Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School

by Emily Jenkins

“Nuh-uh. We look boss,” says Kimani.

  “I think so, too,” says Abigail. “We’re sparkly.”

  “It shows we’re artists,” says Harry. “Like, everyone will know we did art today.”

  “We’re a team of glitter people,” says Mason.

  “Yeah!” says Harry. “Team Glitter Goat. Okay?”

  “Okay,” agrees Wyatt.

  “Team Glitter Goat is the greatest!” says Harry. “We’ll be sparkly all over Brooklyn.”

  DAY 83. THURSDAY, JANUARY 17

  During story time, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel reads aloud about Dr. Martin Luther King. He was like, the greatest community worker, the most awesome change maker, and the most important Line Leader of all.

  The book explains how Dr. King made a big difference for Black people and their rights, and how he showed white people that they needed to work to make a difference, too. He changed the rules through peaceful actions. For example, now there are laws that say you can’t separate people because of their color, and you can’t be unfair to them because of their race, religion, gender, or background.

  “This book reminds me that I need to speak up against things that are wrong even when other people don’t agree with me,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.

  She writes the word peaceful up on the Sparkly Word Wall. “Dr. King taught me that I can be brave and fight for what’s right and be peaceful at the same time.” She adds, “We have Monday off to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday.”

  Walking home with Charlotte and Evaline, Harry asks about Perdita. “Did you guys play today?”

  “No,” says Charlotte. “I played with Rosie and her friends. But it wasn’t that fun.”

  “Are you gonna be the scullery maid tomorrow?” asks Harry.

  “I don’t think so,” says Charlotte. “Not if she’s the queen. If she wanted to be scullery maids together, that would be different.”

  DAY 84. FRIDAY, JANUARY 18

  At the end of the school day, the class has a birthday party for Dr. King. Even though his real birthday was January 15, today is the day before the holiday, so today is the day for cake. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel baked cupcakes—and yay! They are chocolate.

  Together the students sing “Happy birthday, dear Martin.”

  Ms. Peek-Schnitzel shows part of a video of Dr. King’s most famous speech, where he says, “I have a dream today!” He says he dreams that his “children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

  “We can all be change makers,” says the teacher. “And change making starts with having a dream.” She asks the students to share their dreams for a better future.

  “I dream all dogs have a home,” says Abigail.

  “Me too,” says Mason.

  “I dream that everyone votes, ’cause lots of people don’t right now,” says Diamond. “That’s what my mom told me.”

  “I dream it doesn’t matter who you love, ’cause love is love,” says Orlando.

  “I dream everybody recycles,” says Jayden.

  “I dream what Dr. King said about not judging other people,” says Kimani.

  Harry isn’t sure what to dream. He wishes for all the things people have said. They’re good things.

  Finally, he puts his hand up. “I dream everyone speaks up when something’s wrong,” he says. “They use their words.”

  “I dream Spider-Man is real,” says Wyatt.

  “Me too,” says Robbie.

  “Let’s be serious, please,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.

  “I am serious,” says Wyatt. “Spider-Man saves a lot of people. I wish he was real, so much.”

  DAY 85. TUESDAY, JANUARY 22

  Part of social studies has been learning about garbage and waste. “Being responsible for our trash is an important element of being a good community member, because garbage hurts our oceans and our air,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.

  The kids have learned the “three Rs” of talking about waste. The words are on the Sparkly Word Wall.

  Reduce means to use less.

  Reuse means to find new ways to use old items so that they don’t go in the trash.

  Recycle means to put certain things into bins so they can be made into new things.

  Today they are reusing. This morning, kids brought in cereal boxes, paper-towel rolls, plastic take-out containers, used wrapping paper, packaging peanuts, milk cartons, and anything else they had around the house that could be reused. Harry brought in two shoe boxes and a tall, round oatmeal box.

  Ms. Peek-Schnitzel brings out a huge piece of cardboard they will use as a base. “We will build a sculpture map of Gardener Street,” she says. “We will be reusing all those items you brought from home.”

  She has a sketch that shows the locations of all the important buildings they’ve seen on their neighborhood walks. Each kid gets something to make. Wyatt has the fried chicken restaurant. Abigail is in charge of trees: ginkgoes, northern red oaks, and crabapples. Diamond has the toy store. Mason has D’Angelo’s bakery. Kimani has the firehouse. Harry has the bodega.

  Ms. Peek-Schnitzel ignores the usual afternoon schedule. The students work on the sculpture map, pasting, painting, and collaging. Ms. Yoo peeks in to see how it’s going.

  “Oh, I love this project!” she cries, her eyes shining.

  Harry runs over to show Ms. Yoo how he covered a milk carton with yellow and red tissue and then drew windows with a black pen. “I’m going to put things in my windows, because you can really see things in the windows of the bodega,” he tells Ms. Yoo.

  “What are you going to put?” she asks.

  “Chocolate cupcakes and cheese puffs,” he says.

  When he is finished, his milk carton looks just like the bodega. Harry writes Deli-Grocery on it, which is what it says on the real store’s sign. He uses his neatest writing.

  DAY 86. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23

  During science, Mr. Daryl shows the kids some close-up photographs of snowflakes.

  Wow.

  They are like art. Harry has never seen anything as beautiful as real, live snowflakes.

  The snow that lines the sidewalks in Brooklyn is icy and dirty, though. It’s old snow, Harry thinks. The beauty is in new snow.

  Wednesday is Harry and Charlotte’s usual night to go to the dumpling restaurant for dinner. The family orders pork, vegetable, and shrimp dumplings.

  “I don’t want to be friends with Perdita anymore,” says Charlotte. “She isn’t nice to me.”

  “She used to be nice to you,” says Harry.

  “Yeah,” says Charlotte. “But not anymore.”

  “Too much mean and not enough nice to mix in with it,” says Mommy. “That’s when it’s okay to say goodbye.”

  Charlotte doesn’t usually sit in her mother’s lap. It’s Harry’s spot most of the time. But today, Charlotte finishes her dumplings and climbs on. Mommy eats with one hand, her other arm around Charlotte’s shoulders.

  As the three of them walk home, new snow begins to fall. Harry tells Mommy and Charlotte about the snowflake photographs. They look up to see the snow swirling in the light from the streetlamps. It looks like glitter.

  DAY 87. THURSDAY, JANUARY 24

  “For our Hundred Days celebration, we will each bring in one hundred of something,” Ms. Peek-Schnitzel reminds the class at morning meeting. “I will send a note home so your grown-ups know.”

  Mason raises his hand. “Can I bring one hundred boogers?” he asks.

  “What do you think?” says the teacher.

  “Boogers are all-natural,” Mason says. “They come from your body, so nobody should be ashamed of them. That’s what my dad says.”

  “It’s true,” Kimani adds. “Everybody has them.”

  “Hey,” sa
ys Wyatt. “I have a booger joke. Can I tell it?”

  “Let’s not do boogers,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.

  Harry puts his hand up. “Also, if you cut a booger up, you get more boogers.”

  Mason calls out. “Also, you could stick them together. If you stick them together, you get a giant booger.”

  Ms. Peek-Schnitzel doesn’t call on anyone after that.

  DAY 88. FRIDAY, JANUARY 25

  Harry doesn’t know what to bring for the one-hundredth day. Last night, his mom suggested Band-Aids.

  But Band-Aids are boring.

  On the phone, his dad suggested nails.

  But nails are boring.

  Charlotte told him to bring marshmallows. “That’s the most popular thing to bring. Everyone loved Hannah when she brought marshmallows because they got to eat them at the end of the day.”

  But Wyatt is bringing marshmallows. Harry knows.

  He mulls it over all day, but everything he thinks of is small and doesn’t seem important. Pennies, buttons, beads, paper towels, rubber bands. Harry wants to bring something big. Something special.

  At the end of the day, he puts on his coat. Then he gets his backpack. His Gar-Gar key chain swings back and forth jauntily.

  Oh! He has an idea. “I’ll bring one hundred Fluff Monsters!” he shouts as they are lining up.

  “Harry, please use your indoor voice,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.

  Mason grabs Harry’s arm and jumps up and down, smiling. “Wow,” he says. “That is the best thing to bring.”

  Harry bounces as he walks out to the yard for pickup.

  FLUFF MONSTERS!

  DAY 89. MONDAY, JANUARY 28

  “Are you really bringing one hundred Fluff Monsters?” Diamond asks Harry before morning meeting.

  “Yep.”

  “How will you get them?”

  “Buy them, I guess.” Harry gets a sinking feeling in his tummy.

  “They cost like five dollars each for the key chains,” says Diamond. “That’s what my mom says.”

  “Five dollars for one hundred monsters is…well, it’s a lot of money, isn’t it?” says Harry.

  “Like, a lot a lot. Do you have a lot a lot of money?” Diamond asks hopefully.

  No. Harry doesn’t.

  Then and there, Diamond loans Harry the three Fluff Monster key chains off her backpack. With those plus Harry’s Gar-Gar, he has four Fluff Monsters. That’s a good start.

  “You still have to get to one hundred, though,” says Diamond, sounding worried.

  Oh, yeah. That’s still a lot a lot.

  But Harry can do it. And he has to, because he already told Ms. Peek-Schnitzel he was bringing Fluff Monsters. She even wrote it down on her clipboard.

  He will go full Fluff.

  DAY 90. TUESDAY, JANUARY 29

  This morning, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel writes new words on the Sight Word Wall: this, wish, know, and thank.

  Harry copies them down, but he isn’t thinking about them.

  He is thinking about getting ninety-six more Fluff Monsters.

  The teacher asks them all to write short sentences using their new word-wall words.

  Harry writes:

  “Is it a poem?” asks Ms. Peek-Schnitzel, leaning over Harry’s paper.

  “No,” he tells her. “It’s my real life. Can I read it to everybody?”

  She says yes. Harry stands up and reads his sentences aloud.

  He hopes that other kids besides Diamond will help him out.

  But what if they don’t?

  DAY 91. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30

  Kimani comes to school with three Fluff Monster toys and five key chains, some of which she borrowed from her brothers. She lends them to Harry.

  Mason brings two Fluff Monster key chains and two puppets.

  Abigail lends Harry four key chains.

  Wyatt lends Harry his key chain. Robbie brings his. Amira brings hers. Mia brings two. Adam brings one. Maddie brings one. Elijah brings one.

  And Ms. Peek-Schnitzel lends her two homemade puppets, the ones she used for the election. Twenty-five new monsters plus Harry’s own and Diamond’s three makes twenty-nine Fluff Monsters.

  Harry shoves them all in his backpack. It is so fat and full that he can barely carry it home.

  He is lucky to have such good friends. But he still needs seventy-one more.

  DAY 92. THURSDAY, JANUARY 31

  Today, Kimani is doing finger knitting with bright yellow yarn. She loops it around her finger and sort of braids it. It’s getting very long. Diamond and Abigail want to know how. Kimani shows them.

  “Do you guys want to know, too?” Kimani asks the boys at Goat Table.

  “Nuh-uh,” says Mason. “Yarn is dumb.”

  “Yeah, yarn is dumb,” says Harry, just because Mason said it.

  “Yarn is for girls,” says Wyatt.

  “Not true,” says Kimani. “Yarn is for everybody. Everything is for everybody. Didn’t your parents teach you that?”

  At recess, Harry wants to play Sharks and Minnows. The kids from Goat Table have been playing it together at recess for the past couple of weeks. But today, Diamond and Abigail are cozied underneath the climbing structure with Kimani.

  “It’s time for Sharks and Minnows,” Harry tells them, peeking under the structure.

  “No thanks,” says Abigail.

  “We’re finger knitting,” says Diamond.

  “Okay, then. Fine. We don’t need you anyway,” says Harry.

  But three is not enough people for Sharks and Minnows.

  Harry, Mason, and Wyatt try joining Elijah and Robbie, but those guys are busy with something called Goat and Unicorn.

  They try joining Amira and Isabella, but those guys are busy with something called Tricky Pig Tricky Fox.

  They stand with their backs against the brick wall. They don’t know what else to do.

  “Do you want to learn to finger knit?” asks Harry finally.

  “No way,” says Wyatt.

  “No way,” says Mason.

  So they stand there, together, for the rest of recess.

  DAY 93. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1

  Abigail, Kimani, and Diamond are finger knitting at recess again. Kids are running all over, playing and shouting, but with no girls to play Sharks and Minnows, Harry, Wyatt, and Mason find themselves with their backs to the brick wall, just like yesterday.

  It’s cold outside. No one says anything.

  “I miss the girls,” Harry says finally.

  “Me too,” says Mason.

  “Heh heh,” says Wyatt.

  “Don’t say the kissing rhyme,” warns Harry. “It’s not that.”

  “I wasn’t gonna,” says Wyatt.

  “I just want to play Sharks and Minnows with them,” says Harry.

  Wyatt frowns, thinking. “I miss the girls, too,” he says. Then he asks, “What’s the difference between boogers and broccoli?”

  Harry doesn’t know.

  “They’re both green?” guesses Mason.

  “No,” says Wyatt. “What’s the difference?”

  Harry thinks some more. “One is bigger,” he guesses.

  Wyatt shakes his head.

  “What is it, then?” Harry asks.

  “Kids don’t eat broccoli,” says Wyatt.

  Ha! Harry and Mason fall over laughing. Eating boogers is so gross. And kind of true.

  “I learned to tell a joke,” says Wyatt.

  DAY 94. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4

  Over the weekend, Harry thought about how to get seventy-one Fluff Monsters.

  On Saturday, he couldn’t figure out any way to get them.

  On Sunday, he couldn’t figure out any way to get them.

  Bu
t today is Monday, and he knows a way! “Kimani, could I have some of your yarn?” he asks as they sit down to eat lunch.

  “I have yarn, but you said it’s dumb, so I think I’m going to keep it,” says Kimani.

  Oh. That wasn’t as easy as Harry thought it would be.

  During recess, Harry, Mason, and Wyatt climb to the top of the Rocket. They decide the top landing is a Boy Goat hideout, with no girls allowed. “We don’t need girls, or yarn, or Sharks and Minnows,” says Harry.

  But that doesn’t solve Harry’s Fluff Monster problem.

  DAY 95. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5

  Harry has a plan to get yarn from Kimani. He finds Charlotte at recess, doing jump rope with Rosie and some other fourth-grade girls.

  “Will you buy me some cheese puffs after school?” he asks.

  “Say please,” she tells him.

  “Please and thank you very much,” he says.

  “Okay,” she says, ruffling his hair.

  “Your little brother is adorable,” says one of the jumping girls.

  Harry runs away.

  DAY 96. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6

  Harry gives Kimani his bag of cheese puffs at lunch. The whole bag that Charlotte bought for him.

  “What’s this for?” she asks, wrinkling her forehead.

  “I want cheese puffs,” says Mason. “I’m your best friend.”

  “I’m trading it for yarn,” says Harry. “Could I have some yarn, please?”

  “I don’t know,” says Kimani. “You act like it’s so dumb, and now you want some?”

  “It’s not dumb,” says Harry, but his voice comes out small.

  “It’s what?” asks Kimani.

  “Yarn is not dumb,” Harry says, loudly this time. “Yarn is smart, and I would like some, please and thank you very much.”

  “Of course you can have some,” says Kimani. “Yarn is for everybody.”

  During free time at the end of the day, Harry winds the yarn he got from Kimani tightly around a plastic fork. Then he ties it tight to make a bundle. He uses scissors to cut the looped ends of the yarn and fluffs it into round pom-poms, just like Kimani’s mom taught them to do.