A little glue, two googly eyes from Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s supply cupboard, and…Harry has a homemade Fluff Monster.
One homemade, plus the twenty-nine he has at home, that’s thirty.
Now he just needs seventy more to make one hundred.
DAY 97. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7
The weather today is terrible. Freezing, freezing cold.
Harry is happy, though, because it means they stay indoors for recess.
And he has his own yarn now. Evaline took him to the craft-supply store in Manhattan after school and they bought two colors of fluffy yarn: red and purple. It cost only four dollars for both, plus seven for two packs of googly eyes.
Harry brings his yarn and packs of googly eyes to the auditorium, where the kids play during indoor recess. He’s going to make as many Fluff Monsters as he possibly can.
He sits on the steps that lead to the stage and starts to work.
Select the yarn
and cut it.
Stretch the yarn
and wrap it.
Tie the yarn
and cut it.
Eyeball, eyeball…
Done.
He notices that Abigail has sat down next to him. She doesn’t like all the noises of the crowded auditorium. Some kids are playing Uno. Others are doing Happy Llama Sad Llama. Some are playing Snakes and Ladders.
“Can I play with you?” asks Abigail.
She already knows how to make pom-poms. And it’s easy to add googly eyes.
Abigail helps Harry till the end of recess. Together they make eleven Fluff Monsters.
He already has the twenty he and Charlotte made on Wednesday night and the eight he and Mommy made this morning. With this new eleven, plus the thirty from before, Harry has seventy fluff monsters.
Thirty to go.
DAY 98. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8
Harry is so good at making pom-pom Fluff Monsters! He made ten after school yesterday, all by himself. He is like, an expert at it.
Hey, that means he’s an expert again. First a guinea pig expert, and now a monster-making expert.
Pretty boss.
He only needs twenty more monsters. And there’s the whole weekend to do them. Easy peasy.
DAY 99. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11
Monday was fine. Whatever. Math, reading, all the usual stuff. At the end of the day, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel reminded the kids, “Go home and get your one hundred items ready. Tomorrow is our celebration.”
Oh, no!
Harry’s stomach goes flurpy, because he forgot to make the last four Fluff Monsters. Forgot!
Here is what happened:
Friday evening, he made sixteen Fluff Monsters with Mommy and Charlotte. But with four more to go, they ran out of yarn.
No problem, though. That weekend, Harry and Charlotte were going to visit Daddy. “You can make them in Boston,” said Mommy. “Your dad will know where to buy yarn, and I’ll pack your googly eyes.”
Early Saturday morning, Daddy picked up Harry and Charlotte and took them to Boston on the train. They went to a movie and out for burgers. The kids slept on Daddy’s foldout couch.
On Sunday, they went to a children’s museum, then to a place that served thirty kinds of pie. Late afternoon, Daddy took them on the train back to New York, and Mommy met them at Penn Station. She brought them back to Brooklyn, super tired, late at night.
Harry forgot to ask for yarn. In fact, he forgot about Fluff Monsters entirely for two whole days.
Now it’s Monday, the one-hundredth day celebration is tomorrow, and Harry has only ninety-six Fluff Monsters—and no yarn! Even worse, he’s not going home after school. He has a playdate with Mason. Evaline will pick him up after dinner.
“ ’Scuse me, Mason’s dad?” Harry asks, in the schoolyard. “Do you maybe have yarn at your house I could use for a project? And forks and scissors and googly eyes?” asks Harry.
“Forks, scissors, and googly eyes, yes—but I don’t think we have any yarn. Sorry, Harry.”
“Could we go shopping for yarn? There’s a craft store in Manahattan. Please and thank you very much.”
Mason’s dad is sorry, again, but no. Manhattan is far away and he has a lot of cooking to do, plus a work phone call from four to five.
“Could I call my mom, then?” asks Harry.
“Of course.”
At Mason’s apartment, Harry calls Mommy at work. “Will you buy yarn on your way home and we’ll make Fluff Monsters tomorrow?” he asks.
“I don’t get off until nine tonight,” she says. “The stores won’t be open. Maybe you and Mason can figure out how to make them some other way?”
“I guess,” says Harry, but he is definitely worried.
Harry and Mason try. First, they build Fluff Monsters with Play-Doh.
“Hm,” says Mason. “My monster is lumpy.”
“Yeah,” says Harry. “Mine is sticky.”
“They look like potatoes,” says Mason.
“Sticky blue potatoes,” says Harry.
They try making Fluff Monsters out of crumpled origami paper instead. The monsters are fun to make, but the googly eyes won’t stick to the crumples. “They just look like trash,” says Harry, discouraged.
“Let’s draw them with crayons,” says Mason. “We’re super good at them.”
They draw two monsters each. They are both awesome at drawing Fluff Monsters. But the drawings are not full fluff.
“I don’t want to bring crayon drawings,” says Harry. “I want to bring monsters.”
“Yeah,” says Mason.
“I give up,” says Harry.
“I give up, too,” says Mason. “Even Pebble gives up.”
They go into the kitchen and ask Mason’s dad for a snack. He gives them pickles and baby carrots.
They take the food to the living room and sit on the floor in front of the coffee table. They are sad about the monsters, but they eat the pickles first and then dip the carrots in the pickle juice.
Suddenly Harry gets an idea. “Problem solved!” he cries. And he tells Mason his idea.
“Full fluff!” says Mason.
Together they run to the kitchen to talk to Mason’s dad. “Can you help me text Diamond and Abigail?” Mason asks.
His dad says yes.
They text.
Ten minutes later, everything is great.
Harry is absolutely, totally, going full fluff.
DAY 100. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12
On the one-hundredth day of his first-grade year, Harry skips to school. He has two fabric tote bags full of Fluff Monsters, store-bought and homemade. Charlotte is carrying them so he can skip.
Fluff One Hundred!
That’s full Fluff!
Fluff One Hundred!
That’s full Fluff!
That is the song Harry skips to as he goes to school.
Though maybe it is a poem.
Or maybe it’s a song and a poem.
Abigail, Mason, and Diamond are waiting outside the Graham School in their Halloween costumes.
Mason is dressed as Boompus, the purple Fluff Monster.
Diamond is Gorf, the green one.
Abigail is Dumpler, the red and orange one.
And Harry is Gar-Gar.
Twenty-seven store-bought monsters, two homemade puppets, sixty-seven pom-pom monsters, and four costumes makes one hundred.
The four Fluff Monsters go into Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s first-grade classroom. All the kids have brought their one hundred things.
Diamond has one hundred white toy jewels that are supposed to be diamonds.
Kimani has one hundred pink erasers, the kind that fit on the end of a pencil.
Mason did one hundred drawings of
dogs on a poster board.
Wyatt has one hundred marshmallows, but they are only the miniature kind.
Abigail has one hundred pieces of dog kibble.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel brought a jigsaw puzzle with one hundred pieces. She lays it out on one table. Kids can help put it together, if they want.
Wyatt comes up and pats Harry’s monster suit. “It’s so boss,” he says. “Gar-Gar is my favorite.”
“Do you want to wear it?” asks Harry. “You could be the one-hundredth fluff monster. It doesn’t have to be me.”
“For real?” says Wyatt.
“Sure,” says Harry. “Be Gar-Gar.”
“Cool, thanks!” says Wyatt. He puts on the Gar-Gar costume over his clothes. “Whomple whomple!” he yells, because that’s the noise Fluff Monsters make when they run. The suit is a little short on him, but other than that, Wyatt really does make a good Gar-Gar.
After playtime is morning meeting. Diamond is Calendar right now, and she leads the song.
What is today? Tuesday, Tuesday.
What was yesterday? Monday, Monday.
What is tomorrow? Wednesday, Wednesday.
“And today is the one-hundredth day!” yells Diamond, when the song is over. She writes the number one hundred on their class calendar.
Everyone cheers.
Then Ms. Peek-Schnitzel gives out new jobs. And guess what? Harry gets to be Line Leader. At last, at last!
The kids all share what they brought for the one-hundredth day.
There are one hundred
diamonds
erasers
drawings of dogs
marshmallows
pieces of dog kibble
lipstick kisses on a poster board.
Matchbox cars
sequins glued onto paper
tiny plastic animals
grains of rice
song titles listed on a printout
holes punched in paper
star stickers stuck on paper
bobby pins
nails
toothpicks
playing cards
dried beans
bottle caps
drinking straws
fingerprints on paper
pieces of pasta in different shapes
Pokémon cards
drawings of hearts
and
Fluff Monsters!
Harry shows his store-bought ones, the teacher’s two puppets, his pom-pom ones, and his four friends. That makes one hundred.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel gives each kid a bag with one hundred tiny snacks. Twenty-five cheese-flavored bunny crackers, twenty-five pretzel circles, twenty-five M&M’s, and twenty-five Teddy Grahams. She also brought twenty-five small lemonades in cardboard boxes, so everyone gets a drink. Wyatt shares his one hundred mini marshmallows, and each kid gets four.
Mason, Diamond, and Abigail feel too hot in their costumes, so they take them off and just wear their regular clothes. But Wyatt keeps the Gar-Gar suit on.
Harry eats the heads off his Teddy Grahams and cheese bunnies.
So does Mason.
So do Wyatt, Abigail, Diamond, and Kimani, until everyone at Goat Table has a pile of headless treats. Then they eat the bodies and laugh.
The classroom is noisy but not too loud. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel is talking about finishing up and heading to library soon, but nobody is paying attention.
Mason is trying to wiggle his not-wiggly tooth.
Abigail and Kimani are showing off their matching finger-knit friendship bracelets. Wyatt is telling his booger joke to Diamond.
Harry feels big. It’s a special day. He grins his gappy smile. “You know what?” he says, going up to Ms. Peek-Schnitzel at her desk. “I got to be an expert three times already.”
“You did?”
“Yes. I’m a guinea-pig expert. And a pom-pom-monster-making expert. And now I think I am a first-grade expert.”
“You are? Tell me about it.”
“Well, I could tell little kids all about first grade. I can explain it to them so they won’t be scared.”
“What would you tell them about first grade?” asks the teacher.
Harry thinks. “I’d say, don’t push. Don’t battle with bead wires. Recycle. Use your words to say your feelings. Write your sight words. Practice counting to one hundred.” He bites his lower lip and concentrates, wanting to remember everything important. “Don’t eat the pumpkin snacks. Try to make new friends. Keep reading even when the words are hard. Speak up when something’s wrong. And help when someone’s sad.”
“You did it!” cries Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “You became an expert. Guinea pigs, monster making, and first grade. Fantastic!”
“Yup,” says Harry.
And Harry Bergen-Murphy, first grader, thoughtful brother, reader of words with silent E, best friend to Mason, and now an expert three times over, skips off to get some lemonade.
Author’s Note
For parents, teachers, librarians, and curious kids
Harry goes to a public school in Brooklyn, New York. With a little poetic license, I used the New York City Department of Education calendar to decide which days school would be closed and for what reasons. The story is set in the 2018–2019 school year, but I moved the dates of Hanukkah to suit my story better. I also used poetic license for the neighborhood, which is a composite of three in which I have lived, with street, business, and school names largely of my own invention.
As the school year progresses, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s word walls will of course have many more words on them than are mentioned in the story. She puts up sight words every week, and sparkly words whenever they come up in reading or conversation. The ones below are only those specifically mentioned in the book.
Sight words
yes, no, me, you
friend, tired, play, happy
first, again, because, only
his, her, old, stop
this, wish, know, thank
Sparkly Word Wall
weird
usual
unusual
indigenous
election
gratitude
you’re welcome
tradition
peaceful
reduce
reuse
recycle
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel asks the children to make family circles instead of the more conventional family trees. Classic family tree assignments can be stressful for students because they suggest that everyone’s family is structured like a tree. Of course, that isn’t so. Circles allow for all family configurations to be represented.
Fluff Monsters, for better and for worse, are imaginary. So are Harry’s leveled-reader stories—the girl with the blob in the bowl and the mule who waves when she is baking. Spider-Man, My Little Pony, Harry Potter, and Captain Underpants are real, though—and very easy to find on video and in bookstores and libraries. So is the chapter book about the bear who might be named Edward. It is Winnie-the-Pooh.
What about the other stories referenced in One Hundred Days? They are all real picture books that I love sharing with children.
• The book about the boy and his grandmother on the bus is Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson.
• The book about the boy in the wrestling costume is Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales.
• The book about wild boars is Meet Wild Boars by Meg Rosoff, illustrated by Sophie Blackall.
• Harry’s imaginary-friend pillowcase costume idea is from The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat.
• Diamond’s moose costume id
ea is from Z Is for Moose by Kelly Bingham, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky.
• Abigail’s costume idea is from Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf.
• Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s costume comes from Pug Meets Pig by Sue Lowell Gallion, illustrated by Joyce Wan.
• The book the class reads for Election Day is Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by LeUyen Pham.
• The book about the naked tiger is Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown.
• For Martin Luther King Day, the students read Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Bryan Collier.
• The book about the boy and the hungry snake in the eucalyptus tree is One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree by Daniel Bernstrom, illustrated by Brendan Wenzel.
• The Goat and Unicorn game comes from Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great by Bob Shea.
• The Tricky Pig, Tricky Fox game comes from My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza.
As for guinea pigs, there are tons of educational videos online, but my favorite so far is by Little Adventures (maker of many guinea pig videos). This one has adorable creatures and a lot of information; plus, it’s only two minutes long: youtube.com/watch?v=icEiRGp9cdQ.
The Cape Cod song is a classic sea chanty that I first heard on Dan Zanes’s record Sea Music; it’s a great recording and the singer is Father Goose, AKA Rankin Don. “Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?” is a classic Sesame Street song, easy to find online. The Muppet community workers are all male in most iterations of the song, which dates the videos, but they’re pretty great anyhow.
The llama rhyme in the book is the version my kid friends and I do in Brooklyn. There are a lot of different adaptations out there, though. Don’t worry if yours is different.
The computer programs Ms. DeRosa uses are Keyboard Zoo at abcya.com and Bees and Honey at tvokids.com.
Making tiny pom-poms with yarn, scissors, and a fork is an easy project to do with some adult supervision. I recommend this tutorial by Giddyup Workshop: youtube.com/watch?v=fjxJFcm16r0.
Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School Page 10
