Horrible Harry and the Dragon War

Table of Contents

 

Before Miss Mackle could say yes, Harry jumped up. “My grandmother read
St. George and the Dragon
to me last night. It was cool. See?” Harry whipped the library book out of his backpack. “I want to do dragons, too!”

“Hmmm ...” the
teacher replied. “Why not?
They're mythical animals. You can both do dragons. You and Song Lee work so well together.”

 

PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group,
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

 

First published in the United States of America by Viking,
a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2002
Published by Puffin Books,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2003

 

9 10

Text copyright © Suzy Kline, 2002

Illustrations copyright © Frank Remkiewicz, 2003
All rights reserved

 

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE VIKING EDITION AS FOLLOWS:
Kline, Suzy
Horrible Harry and the dragon war / by Suzy Kline ; [Frank Remkiewicz, illustrator].
p. cm.
Summary: Working on a dragon project in Room 3B leads to
a war between two good friends—Harry and Song Lee.

eISBN : 978-1-101-07681-1

[1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Fighting (Psychology)—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.
4. Korean Americans—Fiction.] I. Remkiewicz, Frank, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.K6797 Hnk 2002 [Fic]—dc21 2001056849

 

 

 

Special thanks to the following people for their valuable help with this manuscript: my editor, Cathy Hennessy; my daughter, Emily Hurtuk; my husband, Rufus; my friend Mary Ann Boulanger; Rhoda Blumberg for her helpful essay, “The Truth about Dragons”; and Rick McBride, Cultural Consultant at the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles, California.

 

And special appreciation for the wonderful readalouds I shared each year with my students:
My Father's Dragon, Charlotte's Web, and Stone Fox.

 

M
y name is Doug. I'm in Room 3B. Usually, I write stories about my best friend, Harry. He loves to do horrible things. Sometimes I write about Song Lee. She's the nicest person in third grade. Once I even wrote about Harry and Song Lee getting married.

But that's an old story.

This is a new one and the most horrible one of all. Harry and Song Lee's first fight. A fight that turned into a war.

It all started with dragons.

We were sitting on the rug having our morning snack. Harry was eating celery sticks with peanut butter. He says the raisins down the middle are ants on a log. Sidney was munching on his usual, an apple with brown spots.

I was slurping grape juice with my new twisty straw. Miss Mackle, our teacher, was peeling a tangerine when she broke the news. “Our next project is going to be fun. Pick an animal from any story you've read and find out all you can about it.”

Mary waved her yogurt spoon in the air. “I know who I'm doing. Charlotte from
Charlotte's Web!
She saved Wilbur's life.”

“I'm doing Searchlight from
Stone Fox,”
I said. “I love that dog. She helped little Willy and his grandfather save their farm.”

“Dibs on Templeton from
Charlotte's Web,”
Sidney called out. He loves to eat like me!” When Sid bit into another brown spot, Mary cringed.

“Only
you
would choose a rat,” she groaned. “But I can see why.” Then she pointed to Sid's snack. “You both like rotten things.”

Sidney cackled as he wiped the apple juice off his mouth with his shirt sleeve.

Miss Mackle clapped her hands. “I'm so happy some of you already know which animal you want. Anyone else have an idea?”

Song Lee raised her hand. “I love dragons. Remember when you read My
Father's Dragon
to us?”

Miss Mackle smiled. “I sure do. It's one of my favorites!”

“I read it again, myself. Could I do my project on dragons?” Song Lee begged.

Before Miss Mackle could say yes, Harry jumped up. His celery went flying into the air, hit the blackboard, and fell sticky side down on the braided rug.

Song Lee giggled as she helped wipe up the peanut butter mess with her pink napkin.

“My grandmother read
St. George and the Dragon
to me last night. It was cool. See?” Harry whipped the library book out of his backpack. “I want to do dragons, too!”

Everyone looked at the terrifying beast on the cover. It was spitting fire.

“Hmmm ...” the teacher replied. “Why not? They're mythical animals. You can both do dragons. You and Song Lee work so well together.”

While Harry slapped Song Lee five, we all smiled. No one dreamed Miss Mackle's decision was going to be deadly.

I think the weather knew, though.

Dark clouds circled Southeast School and thunder rolled. When a tree branch tapped our classroom window, we stopped talking and looked up. Was the whistling wind trying to tell us something ?

Yes!