The author gratefully acknowledges
Jan Carr
for her help
with this book.
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
1 Winter Fun
2 A Very Busy Two-Two
3 Back to School
4 Winter Wonderland
5 The Big Fall
6 The Hospital
7 Sleepy, Sleepy Karen
8 A Visit to the Playroom
9 Karen’s Great Idea
10 Home Again
11 The Toy Drive
12 Toys, Toys, and More Toys
13 Karen’s Letter
14 Back to School
15 Another Great Idea
16 Karen’s Speech
17 Animals, Animals Everywhere
18 The Big Day
19 Welcome Home!
20 The Best Surprise
About the Author
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Copyright
Winter Fun
Splat!
Nancy threw a snowball at me. It hit my mitten.
“Hey!” I cried. I picked up a handful of snow and packed it down. “Nancy!” I called. “Watch this!”
Bull’s-eye! My snowball hit the middle of her coat.
“Yesss!” I cried.
I love playing outside. I can shout as loudly as I want. Nobody tells me to use my indoor voice.
Mommy pulled back the curtains at the window. She smiled at us.
“Hi, Mommy!” I waved to her.
Maybe you are wondering who I am. My name is Karen Brewer. I live in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. I am seven years old and in the second grade. When I am all bundled up to play in the snow, you cannot see my hair. But it is blonde. My eyes are blue and I have freckles. I also have glasses. They get fogged up in the cold.
Nancy Dawes is one of my best friends. I am lucky. I have two best friends. The other is Hannie Papadakis. Nancy lives next door to me at the little house. (I will tell you all about the little house soon.)
“Come on,” I called to her. “Let’s go up in the tree house. We can have a secret snowball meeting.”
Nancy and I climbed up the ladder and sat in the tree house. We looked down at all the white, white snow.
“What is a secret snowball meeting?” she asked.
“It is when we think of all the things we did over winter vacation,” I said. “The things we loved the best.”
Nancy took a moment to think.
“I will start,” I said. “I liked going sledding.”
“I liked building snowpeople,” said Nancy. “And I liked getting presents for Hanukkah.”
“I liked watching Irina Kozlova on TV,” I said. Irina Kozlova is a figure skater. She is from Russia. When she skates, she looks like a beautiful ballerina. “Irina Kozlova is my favorite,” I added.
“She is my favorite too,” agreed Nancy.
“I wish I had her feather costume,” I said. I pictured myself dressed like Irina. “I would look very good in a costume like that.”
Just then Andrew came outside. Andrew is my little brother. He is only four. He was carrying my magic wand. Andrew likes to play with my things.
“Can I come up?” he asked.
“It is a secret snowball meeting,” I shouted down.
Nancy whispered in my ear. “He could wave the wand and say some magic words. That would be a good thing to do at a secret meeting.”
“Okay,” I told him. “You can come up. But you have to do everything we say.”
Andrew climbed up the steps.
“Here,” I said. I reached down to help him. “Hand the wand to me.”
Andrew was not very good at saying magic words for our secret meeting. He shouted “Kaboom!” He wanted to pretend he was a superhero. But we did not get to play for very long. Mommy called us inside. She made us cocoa.
“Are you ready to go back to school tomorrow?” she asked.
School! Yikes! I had almost forgotten about school.
Andrew licked his cocoa mustache. “Do we go to the big house then?” he asked.
“No,” said Mommy. “It is only January. You will go to the big house in February.”
“In February when it is Easter?” asked Andrew.
“No,” I told him. “In February when it is Valentine’s Day.”
Sometimes Andrew gets confused. He is little. But that is not the only reason. It is easy to get confused when you are a two-two.
A Very Busy Two-Two
What is a two-two? Two-two is a name I made up for Andrew and me. (I thought of it after I heard a story called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) I call us that because we have two of lots of things. You see, Andrew and I do not always live with Mommy. We have two houses. And two families. And two sets of clothes to wear, one at each house. Let me explain.
When I was little, Andrew and I lived with Mommy and Daddy. We all lived in a big house. It was the house that Daddy grew up in. But Mommy and Daddy started to fight a lot. They decided that they did not love each other anymore. They still loved Andrew and me very much. But they wanted to get a divorce.
So Mommy and Andrew and I moved to the little house. After a while, Mommy married another man. He is a carpenter and his name is Seth. Now he is my stepfather. Seth has a dog named Midgie and a cat named Rocky. They live with us too. And so does my pet rat, Emily Junior, and Andrew’s hermit crab, Bob.
But Andrew and I do not live with Mommy and Seth all the time. We live there every other month. The rest of the time we live at the big house with Daddy.
Let me tell you about the big house. It is a good thing it is big. Sooooo many people live there. Daddy got married again to a woman named Elizabeth. She is my stepmother. She already had four children, so now I have three stepbrothers and a stepsister. Sam and Charlie are in high school. Kristy is thirteen. (She is the greatest baby-sitter ever.) And David Michael is seven, like me. (He can be a pain sometimes. But he and I go to different schools. I go to Stoneybrook Academy.)
But that is not all! Daddy and Elizabeth adopted a little girl from a faraway country called Vietnam. Her name is Emily Michelle. (I love her so much that I named my rat after her.) Emily Michelle is two and a half. When she came to live with us, Nannie came too. Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother, so she is my step-grandmother. She helps take care of Emily Michelle. Actually, she helps take care of all of us.
Do you think that is enough people for one house? You can see why Andrew gets confused.
Now I will tell you about the big-house pets. There is Shannon. She belongs to David Michael. She is a big Bernese mountain dog puppy. Then there is Boo-Boo. He is Daddy’s grouchy old cat. And Andrew and I have big-house pets too. We have Crystal Light the Second and Goldfishie. Guess what they are. I will give you a hint. They are gold and they live in a fish tank.
At first it was not easy to live in two houses. I kept forgetting things. Like Tickly, the special blanket that I sleep with. But I had a good idea about Tickly. I tore it into two pieces. Now I do not have to pack up Tickly every time I move from one house to another. I also have two stuffed cats, Moosie and Goosie. I keep one at each house.
Remember I told you I have two best friends? Nancy lives next to my little house. Hannie lives across the street from my big house. Isn’t that perfect?
Phew! It is pretty busy being a two-two. Lucky for me, I am very good at being busy. And lucky for Andrew, I am his big sister. I can always help him when he gets confused.
“Is tomorrow still vacation?” he asked.
“No,” I said. I took a last sip of cocoa. “Tomorrow we go back to school.”
Back to School
“Hello, everybody,” Ms. Colman said. Ms. Colman is my teacher. She is the mo
st gigundoly wonderful teacher in the whole world. “Did you all have a nice vacation?”
I was standing in the back of the classroom with Hannie and Nancy. I hurried to my seat. I shot up my hand.
“I had a wonderful vacation,” I told her. “I went sledding. And I made snowpeople. And Mommy made us cocoa. And Andrew thought Easter was in February, and — ”
“It sounds as if you were busy, Karen.” Ms. Colman laughed.
“Very busy.” I nodded.
Ms. Colman looked around the room. “I am glad to see you all again,” she said. “Ricky, would you take attendance?”
Ricky Torres sits next to me, in the front of the classroom. He wears glasses, like I do. All the glasses wearers sit up front. (Not only that, Ricky is my pretend husband. We got married one day on the playground.)
I nudged Ricky’s arm. “I am here,” I whispered, in case he did not see me.
Ricky got the attendance book and looked around the room. Nancy and Hannie were there, of course. And Natalie Springer was there. She can be shy, but she is nice. Bobby Gianelli waved hello to me from across the room. He used to be a bully, but now he is (usually) my friend. Pamela Harding was there. (I call her my best enemy.) And Addie Sidney. And Terri and Tammy Barkin, the twins….
“Thank you, Ricky,” said Ms. Colman.
Ricky had finished taking attendance. Everyone was present.
“It is good that everyone is here,” said Ms. Colman. “Because I have some very special projects planned.”
I sat up taller in my seat. Ms. Colman thinks of very good projects.
Ms. Colman went to the blackboard. “What I would like you all to do,” she said, “is think of some people you admire.”
Sara Ford raised her hand.
“Harriet Tubman,” she said.
I knew about Harriet Tubman. She was a slave who escaped to freedom and then helped other slaves escape. Ms. Colman had taught us about her when we were studying history.
“That is a very good choice,” said Ms. Colman. “But I want you to think of someone who is alive. We are going to write letters to the people on our list. We will tell them why we admire them.”
Ooh, this was going to be fun.
“Can you each think of someone you admire?” Ms. Colman picked up a piece of chalk.
I did not have to think long. I turned around and mouthed my answer to Nancy. (I was trying very hard not to shout out.)
“What was that, Karen?” Ms. Colman asked.
“Irina Kozlova,” I said aloud.
“She is a beautiful skater,” said Ms. Colman. “Is that why you admire her?”
“I admire her because she looks like a ballerina,” I said. “And she has beautiful costumes.”
Ms. Colman wrote Irina Kozlova on the board.
Other kids in the class began getting ideas too. Hannie wanted to write to the First Lady. And Bobby wanted to write to Stan “The Man” Jackson. (I think he is a basketball player.) But I hardly paid attention. I was already thinking of the letter I would write.
“Dear Irina Kozlova,” I would say. “You are a very beautiful skater. I especially love your costumes. I wish I could have a costume like yours. Where can I get one? Do you buy yours at a special store?”
I got out my pencil and paper. I started to write the letter.
“And what do you think about Addie’s idea, Karen?” asked Ms. Colman.
Uh-oh. I had been busy writing. I had not been paying attention.
“Hmm?” I asked. I did not have any idea what Addie had said. “I was writing my letter,” I tried to explain.
“We are not going to write the letters just yet,” Ms. Colman told me. “First we are going to talk about the reasons we admire people.”
Boo.
We talked, all right. We talked practically until recess. Brrrnnng! The bell rang.
Boo, boo, and double boo. I wanted to write my letter. I wanted to find out if I could get a costume like Irina’s.
Winter Wonderland
During recess, snow started to fall. It was wet, icy snow. It turned to sleet. Soon the ground was very slick. Bobby Gianelli got an idea. He ran across the playground, then took a long slide. I tried it, too. It was just like skating!
“Look at me!” I yelled. “I am skating in the Olympics! I am going to win the gold medal!”
Ms. Colman called us inside then. It was too icy for us to play outside. Since it was still recess, Ms. Colman let us play games at our desks. The sleet hit the windows. The cold, wet sound sent shivers up my back. Fun, wintry shivers.
When the bell rang, Ms. Colman sent us back to our desks. She wanted us to start on our letters. Finally! But just as I took out my paper, someone knocked at our door. It was the secretary from Mrs. Titus’s office. Mrs. Titus is our principal. The secretary was holding a notice. She handed it to Ms. Colman.
“Well, class,” Ms. Colman said. “This is some interesting news. Mrs. Titus has decided to close the school. She wants to send you home before the roads get too slippery. You may all put away your papers and put on your coats.”
I looked at Hannie and Nancy. They looked at me. We would get another half day of vacation. Hurray! I did not shout this out loud, of course. I would never want to hurt Ms. Colman’s feelings.
On the bus ride home, I looked out the window. The trees were covered with ice. It reminded me of a song, “Winter Wonderland.” I started singing. Everyone joined in. Mr. Mundy, our bus driver, stopped the bus. He turned around and told us he could not see the road very well. He had to concentrate. He asked us to be more quiet. (He asked us nicely.) After that, I whispered the words to the song very quietly. The bus was slipping on the road. Mr. Mundy drove very slowly.
When I got home, I ran inside. But I did not take off my coat.
“Can I play outside?” I asked Mommy. “Please?”
Mommy looked doubtful. She peered out the window. Ice was now covering our yard. It was smooth and glassy.
“It looks a little slick out there,” she said. “I do not know if it is safe.”
“I will be careful,” I promised. “I will not do anything dangerous. And you will be right here.”
Mommy sighed. “You may play outside for a few minutes,” she said. “But you may not play in the tree house. That is too dangerous.”
“I won’t!” I cried.
Andrew stood behind Mommy. “Can I go too?” he asked.
“When you are bigger,” said Mommy. “Now you can stay with me in the kitchen. You can help me mash the potatoes.”
I was glad I was big enough to play outside in the stormy weather.
Outside, the ice was perfect. I slid around in my boots. I waved my arms gracefully like Irina Kozlova. I pretended I was wearing a wispy skating skirt. It had sequins on it. It was blue. No. Not blue. Purple.
Once I had seen Irina skate with a scepter in her hand. Maybe I should have my magic wand. The magic wand was up in the tree house, where Andrew had left it. I wanted to climb up and get it.
Hmm. Mommy had said not to play in the tree house, but I did not want to play there. I only wanted to get the wand. Once I got it, I would come right back down. Then I would play in the yard.
I looked back at the window. Mommy was not watching. The steps to the tree house were covered with ice. I knew I would be safe if I held on tightly. I brushed the snow off my mittens and started to climb.
The Big Fall
The wand was in the tree house, just where I remembered. It was stuck in the ice. I chipped at the ice and pulled the wand free. I waved it high. “And now I will do a triple spin,” I said, like Irina Kozlova. I started back down.
It was harder to climb down. I forgot that I would have to hold on to the wand. I clutched the wand in one hand and held on to the steps with the other. I looked down. Suddenly the tree house seemed awfully high. I took another step. Oops! My foot slipped. I tried to grab the step above me, but it was too late. I was already falling.
Bam! I landed face down o
n something hard. It was a tree stump sticking out of the snow. It had jabbed me right in my stomach. It really hurt. I tried to get up, but my stomach hurt even more when I moved. So I lay down in the snow again. The magic wand was lying beside me. Suddenly I did not feel very much like Irina Kozlova.
“Mommy!” I heard someone cry. It was Andrew. He was in the doorway. Oh, no! He had seen me fall. I struggled to get up. Now Mommy would know I had gone in the tree house.
Mommy came running outside. She was still in her apron.
“Karen!” she cried. “Are you all right? What happened?”
She knelt beside me.
“What hurts?” she asked.
“My stomach,” I moaned. “Right here.”
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.”
“Come on.” Mommy helped me. “I am going to call Dr. Dellenkamp. She will tell us what to do.”
When we got in the house, Mommy told me to lie on the couch. I did not take off my coat or my boots or my hat. Mommy put a blanket over me to keep me even warmer. Then she called Dr. Dellenkamp.
“She says her stomach hurts,” Mommy said. She looked at me from across the room. She looked worried. “Yes,” she said. “She fell from quite a height.”
When Mommy got off the phone, she told me we had to go to the hospital. Dr. Dellenkamp was going to meet us in the emergency room.
The emergency room? I had been there before. I had been there when I broke my wrist. “Do you think I broke something?” I asked.
“We do not know yet,” said Mommy. “It is possible that you broke a rib.”
Then Mommy called Mrs. Dawes next door. She explained what had happened.
“Can Andrew stay at your house?” she asked.
Mrs. Dawes said yes, of course.
Mommy bundled up Andrew. She put on her own coat, then called Seth at his workshop. She told him we were going to the hospital. She asked him to meet us there as soon as he could.
Mommy helped me to my feet. We got into the car. We watched to make sure Mrs. Dawes answered the door to let Andrew in. She stepped out onto the porch and put her arm around Andrew. They waved to us as we drove off.