Tip-Top Tappin' Mom!

by Nancy Krulik

  Mr. G. grinned. “Welcome to the world of geography!”

  Huh? The kids all looked at their teacher strangely.

  “Does anyone know what geography is?” Mr. G. asked the kids.

  Emma W. raised her hand shyly. “It’s a science,” she said. “And it studies all the physical features of the Earth.”

  “That’s right,” Mr. G. told her with a smile. He turned to the rest of the class. “By the time we’ve finished this learning adventure, you’ll all know the world a lot better. But before we can start, you dudes know what you have to do!”

  “Decorate our beanbags!” Katie squealed excitedly.

  “Exactly,” Mr. G. told her. “So go to it!”

  Katie ran over to the big box of decorations Mr. G. had left for the kids to use. She loved decorating her beanbag. It was one of the most fun things about being in class 4A.

  The kids in Katie’s classroom didn’t sit at desks like other kids. Mr. G. thought kids learned better when they were comfortable. So they all sat in beanbag chairs. And every time they started a new learning adventure, the kids got to decorate them.

  Katie had an especially good time decorating her beanbag this time. Last year, her family had been to Europe. They’d visited England, France, Spain, and Italy. So Katie decorated her beanbag with magazine pictures from each of those countries.

  As she worked, Katie looked around at what the other kids were doing.

  Emma S. had taped pictures of Hawaii all over her beanbag. She’d even made a newspaper palm tree.

  Kevin was busy using blocks to build the Great Wall of China all around his beanbag.

  Kadeem had covered the sides of his beanbag with blue and green tissue paper. Now he was drawing fish all over it. Katie figured he was making an ocean.

  George’s beanbag was the strangest one in the whole class. So far, all he’d done was cover it with white paper and cotton balls.

  “What are you doing?” Katie asked him.

  “My beanbag’s the North Pole,” George told her. “There’s nothing up there but ice and snow.”

  “That’s not exactly true, George,” Mr. G. told him. “There are mountains, water, and other landforms up there. You’ll have to learn all about that before our Geography Bee.”

  “Our what?” Mandy asked.

  “Geography Bee,” Mr. G. repeated. “It’s like a spelling bee. But instead of spelling words, you’ll be asked questions about geography. The whole fourth grade is going to be participating.”

  “Let’s make sure the winner is from our class!” Mandy declared.

  “Definitely,” Andy agreed.

  Katie knew Mandy and Andy were going to study really hard to win the Geography Bee. Winning was very important to both of them.

  Then again, winning was important to a lot of kids in class 4B, too. Especially Suzanne and Jeremy. Katie figured they were going to work hard to make sure no one in Katie’s class won the Geography Bee. If that happened and class 4B wound up winning, Suzanne would never let Katie—or anyone else in class 4A—forget it!

  The thought of that made Katie want to work extra hard.

  “Hurry up, you guys, finish decorating,” Katie urged her classmates. “We have to get studying. It’s a big world out there!”

  Chapter 6

  “Thanks for inviting me to study at your house, Katie,” Emma W. said as the girls walked home together after school that afternoon. “It’s so noisy at my house.”

  Katie nodded. She knew what Emma W. meant. Emma W. had three younger brothers and a teenage sister. Someone was always screaming, crying, or talking on the phone at her house. But Katie was an only child. It was always nice and quiet at the Carew house.

  “I checked this atlas out of the library today,” Katie said, holding up a big book. “It’s got maps and facts about every country in the world.”

  “Awesome,” Emma W. said. “We can make note cards with facts on them and test each other.”

  “Great idea!” Katie agreed.

  Katie’s mom was in the kitchen when the girls walked in. She was wearing a leotard and her tap shoes.

  “Mom, you were dancing today!” Katie exclaimed happily.

  “I just got home from my first lesson,” Mrs. Carew told the girls. “It was so much fun!”

  “I knew you’d love it,” Katie told her.

  “Why don’t you girls sit down? I’ll fix you a snack before you do your homework,” Katie’s mom suggested.

  “Thanks,” Katie said. “Please make it a really big snack. We need lots of energy to memorize geography facts.”

  “That’s true,” Emma W. agreed. “But maybe we should study while we eat so we don’t waste any time.”

  “Great idea!” Katie told her. She sat down at the kitchen table and opened up her atlas. “Let’s start with Africa.”

  As the girls read about the Aberdare mountain range in Kenya, Mrs. Carew busied herself getting the girls cookies and milk. Even when she walked over to the refrigerator, her tap shoes clicked and clacked on the floor.

  “Heel tap, ball tap, shuffle,” Mrs. Carew murmured to herself. “Heel tap, ball tap . . .”

  Katie smiled. Her mom was dancing in the kitchen. She’d had so much fun in class, she didn’t want to stop now.

  “That’s pretty good, Mom,” she told her.

  “It’s coming back to me,” her mom agreed.

  “Tap dancing looks like a lot of fun,” Emma W. said.

  “It is,” Mrs. Carew replied.

  A few minutes later, when the girls had finished their snacks, they went into the living room. There was plenty of room for them both to look at the big atlas and to start making their note cards.

  The only trouble was, the living room was right near the kitchen. And the kitchen was where Katie’s mom was.

  Click, clack. Tap, tap. Click, clack. Tap, tap.

  “Your mom sure loves tap dancing,” Emma W. told Katie.

  “I know,” Katie agreed. “Those lessons were the best gift I ever got her.”

  Tap, tap. Click, clack.

  Katie tried hard to focus on the map of Africa in the atlas, but the noise was making it hard.

  “Ruff! Ruff!”

  Oh, no! Now Pepper was barking along with the tapping.

  Tap, tap.

  “Ruff! Ruff!”

  Finally Emma W. looked over at Katie. “I think I’m going to go home,” she said in her sweet, kind voice. “I’m having a little trouble studying.”

  “I know what you mean,” Katie agreed.

  Emma W. picked up her book bag and started to laugh. “You know, I never thought any place could be noisier than my house,” she said.

  Katie listened to the tapping and the barking coming from the kitchen. “I never did, either,” she told Emma W. “But today my house wins!”

  Katie was sitting on the front porch when her dad’s car pulled up in the driveway that evening.

  “What are you doing out here?” her dad asked her.

  “Studying geography,” Katie answered.

  “Outside?” He sounded surprised. “It’s getting kind of dark.”

  “I know,” Katie agreed. “But it’s too noisy to study inside. Mom’s tap dancing. And Pepper is barking a lot.”

  “Oh.” Mr. Carew sat down next to Katie. “Well, at least you know Mom liked your gift.” He looked down at the atlas Katie had been studying. “Geography, huh? That was always my favorite subject.”

  “We’re having a Geography Bee next week,” Katie told her dad. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can.”

  “An atlas is great,” Mr. Carew agreed. “But I have another book upstairs that might help you, too.”

  “Ooh! Let’s go get it!” Katie pleaded.

  “After dinner,” her dad promised.

  “Do you think Mom will stop dancing long enough to eat?” Katie asked him.

  Mr. Carew shrugged. “If not, we’ll have a show to watch with our dinner,” he joked. “Just like when we saw tha
t flamenco dancer in Spain.”

  Katie gulped. She remembered that show. That was the time the magic wind turned her into a flamenco dancer. She’d fallen off the stage and splashed rice and seafood all over the audience. What a mess!

  She sure hoped tonight’s dinner would be more peaceful than that!

  Chapter 7

  But dinnertime was just as noisy as the afternoon had been.

  First, Katie’s mom tapped from the oven to the table with the vegetarian lasagna.

  Then she twirled from the refrigerator to the table with the milk.

  Finally she shuffle-stepped from the counter to the table with the chocolate cake.

  “This dinner sure was tip-top,” Mr. Carew told Katie’s mom.

  “Tip-top tap,” Katie joked.

  Katie’s mom curtsied. “Thank you, my adoring fans,” she joked.

  After dinner, Katie and her dad went upstairs to look at his special geography book.

  “I really want to do well in the Geography Bee,” Katie told her dad. “Maybe I’ll even win.”

  “You can try,” Mr. Carew answered. “And this will definitely help.”

  Katie’s dad pulled a big black binder from the top of a bookshelf. He opened it to a page in the middle.

  Katie looked at the book. She was a little confused. “Stickers?” she asked. “How can a sticker book help me win the Geography Bee?”

  Mr. Carew shook his head. “Look closer,” he said. “They’re not stickers. They’re stamps.”

  “They’re not like any stamps I’ve ever seen,” Katie told him.

  “That’s because they’re from different countries,” her dad explained. “See that one with the ballerina painting on it? It’s from France. The colorful one with the horse and carriage is from China. And the one in the corner with Noah’s Ark is from Israel.”

  “This is so cool!” Katie exclaimed. “I didn’t know you collected stamps.”

  “I started when I was about your age,” her dad told her. “It’s a lot of fun. I used to imagine I lived in all these different places.”

  “Where’s that red one with the boat on it from?” Katie asked.

  Mr. Carew looked closely at the stamp. “New Guinea,” he said.

  “Where’s that?” Katie asked him.

  “I’ll show you,” her dad answered. He turned the page and showed Katie a map of the world. There were stamps all over the map. “I tried to put the stamps on the countries they came from.” He pointed to an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. “See, there’s another copy of that stamp. And that’s where New Guinea is.”

  “This is great,” Katie said.

  Mr. Carew nodded. “You can look at it for as long as you like,” he told Katie. “I have a lot of other albums, too. Just be careful. A lot of these stamps are kind of old.”

  “You can count on me, Dad,” Katie told him. “I won’t let anything happen to your stamps. I promise!”

  Chapter 8

  A few days later, Katie and Emma W. went to the Cherrydale Mall after school. Katie’s mom was the manager of the Book Nook bookstore. Katie had been coming to the mall since she was a little kid. Nearly everyone who worked there knew her.

  “You want to go have a pizza at Louie’s?” Katie asked Emma W. “I can ask him to make my favorite veggie pizza.”

  “Yum!” Emma W. exclaimed. “We can study our geography flash cards while we eat. I want to go over the Asian countries again.”

  Katie walked to the front of the bookstore, where her mom was hanging a poster on the wall.

  “We’re going to Louie’s for some pizza and studying,” Katie told her mom.

  “Great idea,” Mrs. Carew said. She stepped back and looked at her poster. “Does that look straight to you?” she asked the girls.

  Emma W. nodded. “What is a Tap-Off ?” she asked, reading the poster.

  “It’s an event that Miss Ricky’s dance school is having,” Katie’s mom explained. “We’re trying to get as many people as we can to tap dance in the parking lot outside the mall. Our goal is to break a record for the most people tap dancing at one time.”

  “Why are you doing that?” Katie asked her.

  “Miss Ricky wants to get people interested in tap dancing,” her mother explained. “Hopefully, newspaper and TV reporters will come and do stories about the Tap-Off. Then people will want to take lessons.”

  “Cool,” Emma W. said. “Can I be one of the dancers? I mean, I’ve never taken tap dancing, but . . .”

  “Of course you can dance with us. Miss Ricky is going to teach the routine to everyone,” Katie’s mom told Emma W. “Also, a few of the dancers from Miss Ricky’s school will be at the front of the crowd. You can watch them and follow what they do. I’m trying out to be one of those dancers.”

  “Cool! You could be on TV,” Katie said.

  “If I’m chosen,” her mom replied. “I hope I’m good enough.”

  “I’m sure you are,” Emma W. told her. “Katie says all you do is practice tap dancing.”

  Mrs. Carew gave Katie a funny look, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Are you ready to go to Louie’s now?” Katie asked Emma W.

  “Sure,” Emma W. told her. “Good-bye, Mrs. Carew.”

  “Bye, Emma,” Mrs. Carew answered. “I’ll see you at the Tap-Off.”

  “You sure will,” Emma W. said.

  “Bye, Mom,” Katie said.

  “See you later, Katie,” Mrs. Carew called after her.

  As the girls walked out of the store, Emma W. asked Katie, “Are you going to dance in the Tap-Off ?”

  Katie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Don’t you think it’s great that your mom is going to audition to be one of the dancers who gets to be on TV?” Emma W. asked.

  “No,” Katie said.

  “Why?” Emma W. wondered.

  “Because that’s going to mean I’ll have to hear a lot more tap-tap-tapping,” Katie told her.

  A few minutes later, Katie and Emma W. were sitting in a booth at Louie’s Pizza Shop. They were sipping orange sodas and waiting for their veggie pizza with extra broccoli.

  Emma W. held up a flash card. “The Yellow River is on which continent?” she asked.

  “That’s easy,” Katie said. “Asia. It’s in China.”

  “Exactly right,” Emma W. told her.

  Now it was Katie’s turn to hold up a flash card. “Fiji is an island in which ocean?”

  “The Pacific Ocean,” Emma W. answered.

  “You got it!” Katie exclaimed. “My dad has the coolest stamp from Fiji. It has pretty yellow mushrooms on it.”

  Just then, Suzanne and her mom walked into Louie’s. Suzanne was carrying a lot of shopping bags. Her mom looked very tired.

  “Wow! You’ve been busy,” Katie said to Suzanne.

  “I’m studying,” Suzanne explained.

  Katie and Emma W. looked at her strangely.

  “How is shopping studying?” Emma W. wondered.

  Suzanne pulled a pink cap out of one bag. “This would keep me warm in Antarctica, which is near the South Pole.”

  Katie doubted a little cotton cap would be much help in Antarctica, but she didn’t say anything.

  Suzanne held up a bathing suit next. “If I were in the Amazon rain forest, where it’s very hot, I’d need this.”

  “It’s actually for Suzanne to wear this summer,” Mrs. Lock told Katie and Emma W.

  Suzanne scowled at her mom. “Right now, it’s for studying,” she insisted. “I’ve been studying hard for the Geography Bee. I’m planning on winning.”

  “So are we,” Katie told Suzanne. “In fact, we’re studying right now.”

  Suzanne looked around. “Where are your packages?” she asked.

  Katie and Emma W. started to laugh.

  “Only you could turn a Geography Bee into a fashion show, Suzanne,” Katie said.

  Just then, Louie brought the veggie pizza over to the table. Katie and E
mma W. offered Suzanne and her mother a slice.

  Suzanne folded her slice in half and started to take a bite. A big glob of tomato-covered cheese fell on her shirt.

  “Oh, no!” Suzanne moaned.

  “Don’t worry, Suzanne,” Katie said. “Pizza is from Italy. Now you have an Italian shirt. It’s studying!”

  Suzanne gave Katie a funny look. Then she smiled. “You’re right. And Italy is a country that’s shaped like a boot. Boots are in fashion these days.”

  “I wonder if that will be a question in the Geography Bee,” Emma W. teased.

  “If it is, I’m ready!” Suzanne exclaimed happily as she took a big bite of her Italian pizza.

  Chapter 9

  Tap. Shuffle. Stomp.

  That was pretty much all Katie heard for the next few days as her mom practiced for her big audition. It was kind of annoying, but Katie had to admit that her mom was becoming a really good dancer.

  “You’re definitely going to be picked to be in the front at the Tap-Off,” Katie told her mom as the two of them walked into the studio on Saturday for the audition.

  “I hope so,” Mrs. Carew replied. “I’ve been practicing really hard. I think I have the whole routine memorized.”

  Katie was sure her mom had the routine memorized. After seeing it over and over again, Katie practically knew the whole thing by heart.

  “I’m so glad you came with me today,” Katie’s mom continued. “It will help me a lot to see you sitting there.”

  Katie tried to smile. She was glad she could be there to support her mom. But part of her also really wished she didn’t have to see—or hear—any more tap dancing.

  Katie followed her mother into a large dance studio. “You can sit over there,” Katie’s mom said, pointing to a row of chairs. “I’m going to warm up.”

  Katie sat down in one of the chairs and watched the dancers stretch their arms and legs. But after a few minutes, Katie got a little squirmy. She got up to walk around a bit.

  Actually, Miss Ricky’s School of Dance was kind of a neat place. There were lots of studios. But everyone was in the big studio where the auditions were being held.