Gooney Bird on the Map by Lois Lowry Read Free Book Online Page B

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