Gooney Bird on the Map

by Lois Lowry

  "Can we use the library?" asked Malcolm.

  "Of course. That's the best place for research."

  "And the computers?" asked Keiko.

  "Sure."

  "Can I use my lunch box?" asked Tyrone.

  All of the children admired Tyrone's lunch box, the one with the map of the United States on it, and a star on each state. Inside each star was the name of a famous person who had been born in that state.

  "Hey, Tricia: Dolly Parton was born in Tennessee," Tyrone pointed out. "I don't even need to go look. I got my lunch box memorized."

  Mrs. Pidgeon gave that some thought. "You know what?" she said. "I think we should concentrate on history or geography, not celebrities."

  "Dolly Parton was born in 1946," Tyrone pointed out. "That's history."

  "Ancient history!" Tricia added.

  "Nonetheless. Let's not use the lunch box. That would make things too easy. Let's do some real research and find out little-known facts about our states."

  "Beyoncé was born in Texas," Tyrone whispered loudly to Tricia. Mrs. Pidgeon gave him a what-did-I-just-say look, and he raised his arms as if he were surrendering. "Busted," he said, with a grin. "Okay. No lunch box."

  "Moment of silence," said Mrs. Pidgeon. "Then we'll get to work."

  The second-graders all bowed their heads briefly. All but Beanie, Barry, and Ben. "What about us?" they asked angrily. What are we supposed to do?"

  "Gooney Bird?" said Mrs. Pidgeon.

  "Let me think," said Gooney Bird. She arranged her tiara on her head once again. "Okay," she said, after a moment. I have an idea."

  10.

  The librarian, Mrs. Clancy, was happy to have the second-graders visit the library for their map project. She showed them the books about the United States, and where to find the encyclopedia, and she got some of them started on the computers. Nicholas and Malcolm sat at the same table with the encyclopedia volumes marked N and M.

  "Remember," Mrs. Pidgeon instructed them. "One little-known fact! Nothing obvious! We want to surprise people! Are you all finding your states?"

  The children nodded.

  "Here's New Jersey!" Nicholas said loudly, looking at his volume with a grin. Then, after a minute, turning the pages, he added, "North Dakota!"

  "Maine!" Malcolm announced, and then: "Massachusetts! Missouri!"

  All around the large library room, children were finding their states.

  "I Googled California!" Chelsea called out from her computer desk. "And there's a million different things to look at!"

  Beanie, Ben, and Barry sat silently near an exhibit of igloos constructed from sugar cubes. They didn't have any research to do. They had no states. But they didn't look upset anymore. Their job was different. And for now they had to wait.

  After a few minutes, Gooney Bird made her way over to them and sat down. "I got my little-known fact about Georgia.

  Here—I've written it down for you," she told them, and handed them her paper.

  Barry looked at what she had written. Then he grinned. "Okay," he said. "Got it."

  Next, Tyrone came to the corner of the library where the three Bs were sitting. "I had Texas," he said. "Here." He gave his paper to Beanie. Barry and Ben looked over Beanie's shoulder and they read the Texas little-known fact together. Then they whispered back and forth, and finally they high-fived each other and said, "YES!"

  "We got the best job," Beanie said happily to the other two Bs.

  Barry nodded in agreement. Ben whispered, "Maybe. But let's not gloat."

  It took several days for the children to prepare their material and to memorize their parts. They had to learn, too, how to locate their states. Only the outline of the USA was marked on their map. Some states, like Florida and Texas and California, were easy to find. So was Hawaii. But North Carolina? Nebraska? Nicholas had to work hard on those, and his other N states. And Malcolm, though he had no trouble with Maine or Massachusetts, struggled with others of his Ms: Missouri, Minnesota, and the others.

  They didn't rehearse outdoors, with the real map, because they didn't want the other classrooms to see them. They wanted the event to be a surprise. But they practiced and practiced in the classroom. Mrs. Pidgeon pulled down the wall map and one by one each child went to the front of the room, announced a state, located it on the map, and recited a little-known fact in a loud clear voice.

  Mrs. Pidgeon did, too. She had Pennsylvania.

  The three Bs, Barry and Beanie and Ben, stood to the side, near the classroom door, and presented their part during the rehearsals.

  "We have to work harder than everybody else," Barry announced one afternoon when they were all taking a break, "because we have to do every state. Our role is huge."

  "No gloating, remember?" Malcolm reminded him.

  "I wasn't gloating. I was just saying."

  Mrs. Pidgeon interrupted them. "Everyone's doing a great job, guys," she said. "I'd say we're just about perfect. And tomorrow's the big day! Last day of school before vacation! The whole school will be gathered out on the playground to watch our performance."

  "I'm a little bit nervous," Felicia Ann confessed.

  "Think of it as excited" Gooney Bird told her. "We're all excited."

  "I wish we had costumes," Chelsea said with a sigh.

  "Costumes are for entertainment," Mrs. Pidgeon pointed out, "like a circus, or a pageant. This is more serious. This is an educational event."

  "But hats are always good," Gooney Bird said. "I'm going to wear a very spectacular hat. Maybe you could, too, Chelsea? Maybe everyone could."

  All of the second-graders nodded. They liked that idea.

  "But right now," Gooney Bird added, "I need to go see Mrs. Clancy at the library. So I'm putting on my white gloves." She went to her cubby.

  "But we see Mrs. Clancy all the time! You don't need white gloves to see the librarian!" Tricia said, laughing.

  But Gooney Bird was already smoothing her gloves over her fingers. "This is an official call," she said. "We need her help with AV."

  "That's Arizona and Virginia, right?" Malcolm said.

  "Good guess, Malcolm," Gooney Bird told him. "but no. It's audio-visual. Librarians are AV experts. And I think the three Bs are going to need a microphone tomorrow.

  "Be right back!" she said, and went off to the library with the white gloves on her hands.

  11.

  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. The huge ice map glistened, its oceans sparkling and blue. The black painted line around the United States was firm and wide, and the tiny green plastic palm tree, one frond missing, stood slightly tilted on a small bump that was meant to be part of Hawaii. The chopstick flagpoles that had once decorated Vermont, Florida, and Hawaii had been removed.

  Bruno was sprawled, snoring, a little north of Oregon and Washington. "Bruno's in Alaska," Tricia whispered to Nicholas.

  A thick orange electrical cord ran all the way from the slightly opened window of the school office, and was providing the power to an amplifier that looked like a black suitcase set against a snowbank. From the top of the amplifier, another cord stretched to a microphone that was standing beside the low mound of packed snow that the children had named Antarctica. Barry, Beanie, and Ben, wearing matching knitted ski hats, were behind the microphone, looking nervous.

  "Testing, testing," Barry said into the mike, following Mrs. Clancy's instructions. "One, two, three, four..."

  The microphone screeched, and the librarian adjusted the volume knob on the amplifier until the piercing screech disappeared. "All right," she said at last. "I think we're ready."

  Watertower Elementary School was very small. There was only one class for each grade, from kindergarten through sixth. All eighty-seven students were gathered in the playground, facing the large map, with Mrs. Pidgeon's class in the front of the crowd. The second-graders were wiggling with nervousness and excitement.

  The principal, Mr. Leroy, went to the edge of the map and faced the audience.

/>   "I am Da Man," he announced in a loud voice.

  "U Da Man!" the children all replied.

  "And I am delighted to present to you this amazing project created by the second grade." Mr. Leroy gestured to the map. He nodded to the second-graders, all except the three B s, who were still arranged behind the microphone. They moved forward, with Mrs. Pidgeon, as they had rehearsed, in a line and took their places, standing on the wide black rectangular border that marked their territory.

  "They have been studying United States geography, and now, before we all head off on our wonderful winter vacations, they are going to tell you some little-known facts about this country of ours. First, shall we all join together and sing 'This Land Is Your Land'?"

  Mr. Bornstein, the music teacher, came forward and began the song. The children all joined in. Even the kindergarten children knew the words. "This land is your land, this land is my land," they sang loudly.

  Mr. Leroy went back to his place in the audience, and Mrs. Pidgeon stepped forward. "I want to introduce our special trio," she said, and gestured toward the three Bs. "Barry, Beanie, and Ben are going to provide the sound effects—and perhaps you will all join in—as we tell you all little-known facts about some of the United States.

  "I'll go first. My state is Pennsylvania." Mrs. Pidgeon stepped onto the map and found the location of her state. She stood carefully on that spot. "Pennsylvania leads the whole country in the manufacture of pretzels and potato chips!" she announced loudly. Then she looked at the sound-effects trio and nodded.

  "CRUNCH!" Barry, Beanie, and Ben said into the microphone. They gestured to the audience, who joined in. "CRUNCH!" everyone shouted, and laughed.

  Keiko was next in line. She moved to the map, found her place in the exact center of the United States, stood there proudly, and tried to use her loudest voice. "I could have taken Kentucky, but we decided we'd each just do one state. So I chose Kansas," she said, "because it's where The Wizard of Oz was!"

  The schoolchildren all murmured and nodded. They all knew The Wizard of Oz

  "And here's my little-known fact: Kansas has over fifty tornados every year!"

  Keiko looked over at the three Bs. She nodded.

  Barry, Beanie, and Ben each took a deep breath. Then, all together, they made the sound of an approaching tornado. "WHOOSH!"

  The audience replied loudly: "WHOOSH!"

  Tricia went next. She made her way very carefully across the map, finding her place midway between Mrs. Pidgeon, who was standing in Pennsylvania, and Keiko, in Kansas, and then moving a little south of them both.

  The sound-effects trio looked a little nervous.

  "I'm Tennessee," Tricia announced proudly. "Home of Elvis Presley!" She nodded to the trio.

  "YOU AIN'T NUTHIN' BUT A HOUND DOG!" Barry, Ben, and Beanie sang.

  The audience repeated it. "YOU AIN'T NUTHIN' BUT A HOUND DOG!" Bruno opened his eyes, looked up sleepily, and then stood. He yawned, moved from Alaska across the Pacific Ocean, and lay down next to Hawaii.

  "Me next?" asked Nicholas, and Gooney Bird nodded. "Magic," she whispered, reminding him of his candy-heart name, because he looked a little nervous.

  Nicholas moved to the map and turned to face the audience. "I got a whole bunch of states," he said. "Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey. New York, North Carolina, North Dakota"—he examined the map carefully, then stepped onto an area beside Texas—"but I chose New Mexico for a really scary reason!"

  The children all waited, wondering what little-known fact could be so scary about New Mexico.

  "There are a zillion rattlesnakes in New Mexico!" Nicholas announced.

  "HISSSSSS," said the sound-effects trio.

  "HISSSSSS," repeated the audience in delight.

  Tyrone took his turn next. He pranced from the edge of the map over to Texas, near Nicholas in New Mexico. He wiggled his hips slightly and chanted, "I got Texas as my place, Texas sends us into space!" Then he stopped dancing and said, "Texas has the NASA Space Center!"

  The three Bs leaned toward the microphone and said, "BLAST OFF!"

  "BLAST OFF!" came the reply.

  Chelsea moved proudly to the map and found her spot in the middle of California. Bruno looked over briefly from the Pacific Ocean, then closed his eyes again.

  "My state is California!" Chelsea announced. "I could have had Colorado or Connecticut, but I chose California because the state bird is the California quail, and it makes the sound of a city that isn't even in California. Listen hard!"

  The trio had studied this very carefully. They had listened to recorded bird calls on the computer in the library. Now the three of them together, in squeaky, warbling voices, did the call: "CHICAAAHGO, CHICAAAHGO, CHICAAAHGO!"

  The audience laughed and tried to do it themselves. "CHICAAAHGO, CHICAAAHGO, CHICAAAHGO!"

  Malcolm, who had been wiggling in anticipation, went to the map next. "Me and Nicholas had more states than anybody! Eight! I had Maryland, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, and Mississippi, but I chose Maine!"

  He went to the farthest north spot on the Eastern Coast and stood there beside the Atlantic Ocean, on the border of Canada.

  Usually Malcolm talked very fast when he was nervous or excited. But he had practiced and practiced his little-known fact, and now he said it loudly and clearly. "Maine's lowest recorded temperature is fifty below zero!"

  "BRRRR!" was the response from the sound-effects trio.

  "BRRRR!" the audience replied.

  "Now me, now me!" Felicia Ann scurried over to the lower end of the East Coast. "I'm Florida!" she called. "Florida has more lightning strikes than anyplace else in the United States!"

  "ZAP!" said the three Bs.

  "ZAP!" said the audience.

  Finally, Gooney Bird moved to the state just above Florida. "I'm last, and my state is Georgia," she explained to the audience. Then she told them, "Not many people know this, but Georgia is the headquarters for Coca-Cola!"

  She nodded to the trio. "BURP!" they said into the microphone.

  "BURP!" The audience, laughing, responded.

  "We hope you've enjoyed our geography presentation," Gooney Bird said to the school. "And we hope you all have a great vacation. Anybody who wants to come to my house next Wednesday afternoon, I'm having a birthday party for President William Henry Harrison. His birthday was February ninth and I feel that he doesn't get enough attention, so I am making cookies with his initials in M&M's and you are all invited."

  Gooney Bird bowed. The second-graders, and Mrs. Pidgeon, still standing on their states, bowed. The audience applauded. The yellow school buses had lined up along the curb beside the playground. People began making their way toward the buses. Mr. Furillo prodded Bruno awake and attached a leash to his collar. Mrs. Clancy unplugged the microphone cord, which gave a final small screech. "Good job, sound-effects people," she said to the three Bs.

  "Thank you," they said, but their voices were unenthusiastic.

  "That's no fair," Barry complained as he walked past Gooney Bird. "I have to be in Hawaii! I'll miss your party!"

  "Yeah," grumbled Ben, coming up beside them. "My family's making me go to Vermont!"

  Beanie plodded past them. "I'm missing all the good stuff," she said in a grouchy voice, "just because of dumb Disney World."

  "We'll think of you as we eat our cookies," Gooney Bird told them. "We'll be sad for you. We'll have a moment of silence."

  The End

  Read more about Gooney Bird in these books by Lois Lowry:

  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books Discussion Guide

  Gooney Bird Greene

  by Lois Lowry

  illustrated by Middy Thomas

  About the series:

  Gooney Bird is not your average second-grader. First there are her marvelous outfits— like the pajamas and cowboy boots she wore on her first day at Watertown Elementary. But there are also the amazing stories she tells and her excellent ability to access
orize all while being a good friend. Join Mrs. Pidgeon's classroom and learn along with Gooney Bird and her colorful classmates.

  About the author and illustrator:

  The two-time Newbery Award-winning author Lois Lowry has been friends with the illustrator, Middy Thomas, for many years. They laughed so much and for so long while working on the Gooney Bird Greene books they had a hard time getting completed! They are thrilled to share these books with children.

  Gooney Bird Greene

  Gooney Bird Greene

  DISCUSSION GUIDE:

  Describe Gooney Bird Greene. How would she fit into your class? Do you, like Gooney Bird, like to be "smack dab in the middle of everything"?

  Mrs. Pidgeon's class is talking about how to write or tell a good story. What do all stories need?

  What makes Gooney Bird Greene a great storyteller? Is there a difference between good storytelling and good writing?

  Which of the stories that Gooney Bird tells is your favorite? Why?

  Who are the main characters in this story? How do you get to know them?

  As you read Gooney Bird Greene complete the following graphic organizer based on the stories that she tells.

  Project:

  Find out the story of how you got your name. Then, as a class, take turns sharing your stories. Be sure that each one has all the important parts of a story!

  Gooney Bird and the Room Mother

  DISCUSSION GUIDE:

  What holiday is Mrs. Pidgeon's class preparing for?