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Tip-Top Tappin' Mom!

Page 3

by Nancy Krulik


  Katie wandered into one of the smaller studios. It was empty. She looked at herself in the mirror. She pointed her toe. Then she tapped her foot and twirled around. It was hard not to dance in a room like this. But Katie was glad no one was there to see her. She was definitely not as good a dancer as her mom was.

  Just then, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. That was weird. There were no windows in the studio. And the fan wasn’t turned on.

  Where was the breeze coming from?

  The breeze turned into a wind and began blowing colder and harder until it was like a wild tornado. A tornado that was spinning only around Katie.

  Oh, no! This wasn’t an ordinary wind. It was the magic wind. And boy, was it blowing. The wind was so fierce, Katie was afraid it might blow her all the way to the continent of Asia or even Antarctica! Katie shut her eyes tight and tried not to cry.

  And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.

  So was Katie Kazoo. She’d been turned into someone else. One, two, switcheroo!

  The question was, who?

  Katie stood there a minute with her eyes shut. All around her, she heard the tap-tap-tapping of dancers in tap shoes.

  That was weird. A moment ago, she was alone in the little studio. The magic wind had blown her back into the big studio. As she opened her eyes, Katie saw lots of dancers all around her. The only one she didn’t see was her mom.

  At least not at first. But as she turned around, Katie spotted her mom’s reflection in the mirror. Mrs. Carew seemed to be standing in the middle of the room with a confused look on her face.

  Katie tried to smile in her mom’s direction to make her feel more confident.

  Her mom gave Katie the same exact smile.

  Katie waved at her mom in the mirror.

  Her mom waved to Katie at the exact same time.

  Katie looked down at her feet. She was wearing tap shoes!

  Tap . . . tap . . . shuffle. Katie moved her feet back and forth.

  Tap . . . tap . . . shuffle. The mom in the mirror moved her feet back and forth.

  Uh-oh! That could only mean one thing. Katie had turned into her mom—right before the big audition! Katie had to get out of there. Right away. She turned and started to run out of the studio. The heels on her tap shoes went clickety clack, clickety clack as she ran.

  But it was too late.

  “Okay, dancers,” Miss Ricky announced. “It’s time to start the auditions. First on our list is Wendy Carew.”

  Katie gulped. This was soooo not good!

  Chapter 10

  Katie wanted to run and hide somewhere until the magic wind came to turn her back into a fourth-grade girl. But she knew she couldn’t do that. Not now. Her mother had been practicing all week for this audition. Katie had to at least try and help her out.

  So Katie took her place in the middle of the dance floor. She stood tall as Miss Ricky put the CD in the player. And then the music started. Katie knew the song right away. It was an old tune called “That’s Entertainment.” Her mom had played it over and over as she practiced.

  “Toe. Heel. Ball change,” Katie whispered to herself as she moved her feet the way she’d seen her mother do it. “Hop. Toe. Stomp.”

  Katie smiled. She was really getting the feel of it. And so far, the routine was going okay. She even thought she saw Miss Ricky smile back at her.

  Ball change. Heel. Toe. Spin.

  Katie began to spin around the way she’d seen her mother twirl in the kitchen. She tapped her toes a little faster as she turned, keeping in time with the music.

  Heel. Toe. Spin.

  Whoa. Suddenly Katie started to feel dizzy. She stopped spinning. But the room didn’t. Everything seemed to be turning around and around, even though Katie was standing still.

  Katie tried to keep dancing. She moved across the dance floor tapping her feet. But the room kept spinning.

  Whoops! Katie tripped over her right foot. She fell right on her rear end.

  At first, no one said anything. Then a few of the dancers began to giggle—quietly, like they were trying not to hurt Katie’s feelings.

  But Katie heard them. And her feelings were hurt. She was really embarrassed.

  “Are you okay, Wendy?” Miss Ricky asked her.

  Wendy! Katie had almost forgotten that she wasn’t Katie anymore. She was her mom. That made things even worse.

  Tears began streaming down Katie’s face. She had to get out of that awful dance studio right away!

  “I’m fine.” Katie sobbed as she ran out of the room.

  A moment later, Katie was sitting all by herself on the floor of one of the empty studios.

  “I sure made a mess of things this time,” Katie whispered sadly to herself.

  Just then, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. And before she even had a chance to look for an open window or a fan, the breeze grew into a strong wind. A second later, it was a tornado that was blowing just around Katie.

  The magic wind had returned!

  The wind began to spin faster and faster. It whirled around Katie so powerfully, she was sure it would blow her away.

  And then it stopped. Just like that. Katie Kazoo was back!

  So was her mom. And boy, did she look confused.

  “How did I get into this room?” Katie’s mom asked.

  “You came in here after I . . . I mean after you . . .” Katie began. She wasn’t really sure what to say.

  Mrs. Carew rubbed her rear end. “I’m really sore,” she complained. “I feel like I fell on my . . .” She stopped for a minute. “I did fall, didn’t I?”

  Katie nodded.

  “Wow,” Mrs. Carew continued. “I kind of remember getting dizzy out there after my spin, but it’s all sort of fuzzy.”

  “You started out really great,” Katie assured her.

  “That audition was a disaster,” Mrs. Carew told Katie. She frowned sadly. “I think maybe it’s time for me to find a new hobby.”

  Now Katie felt really awful. “You can’t stop dancing,” she told her mom.

  Mrs. Carew smiled at Katie. “I know you wanted me to have fun with my gift,” she said. “And I did. But I’m just not a very good dancer anymore.”

  “Yes, you are,” Katie told her. “I just started to spin too fast.”

  “You what?” her mom asked.

  Oops. “I mean you were just spinning fast,” Katie corrected herself. “That’s why you got dizzy.”

  Katie’s mother sighed and shook her head. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go home. I need to get out of this place.”

  Chapter 11

  The next day it was very quiet at Katie’s house. There was no tapping, stomping, or clapping. It was the perfect place to study. That made Katie very sad.

  “Your mom’s not going to dance at all anymore?” Emma W. asked her. She and George had come over to look at some of Katie’s dad’s stamp albums.

  Katie shook her head. “Mom put the tap shoes away. She says she’s looking for a new hobby.”

  “She should try archery,” George suggested. “That’s my dad’s hobby. He’s teaching me how to shoot arrows now.”

  “That’s really cool,” Emma W. said.

  “Archery is an Olympic sport,” George said.

  “The Olympics started in Greece,” Emma W. told him. “And Greece is located in what sea?”

  “The Mediterranean!” George exclaimed happily.

  “You got it,” Emma W. said with a smile.

  Katie wished she could be as interested as her friends were in geography. But right now all she could think about was how her mom had stopped dancing—and how it had all been Katie’s fault.

  “I have to get going,” Emma W. said. “I promised my mom I’d be home early today.”

  “I guess I should go home, too,” George said. “But this has been great. Those stamps really make studying geography fun. You should bring one of your dad’s stamp albums to school tom
orrow. Then everyone in our class can study with it.”

  “I don’t know . . .” Katie began.

  “It would totally give our class an advantage over 4B, Katie Kazoo,” George said. “That stamp album would be our secret weapon!”

  Katie thought about that. “I guess I could bring one album,” she said. “But just for tomorrow.”

  “Bring the one with stamps from South America,” Emma W. suggested. She slipped on a little pink sweater.

  “That’s pretty,” Katie told her.

  “Thanks,” Emma W. replied. “My mom and I made it together. She’s teaching me how to knit.”

  “Cool,” Katie said.

  “It’s fun,” Emma W. said. “And it’s something special I do with my mom. She doesn’t knit with anyone else. Not my sister Lacey or any of my brothers.”

  Katie knew that must make Emma W. really happy. With so many kids in her house, it was hard for Emma W. to get special time with her mom.

  Suddenly a big smile flashed on Katie’s face.

  Hooray! Katie Kazoo had just gotten one of her great ideas!

  Tap . . . tap. . . shuffle.

  The next morning, Katie danced her way into class 4A.

  “What are you doing?” Emma W. asked her.

  “Tap dancing,” Katie explained. “My mom is teaching me.”

  “I thought you said your mom wasn’t taking tap-dancing lessons anymore,” Emma W. said.

  “She isn’t,” Katie said. “But I asked her if she could teach me to dance. I thought it could be our special hobby. Like the way you and your mom knit. And George and his dad do archery.”

  “Cool,” Emma W. said.

  “My mom taught me a few steps,” Katie said. “We might even make up a dance together. Tap dancing is fun.”

  “Are you going to be in the Tap-Off ?” Emma W. asked her.

  Katie shrugged. “My mom still doesn’t want to. But maybe she’ll change her mind.”

  Just then, George walked over to where and Emma W. and Katie were sitting. “Did you bring the secret weapon?” he asked her.

  Katie patted her backpack. “It’s right here. We have to be careful with it. My dad would be really upset if anything happened to his stamps.”

  George smiled. “The stamp album will be fine,” he said. “What could happen?”

  Chapter 12

  Katie could lose the stamp album. That was what could happen.

  “This is soooo not good,” Katie told a group of her friends during lunch. “I promised my dad that I wouldn’t let anything happen to any of his stamps, and now I’ve lost a whole book of them!”

  “Calm down,” Emma W. said. “They couldn’t have just disappeared. When did you have them last?”

  “I don’t remember,” Katie told her. “I had them in the classroom early in the morning. And you and I were looking at them in the library. But after that, I’m not sure.”

  “We’ll just have to go everywhere you went today and look for them,” George said.

  “But I was all over the school,” Katie said. “The library, the gym, our classroom. I was in the bathroom, too. Twice.”

  Kevin took out a piece of paper and a pen.

  “What are you doing?” Katie asked him.

  “I’m drawing a map of the school,” Kevin explained. “We’ll follow the map and look for the book during recess.”

  “But recess is so short,” Katie said. “We won’t have time to search the whole school.”

  “That’s okay,” Kevin said. “I’m splitting the map into four parts. I’ll look in the north part of the school. George will look in the south. Emma will look in the east, and you can look west.”

  “School geography!” George exclaimed.

  “This will be fun!” Emma W. added.

  Katie sighed. She didn’t care if school geography was fun. She just wanted it to work.

  Right after the kids finished their lunch, they started their search. Katie raced to the west side of the school. First, she stopped in the girls’ room, where she’d gone just before gym.

  She searched all the stalls, but the stamp album wasn’t there.

  Then she ran into the gym, where class 4A had played class 4B in basketball . . . and lost. No, the stamp album wasn’t there, either.

  Finally, Katie went into the library. That was the last place she actually remembered looking at the stamp album.

  “Hi, Katie,” Ms. Folio, the school librarian, greeted her. “Have you come to spend recess in the library?”

  Katie shook her head. “I’m looking for my dad’s stamp album. Have you seen it?”

  “No,” Ms. Folio said. “Are you sure you had it in here?”

  “Yes,” Katie assured her. “Emma and I were looking at it at the table near the window.”

  Ms. Folio thought for a minute. “Mr. Keaton’s first-grade class was in here right after your class left. Maybe one of the first-graders saw it.”

  “Do you think Mr. Keaton would let me ask the kids if they did?” Katie asked. “It’s very important. My dad will be so upset if I don’t get his stamps back.”

  “I’m sure Mr. Keaton will let you look for the stamp album.” Ms. Folio looked up at the clock. “The first grade is having a snack now. They should be in their classroom.”

  “Thanks, Ms. Folio,” Katie said as she dashed out of the library and ran farther west down the hall to Mr. Keaton’s room.

  The first-graders were having crackers and milk when Katie knocked on Mr. Keaton’s door.

  “Katie,” Mr. Keaton greeted her. “What a surprise. Why aren’t you out on the playground with the other fourth-graders?”

  “I lost something important,” Katie told him. “I’m spending recess looking for it. Ms. Folio said one of your kids might have seen it.”

  “What did you lose?” Mr. Keaton asked.

  “My dad’s stamp album,” Katie told him. “It’s a black binder filled with pages of stamps.”

  “Did any of you see a black binder?” Mr. Keaton asked his class.

  A small girl with a head of blond curls raised her hand shyly. “I found a binder in the library.” She pulled it out of her desk.

  “That’s it!” Katie exclaimed happily.

  “This binder has lots of stickers,” the little girl said.

  “That’s what I thought at first, too,” Katie said. “But they’re really stamps from other countries.”

  Katie showed the little girl a few of the stamps. Then she took the binder, thanked Mr. Keaton, and raced off to tell her friends that she’d found the album.

  Tap . . . tap . . . tap.

  Katie was so happy, she danced the whole way!

  Chapter 13

  Katie was still tap-tap-tapping on Saturday morning when she and her mother arrived at the Cherrydale Mall for the big Tap-Off.

  “Mrs. Carew!” Emma W. exclaimed when she saw them. “I thought you weren’t going to dance in the Tap-Off.”

  Katie’s mom shrugged. “I guess I realized that the Tap-Off is about showing people how great tap dancing is, not about being in the front of the crowd.”

  “My mom’s here with me,” Emma W. told Katie and her mom. “And Lacey.”

  Katie was surprised to see Emma W.’s teenage sister. She hardly ever did anything with Emma W.

  “Hi, Wendy,” Mrs. Weber greeted Katie’s mom. “Emma told us about this and we just had to come. Tap dancing sounds like such a fun mother-daughter thing to do.”

  “It is!” Katie’s mom assured her. “In fact, Katie and I have been talking to Miss Ricky about starting a mother-daughter class.”

  “We would definitely sign up,” Mrs. Weber replied. “I could use the exercise, and it would be fun for the girls.”

  “I’m so glad you didn’t give up on tap dancing, Mrs. Carew,” Emma W. said.

  “I have Katie to thank for that,” Katie’s mom said. “She convinced me to stick with it. And with some hard work, I’m going to get better and better.”

  “Hard
work always pays off,” Katie said. “That’s how Emma won our Geography Bee yesterday!”

  “Congratulations, Emma,” Mrs. Carew said.

  “You should have seen how mad Suzanne was that someone from 4B didn’t win,” Katie told her mom. “She almost popped a button on her lederhosen!”

  “Lederhosen?” Mrs. Carew asked.

  “You know, those leather shorts kids wear in Germany,” Emma W. explained. “Suzanne was wearing them to help her study Europe.”

  Mrs. Carew giggled. “Suzanne is one of a kind,” she said.

  Just then loud music began blaring through the parking lot.

  “Let’s dance,” Mrs. Carew cheered.

  Toe. Heel. Ball change. Spin.

  As she twirled around, Katie grinned happily. Despite everything, Katie’s mom was still dancing and having a great time. And so was Katie.

  Take that, magic wind!

  A World of Record

  Katie and her friends are really world-class geography experts! Now they’re sharing a whole world of fun facts with you!

  The world’s highest mountain is Mount Everest. At its highest point, the mountain is more than 29,000 feet above sea level!

  The lowest spot on land is the Dead Sea in Israel. It’s located over 1,300 feet below sea level.

  The largest ocean is the Pacific Ocean, which covers about thirty percent of the planet! It covers more than sixty million square miles.

  The smallest ocean is the Arctic Ocean. It covers less than six million square miles of the planet. That is only about three percent of the Earth’s surface.

  Australia is the world’s smallest continent. It’s almost three million square miles, which is actually smaller than the country of Brazil.

  The world’s largest continent is Asia. More than three billion people live there.

  About the Author

  Nancy Krulik is the author of more than 150 books for children and young adults, including three New York Times best sellers. She lives in New York City with her husband, composer Daniel Burwasser, their children, Amanda and Ian, and Pepper, a chocolate and white spaniel mix. When she’s not busy writing the Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo series, Nancy loves swimming, reading, and going to the movies.

 

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