Blue Ribbon Blues (5 page)

She turned off the computer and went to bed.

Next morning Tooter went to search for eggs. Feeling around in the darkness of the chicken coop, she heard a voice in the barnyard. Jack Hafer’s. He was calling her name.

She knew why he was here. He had come to show off the blue ribbon he’d won. To wave it in her face. Who needed that? She crouched in the shadows of the coop.

But then Jack was in the doorway, peering in. “Tooter? You there?”

“No,” she said.

“I can’t see you. Come on out.”

“I’m gathering eggs. Like the great farmer that I am.”

He laughed. “Come on out anyway. I have something to show you.”

“Don’t bother. I know what it is.”

“Tooter,” he said. “Please.”

Tooter gave in. She walked outside. Jack was standing there with a big grin on his face. And sure enough, he held a blue ribbon in his hand. He waved it in front of her.

“Big deal,” she said. “If Pepperoni was there, you wouldn’t have won.”

Jack seemed to think about that. He shrugged. “Maybe not.” He smiled. “Anyway, here—” He grabbed her hand and placed the blue ribbon in it. “This is yours as much as mine. For saving Cleo. I think you should have it.”

Tooter stared at the ribbon. She didn’t know what to say.

“Bye,” said Jack, and ran to his bike.

When Jack disappeared down Fox Hollow Road, Tooter ran to the house. She came out with a hammer. She ran to the barn. She showed Pepperoni the blue ribbon. “This is yours too,” she said. Pepperoni looked proud.

Tooter pulled a nail from her pocket. She tacked the blue ribbon onto the front post of the stall. She kissed Pepperoni on her proud, bony nose. “We’ll take turns with it,” she said. “You can have it the first week.”

Then she raced into the house. “Dad! Dad!” she called as she flew up the stairs. Her father was at his usual place at the computer. He turned as she burst into the office. “Forget that ending I gave you,” she gushed. “I have a new one.” She jumped into his arms. “And
this
one is happy!”

None of Jerry Spinelli’s six children was ever saddled with the responsibility of raising a chicken or training a goat, but his daughter Molly was just as persistent with him as Tooter Pepperday is with her father. While writing one of his books, Jerry didn’t hear his daughter calling him until she sat on his desk and began writing him a note vertically along the page of his longhand manuscript! He told her to “Scoot!” but he did pay more attention to her the next time she came into the room.

Other books by Jerry Spinelli include
Tooter Pepperday, Stargirl
, and
Maniac Magee
, for which he won the Newbery Medal in 1991. Jerry lives with his wife, Eileen, also a children’s book author, in Pennsylvania.

Don’t miss the first book about
Tooter!

“You’re gonna regret this.”

“We are?” said Mr. Pepperday.

“Yeah,” said Tooter. “You can drag me out of here, but there’s one thing you can’t make me do.”

For the last time, the Pepperday family left their house in Morgantown.

“You’re not giving me the silent treatment, are you?” said Mr. Pepperday.

There was no answer. Tooter’s lips were clamped tight.

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MIAMI
Sees It Through

by Patricia & Fredrick McKissack

Then I hear Miss Spraggins saying, “What about you, Michael Andrew? Do you understand?”

“No, Ma’am,” I say. Now, I’m meaning,
No, please don’t call me Michael Andrew
, but she’s thinking I’m saying,
No, I don’t understand.

Miss Spraggins is not with me on this. “I see,” she says. “So you’re a smarty-mouth. Then see if you can understand this. Michael Andrew, you have detention.”

“What? But—”

“Not another word, young sir.”

Who’s ever heard of getting detention on the first day of school? I’ve got a sinking feeling—fourth grade is busted!

Do you like stories about animals?
Try reading …

B
illy looked from one parent to the other. “If you’d just get me a dog for my birthday, I’d be real good.”

Mrs. Getten shook her head. “I think you should be good first.”

“You don’t seem like you’re ready for a dog, son.”

“Not ready? That’s all I ever wanted!”

His mother stood.

His father said, “If you’d help around here, maybe we’d consider a dog. But not with the kind of stunt you pulled this morning.”

Billy didn’t dare say what he was thinking. They really should have gotten a dog instead of a baby. What good was a baby? She couldn’t even run after a stick.