge. He could be mean. But no one should get away with cheating. Especially a Pee Wee Scout!
CHAPTER 5
Billions of Books
“Mrs. Peters,” said Rachel on the way home in the van. “Roger is reading baby books with almost no words in them. Is that fair?”
Roger stuck his tongue out at Rachel.
Mrs. Peters frowned. “I can’t tell anyone what books to choose,” she said thoughtfully, “but I think if any of you want to read baby books, perhaps ten of them will count as just one book report.”
Rachel looked happy. “Good,” she said. Molly was glad that Roger had got caught and that she hadn’t had to tattle on him. Rachel was brave. And ten baby books to one real book seemed fair.
“Those are real books, dummy,” said Roger to Rachel when they got out of the van and started walking home.
“Hah,” she replied.
/> When Molly got home her mother signed the library form. Her dad said, “Do you think you’re ready to have a card of your own? Are you responsible?”
Molly was alarmed at her dad’s words. He knew she was responsible and dependable! When she opened her mouth to tell him so, she noticed that he was smiling. He had been kidding. Mr. Duff was a great kidder.
Molly pretended to punch her dad on the arm.
“You do have to take care of the books,” her dad reminded her. “When the books are on your card, if you lose one, it will be up to you to replace it.”
Molly nodded. That was silly. It would never happen. How could she lose a book when she was so careful with her things?
“Nobody likes getting this badge,” said Molly. “They like to read, but writing reports is too much like school. It’s Roger who’s bringing us bad luck. He’s the thirteenth Pee Wee.”
“How do you know he’s the thirteenth?” asked Mr. Duff.
“Because if he left, there would be twelve,” said Molly.
“If anyone left, there would be twelve,” said Molly’s mother.
Her mother was right, thought Molly. Still, twelve would be a better number than thirteen. If it was Roger who left, it would be an extra treat. The Pee Wees’ good luck would be guaranteed. Troop 23 would be under full warranty, just like her mom’s new car tires or the family washing machine.
When the phone rang it was for Molly.
“Let’s take our forms back to the library tomorrow, instead of waiting for the meeting,” Mary Beth said. “Then we can take piles of books out and get a head start.”
“Okay,” said Molly.
But when they got to the library in the morning, there was a long line of Pee Wees ahead of them. Everyone was turning in signed forms and waiting for cards.
“Rat’s knees,” said Molly. “Those guys will get the best books now.”
“There are lots and lots of books,” said Mrs. Nelson, who had overheard Molly.
But when it was finally Molly’s turn and she got her card, only books about health and vitamins and tooth care were left.
“Psst!” whispered Mary Beth from behind the stacks three aisles down. “Come on over here. These are books for older kids.”
Molly joined her where the books for sixth- and seventh-graders were.
“These will take longer to read,” said Molly.
“But they’re better books,” said Mary Beth. “Some of them are even about dating. And kissing. They aren’t full of simple stuff.”
All of a sudden their own books seemed silly. Mary Beth was right. The books for older kids were much better.
“Maybe they won’t let us take these out,” said Molly.
“Pooh,” said her friend. “They can’t keep us from reading what we want. We have our own cards now.”
Molly took a chapter book that looked good off the shelf. It began in a church where someone’s sister was getting married. It had no pictures. It was solid words.
The girls read the first sentence in lots of books, and finally they each had a pile to check out.
Molly was nervous when she took the books to the checkout desk. What if Mrs. Nelson said, “Oh, Molly, you aren’t old enough to read these!” She would be embarrassed. She would have to put them all back!
But that didn’t happen. Mrs. Nelson was busy showing a library helper how to arrange books on a cart. All she said when she checked out the books was, “Have a good day, Molly.”
The girls ran to Mary Beth’s front porch and climbed into the big wicker chairs to read. Her mother brought them a plate of hot cookies and some lemonade.
Molly munched away and started the book about the haunted house. There were a lot of words on the first page. Big words.
“What does e-m-p-h-a-t-i-c-a-l-l-y mean?” Molly spelled.
Mary Beth frowned. “I’ll get our dictionary,” she said.
It took a long time to find the word. Finally they did.
“It’s an adverb, it says. It means ‘with emphasis,’ ” said Mary Beth.
“What is emphasis?” asked Molly.
Mary Beth slid her finger down the row of words.
“It says, ‘prominence, stress,’ ” she announced.
“Rat’s knees!” said Molly. “What good is a dictionary if the words that tell you what a word means are so big you can’t understand them?”
“I think stress is when you worry a lot,” said Mary Beth. “My mom says my dad’s job is full of stress.”
Molly looked at the word in her book. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said.
The girls closed the dictionary. Molly curled up with her new book again. Before long she came to another long word. This was not going well. It was all Roger’s fault!
Molly put down her book and opened the dictionary again. This time the word wasn’t there!
“What do we do when the word isn’t even in the dictionary?” said Molly.
Mary Beth shrugged. “I’ll ask my mom. There are three words in my book I don’t know either.”
Mary Beth took Molly’s book and her own and went to look for her mother. But her mother was talking to the next-door neighbor. Mary Beth asked her sister the words, but she didn’t know.
“It’s going to take us forever to read one book at this rate!” said Mary Beth.
“We’ll never get the prize if we have to look up every word, or ask someone,” said Molly.
“Let’s skip the words we don’t know,” said Mary Beth.
What a good idea, thought Molly, and settled down again.
But skipping so many words was not working, she soon found.
“I don’t know what’s happening in this book!” said Molly.
“Neither do I,” said Mary Beth. “Maybe we should take these books back.”
The girls put their books in their book bags and trudged back to the library. When they got there, Tim was sitting on the steps. He looked as if he was going to cry.
“Look!” he said, holding up a book with black-and-white pictures in it.
The problem was that the pictures were not all black and white. Someone had taken red, blue, and green crayons and colored some of them in.
“My baby brother did it!” said Tim. “And I don’t have any money to pay for the book! Neither does my mom! Will I have to go to jail?”
Poor Tim, thought Molly. He couldn’t write! He couldn’t spell! And now the police were after him! It just wasn’t fair.
CHAPTER 6
Jailbirds
The girls forgot all about their books with the big words. Their problem was a small one. If Tim couldn’t pay for the ruined book, he might be locked up! A Pee Wee Scout in jail! At least Molly and Mary Beth couldn’t be locked up for not knowing the big words.
Instead of going to the library on Tuesdays, would Troop 23 be going to visit Tim in jail? Would they be baking cookies and cakes to take to him? Maybe Mrs. Peters would have meetings in jail, instead of in her basement.
“Come with us,” said Mary Beth to Tim. “Let’s go to my house and think about how to save you.”
The girls took their books in and returned them. Molly checked out some others that did not look very exciting but did have words that she could read. On the way back to the Kellys’, she dropped them off at her house. She put the books on the hall floor and called to her mom that she was going to Mary Beth’s again.
Tim was crying all the way, and tears rolled down his cheeks and onto the sidewalk. “I don’t want to go to jail!” he said.
“It’s your first offense,” said Molly. “It might be like not wearing your seat belt. You’ll just get a warning.”
Mary Beth shook her head. “The book is ruined,” she said. “And it’s city property.”
Tim cried harder.
“We’ll think of something,” said Molly. “Nothing is hopeless.”
When they reached the Kellys’, Mary Beth got erasers.
“You can’t erase crayon,” said Tim.
�
��We have to!” said Molly.
But the more they erased, the worse the book looked. The color spread to the whole page instead of just part of it. The blue mixed with the yellow and made an ugly greenish color.
“You guys are making it worse,” sobbed Tim. “It looked better before.”
Were they accomplices in crime, wondered Molly? Would they be jailbirds along with Tim? Earning this new badge was definitely not going well.
The three sat and looked at the book.
“Maybe,” said Mary Beth, “we should cut out the bad pages and make new ones.”
“Cutting pages out of a book is not a good idea,” said Molly. The very thought scared her. “And we couldn’t make the new ones look real. Rat’s knees! What are we going to do?”
“Maybe we should just take it back and put it in the book box,” said Tim.
“You’ll still have to pay,” said Molly sensibly. “They have your name.”
At her words, Tim began to howl all over again. “My mom will kill me,” he sobbed.
Molly put her arm around him. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I have an idea. We’ll earn some money to pay for it. We’ll sell something.” It was the first thing she could think of to say.
“Scouts sell donuts to raise money for camp,” said Tim.
“Well then, that’s the answer,” said Mary Beth. “We’ll sell donuts.”
“Where will we get them?” asked Tim.
Molly frowned. One problem led to another. Nothing was easy, it seemed.
“At the store, of course,” said Mary Beth.
“We need money to buy donuts,” said Molly.
“Maybe we should sell something we already have,” said Mary Beth. “That would be cheaper. We’ve got some old Halloween stuff in our basement my mom says we should get rid of. I’ll go get it.”
Mary Beth came back with lots of old plastic pumpkins, goblins, and costumes.
“They look used,” said Tim.
“Well, we can’t be fussy,” snapped Mary Beth. “We can’t afford new stuff!”
