by Nancy Krulik
Katie Kazoo,
SWITCHEROO
Flower Power
by Nancy Krulik • illustrated by John & Wendy
Grosset & Dunlap
An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
For those who help kids
learn to love to learn—N.K.
For Mary—pop princess with
awesome powers!—J&W
GROSSET & DUNLAP
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Text copyright © 2007 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2007 by John and Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007010705
ISBN: 978-1-101-65237-4
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 1
The minute Katie Carew walked into her fourth-grade classroom, she began giggling. Her teacher, Mr. Guthrie, looked so funny. He was wearing bright green pants and a green turtleneck shirt. A circle of white constructionpaper petals framed his face. He looked like a giant daisy.
The Mr. G.-daisy fit right in with the 4A classroom. Paper flowers hung from the classroom ceiling. Plastic flowers were strewn around the floor. And there was a daisy chain around Slinky the snake’s cage.
“Let me guess; we’re learning about flowers today,” George Brennan, one of Katie’s classmates, predicted as he plopped down in his beanbag chair.
“What makes you say that?” Emma Weber joked, looking at a bouquet of plastic roses on a windowsill.
“Just a wild guess,” George laughed, picking up a pink and white tissue-paper carnation.
“A wildflower guess,” Kadeem Carter added.
“That’s right, dudes. Our next learning adventure is the life cycle of a flower,” Mr. G. said. “So hurry up and start decorating your beanbags, because I have a huge surprise for you.”
“What’s the surprise?” Mandy Banks asked excitedly.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if he told us,” Kevin Camilleri reminded her.
Katie grinned as she taped purple and yellow paper pansies to her beanbag chair. She loved decorating her beanbag. She got to do it every time the class learned about something new. All of the kids in class 4A sat in beanbags. Mr. G. thought kids learned better when they were comfortable. Katie and her classmates totally agreed.
Katie’s class did a lot of unusual things in fourth grade. There was the time they were studying birds, and Mr. G. made them all dig worms out of the mud and eat them. (Luckily, they were just gummy worms buried in chocolate pudding!)
And who could forget when Mr. G. had dressed like Abraham Lincoln for Presidents’ Day?
Or the way he had turned the kids into fish (or at least had them pretend to be fish) when they were studying ocean life?
Now, today, Katie’s teacher was dressed like a giant daisy and standing in the middle of what looked more like a garden than a classroom. And there was still another giant surprise to come! Mr. G. was definitely the greatest teacher in the world!
“Okay, dudes, gather round,” Mr. G. said once everyone finished decorating their beanbags.
The kids hurried to the front of the room where Mr. G. removed some clay pots and a bag of dirt from the closet.
“We’re planting flowers,” Kevin guessed. He sounded kind of disappointed.
Katie knew how he felt. Planting flowers was a really normal classroom activity. Usually Mr. G.’s projects were more interesting than that.
Mr. G. was holding several white envelopes. One by one, he handed them out to the kids. “There are seeds inside each envelope,” Mr. G. explained. “Flower seeds.”
“What kind of flower will I grow?” Katie asked Mr. G. The seed packet Mr. G. handed her had no name or picture on it.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” he told her.
“You mean, I’ll find out when it pops up out of the dirt?” Katie asked.
Mr. G. shook his head. “You’ll find out sooner than that. You have something else besides the seeds. Inside each of your envelopes is a list of clues about the flower you will be growing. It’s your job to figure out from the clues what kind of flower seeds you have.”
Katie opened her packet and took out a piece of paper. She read what was written on it.
The ancient Aztec people thought this flower was magical.
Today it is used in Africa and India to color foods such as butter and cheese.
This is an unusually tough flower. It can grow in mild to cool temperatures as long as it is in sunlight.
Can you figure out what your mystery flower is?
Katie smiled broadly. A mystery flower. Now that was very, very Mr. G.!
Chapter 2
“Hi, Katie,” Jeremy Fox said as he placed his tray down next to hers in the school cafeteria later that day.
“Hi!” Katie replied happily. She was so glad to see Jeremy. He and Katie’s other best friend, Suzanne Lock, were in Ms. Sweet’s fourth-grade class. Katie only got to see them during lunch and recess. “Where’s everyone else?” she asked.
“In the bathroom,” Jeremy replied as he took a huge bite of his tuna hero.
“They all had to go at the same time?” Katie asked, amazed.
Jeremy laughed and shook his head. “We were planting seeds, so Ms. Sweet made us wash our hands before lunch. I got to the boys’ room first.”
Katie nodded. No surprise there. Jeremy was the fastest runner in the fourth grade. A moment later, most of the other kids in class 4B arrived in the cafeteria. Naturally, Suzanne sat on the other side of Katie and pretty much ignored Jeremy. That was nothing new. Katie’s two
best friends weren’t really friends with each other. And Suzanne hated it when Jeremy and Katie spent time alone together.
“Can you believe Miriam Chan?” Suzanne said, staring in Miriam’s direction. “She is so looking for attention.”
“What are you talking about?” Katie said.
“Did you see what she’s having for lunch?” Suzanne asked her.
Katie looked. Miriam was drinking something from a blue container.
“It’s a vitamin shake,” Jeremy told the girls. “I drink a lot of them during soccer season. They’re really healthy.”
“What’s the big deal?” Katie asked Suzanne.
“She’s only drinking the shake so everyone will see her new braces,” Suzanne explained. “She says her mouth hurts so much, she can’t eat regular food.”
“It probably does,” Jeremy said. “She’s got a lot of wires in there.”
“Miriam got braces? Cool!” Katie exclaimed. “I want to see.”
“That’s what I mean,” Suzanne harrumphed. “It’s for attention.”
“Braces are for straightening teeth,” Jeremy told her. “There are plenty of other ways to get attention. You should know.”
Katie knew exactly what Jeremy meant. Suzanne hated when anyone besides her was in the spotlight.
And right now, Miriam was definitely the center of attention. The kids were gathered around her, staring at her teeth. Katie went over to join them. “I heard you got braces, Miriam,” she said.
“Yes, yesterday,” Miriam replied. She sounded kind of uncomfortable.
“Do they hurt a lot?” Katie asked her.
Miriam nodded. “But I put some wax on the wires. The orthodontist says they will feel better in a day or two.”
“What color wires did you pick?” Emma W. asked Miriam.
“Red and pink,” Miriam said, smiling so everyone could see the brightly colored wires that lined her braces. “But I can change them next month. They have lots of cool colors to choose from. Blue, green, yellow, even glow-in-the-dark.”
“That would be really cool for sleepovers,” Jessica Haynes suggested.
“I think it would be gross,” Suzanne remarked from her seat a few feet away. “Braces are not cool. They’re ugly.”
Miriam looked like she was about to cry.
“Suzanne!” Katie scolded. “That’s not nice.”
But Suzanne ignored Katie. “I’m glad I have such straight, white teeth,” she continued. “They’ll be perfect for when I’m in a toothpaste ad.”
“When are you going to do that?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t know,” Suzanne replied. “But I’m sure I will someday. My teeth are perfect.”
“Miriam’s teeth are going to be perfect, too,” Katie told Suzanne. “As soon as her braces come off.” She smiled at Miriam, hoping she had made her feel better.
Miriam smiled back, a little.
“I think they make you look kind of grown-up,” Emma W. told her. “Like an almost teenager.”
“Oh, no!” Suzanne yelped. Her juice fell to the floor, catching everyone’s attention. Katie turned around just in time to see Suzanne leaping out of the way.
“Oops!” Suzanne exclaimed. “What a mess.”
Katie sighed. She had a feeling Suzanne had done that on purpose, just to get the focus back on her.
“Katie, could you help me clean this up?” Suzanne asked, grabbing a pile of napkins from her tray.
“Um…sure,” Katie said. She frowned slightly. She couldn’t just let her best friend stand there in a puddle of red fruit punch, could she?
It didn’t take very long for Katie and Suzanne to clean up the mess. A few minutes later, things were back to normal. Katie was seated between Jeremy and Suzanne. And once again, Suzanne was the center of attention.
“I got geranium seeds to plant,” she boasted. “They are such beautiful flowers. They’re going to be bright red.”
“I got impatiens,” Jeremy said. “I’m going to give them to my mother to plant in our garden when they’re big enough.” He turned to Katie. “What flower did you plant?”
“I don’t know,” Katie told him.
“You’re not planting seeds?” Suzanne asked. “What a bummer. We had a lot of fun doing that in our class.”
“We will be planting seeds,” Katie assured her. “It’s just that I don’t know what flowers are going to come up.”
“Why not?” Jeremy asked curiously.
“We all got mystery flowers,” Katie explained. “We have to use the clues Mr. G. gave us to find out what we’re growing. After we solve the mystery, we’ll get to plant our seeds.”
“It’s fun,” George said, looking up from the disgusting mush of tuna, Jell-O, and fruit punch he’d been creating on his tray. He pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. “‘This flower was used by native Americans for food and oil,’” he read aloud. “‘Some farmers use it to feed their animals. It’s the national flower of Russia.’”
“I wonder what that could be,” Jeremy said.
“My flower smells very sweet,” Kevin chimed in. “It’s used for decoration and it comes in a lot of colors. Some of them are even striped!”
“Mystery flowers,” Jeremy remarked. “Wow. Mr. G. sure has a lot of cool ideas.”
“Oh, give me a break!” Suzanne exclaimed. “It’s a dumb idea.”
“No it’s not,” Katie said. “I love solving mysteries.”
Suzanne sighed. “I can’t stand this place anymore. Everyone’s talking about dumb things like braces and mystery flowers. I wish I went to a school where people cared about important things, like fashion and makeup.”
“You do not!” Katie exclaimed suddenly. “You do not wish that at all!”
“Whoa, Katie Kazoo, calm down,” George said, using the way-cool nickname he’d given her. “Suzanne’s just being Suzanne. It’s no big deal.”
But Katie knew that wasn’t true. Wishes were a very big deal. And only Katie knew why.
Chapter 3
Wishes were dangerous.
Katie had learned that lesson after one really bad day back in third grade. That day, after dropping the ball, she lost the football game for her team. Then mud got all over her favorite pants. Worst of all, she’d let out a giant burp in front of the whole class. Talk about embarrassing!
That night, Katie had wished that she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star flying overhead, because the next day the magic wind came.
The magic wind was a big tornado that swirled only around Katie. It was so powerful that it could turn her into somebody else! The first time the magic wind came, it turned Katie into Speedy, class 3A’s hamster. She’d spent the whole morning running round and round on a hamster wheel. And when she finally escaped from her cage, she’d wound up inside George’s stinky sneaker. YUCK!
Since then, the magic wind had been back again and again. One time it turned her into Mr. Starkey, the school music teacher. The band sounded really terrible when Katie was the conductor!
And then there was the time Katie had turned into Dr. Sang, her dentist, at the very moment Emma W.’s little brother Matthew was having his first checkup. Matthew was scared to begin with. But once Katie made a mess of things, little Matthew vowed he would never, ever, open his mouth for a dentist again!
That was the worst thing about the magic wind. Every time it came, the person Katie turned into landed in big trouble. Then it was up to Katie to make things all right again. That wasn’t always so easy. Katie ended up having a checkup herself, just to show Matthew that going to the dentist wasn’t so bad!
That was why Katie didn’t make wishes anymore. They caused too many problems if they came true.
Of course, Katie couldn’t tell her friends about her switcheroos. They wouldn’t believe her even if she did. Katie wouldn’t believe it either—if it didn’t keep happening to her.
Right now all of her friends were looking at her as though she were nuts. Not
that she blamed them. She had gone a little crazy when Suzanne made that wish.
“I…uh…I just meant that I would be really sad if you went to a different school,” Katie told Suzanne.
“Of course you would,” Suzanne said. “But don’t worry. I’ll be going to school with you for a long, long time.”
“Oh, man,” George moaned. He poured more fruit punch into the yucky mixture on his tray. “I’ve definitely lost my appetite.”
Chapter 4
Okay, so if my flower is used to color butter, it must be yellow, Katie thought to herself as she sat in the school library later that afternoon.
“How’s it going, Katie?” Ms. Folio, the school librarian, asked.
“I’m trying to guess what my mystery flower is,” Katie told her. “So far, all I know is it’s a yellow flower that the Aztecs thought had magic power.”
“The ancient Aztecs lived in Mexico,” Ms. Folio told Katie. “Let’s find a book about the history of Mexico. Maybe your flower is mentioned.”
“I got it!” George shouted suddenly from his seat at one of the library computers. “My flower is a sunflower!”
“Good detective work, George,” Mr. G. congratulated him. “Now see if you can find some more interesting facts about sunflowers.”
“It says here they grow eight to twelve feet tall,” George replied.
Now that George knew what flower he had, Katie was even more excited to discover what kind of seeds where in her packet. She searched through a book on the Aztecs for some clue about what her flower might be. At last she spotted something in a chapter called “Magic and Medicine.” The answer was right there! The yellow marigold was once believed to contain magic pain-relieving powers. Today the flower is used to calm the pain and swelling of bee stings.
“My mystery flower is a marigold!” she exclaimed. “Is that right, Mr. G.?”
Mr. G. grinned. “Good for you, Katie Kazoo,” he rhymed. “You’ve solved the mystery.”
Katie smiled proudly back at him. She felt like a real detective who had just solved a big case.
