Gooney the Fabulous by Lois Lowry Read Free Book Online Page B

mandrill.
    "Well, maybe I can give them away," she thought.
    But no one wanted those babies, even as a gift.
    She couldn't figure out what to do. She sat on the jungle floor, thinking.
    Suddenly one of the babies smiled at her.
    Then the next one did.
    And then the third. All three baby mandrills were smiling for the first time.
    "Hey, look!" the mother said to her older mandrill child. He was up in a tree, hiding, because he hated the babies. But he came down when his mom called.
    He looked at the smiles. He reached over and tickled one of the babies. It laughed.
    Another one puckered up its mouth and blew him a kiss.
    The third one climbed into his lap, curled up, and began to sleep very quietly.
    The older mandrill child was surprised at how much, suddenly, he had begun to like the babies.
    "Let's keep them," he said to his mother. "They're cute."
    So they did. After that, when the babies cried, the
mother mandrill and her older mandrill child just covered their ears. They knew it wouldn't last.
    "Oh, I love that fable," Keiko said with a sigh. "It was so sweet."
    "Yeth," said Felicia Ann. "Tho thweet."
    "Did the babies have purple bums?" asked Tyrone.
    Malcolm shrugged. "I guess so," he said. "They were mandrills."
    Gooney Bird went to the front of the class. "There is nothing whatsoever wrong with a purple bottom," she said. "Colorful is always good. I'm planning on dyeing part of my hair purple sometime.
    "Thank you for your fable, Malcolm. Do you want to tell us the moral?"
    "Okay. It's this," Malcolm said. "
Things get better.
"
    "They do indeed," Mrs. Pidgeon said, smiling. "And it sounds as if things are getting better at your house, Malcolm."
    He nodded happily. Then he stopped smiling. "It'll be bad when I get home today, though," he said. "My mom will scream."
    "Why is that?" asked Mrs. Pidgeon.
    "Because I used an indelible marker on my nose," Malcolm said.

12.

    "Who's left?" Mrs. Pidgeon looked around the room. "Just Gooney Bird and Nicholas, I guess. Goodness, we've done a lot of fables!"
    "When do we do the parade?" Beanie asked.
    "Tomorrow. It's the last day of school before vacation. Have you all saved your costumes? I have my panda vest right here in my desk drawer."
    The children all nodded.
    "Can I do us a rap for the parade?" Tyrone asked. "Most parades got a band. We need some kind of music."
    "Yes!" the children called. "A rap!"
    "Of course," said Mrs. Pidgeon. "But we'll all need to learn it, Tyrone, and we don't have much time."
    "
Ain't no problem, nuthin' to learn, just follow me and take your turn
..." Tyrone chanted.
    "All right, I guess we can do that," said Mrs. Pidgeon. "We'll have a little practice time before we start the parade." She looked toward the corner of the classroom. "Gooney Bird?
    Nicholas? Are you ready?"
    Gooney Bird and Nicholas had been whispering to each other in the corner by the gerbil cage, planning the presentation of their fable. Now they nodded and came to the front of the room. Nicholas was grinning. It was already hard to remember how sad he had been, how he had stopped eating, and how he had sulked and refused to discuss his fable just a few days before.
    They stood side by side and put on their costumes, dark beards that attached by plastic pieces that hooked around their ears.
    "They're being Abe Lincoln!" Ben called. "That's not fair!"
    "Anyway," Barry pointed out, "Abe Lincoln is A and L! They're supposed to be G and N!"
    Gooney Bird held up a quiet-please finger. Eventually the class calmed down, though some of the children were still laughing at the sight of Gooney Bird and Nicholas wearing the dark brown beards, which did not match Gooney Bird's bright red hair, or Nicholas's blond curls, at all.
    "We are not Abe Lincoln," Gooney Bird told the class. Her beard wobbled a little as she talked. "We are two animals who live in a large herd on the plains of Africa. Nicholas, will you write our name on the board?"
    The list on the board was very long by now.