Free the Worms! Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  About the Author

  For Sarah and Emily—N.K. For Judy—friend of the little guy!—J&W

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Text copyright © 2008 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2008 by John and Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. .S.A.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2007034406

  eISBN : 978-0-448-44675-2

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  Chapter 1

  “Ruff! Ruff!”

  Katie Carew watched as her chocolate-and-white cocker spaniel, Pepper, jumped up and down near the tree in her backyard. He was barking at a gray squirrel on a branch above.

  “Ruff! Ruff!” Pepper barked louder.

  The squirrel opened its mouth and let an acorn drop. Clunk. It hit Pepper right on the head.

  “Aroooo!” Pepper howled. He jumped up again.

  Clunk. Down came another acorn. This one hit Pepper on the rear end.

  That did it! “ARROOOOOO! RUFFFF! ARF!”

  Pepper was barking really loud now!

  “He wants to get that squirrel,” Katie’s friend Emma Weber said as the two girls watched Pepper leaping up and down on his hind legs.

  Katie nodded. “But he won’t catch him. He never does. It’s just this game they play.”

  “He looks like he’s having fun, though,” Emma said.

  Katie grinned. Pepper definitely seemed happy. His stubby little tail was wagging back and forth so fast, it looked like a brown blur.

  “Arooo! Arf !” Pepper barked at the squirrel. He leaped up and down against the tree trunk.

  “It’s just that he’s hard to draw when he’s jumping,” Emma told Katie. “He’s not a very cooperative model.”

  “I know. All I’ve been able to draw is his ear,” Katie agreed, looking down at her drawing pad. “The only time Pepper sits still is when he’s asleep.”

  “Your dog is a lot like my twin brothers,” Emma said.

  Katie knew what she meant. Emma’s twin brothers, Tyler and Timmy, were only a year old. They had just learned to walk. Now they never seemed to want to sit still. They were always getting into messes. Just like Pepper.

  “Hey, look!” Emma exclaimed, pointing to the tree branch. “Now there are three squirrels up there. And they’re all throwing acorns at Pepper.”

  “Three against one. That’s not fair!” Katie shouted up at the squirrels.

  The squirrels ignored her completely.

  “Come on, Emma!” Katie said, dropping her paper and crayons and running over to the tree.

  “What are we doing?” Emma asked.

  “We’re going to be on Pepper’s team,” Katie told her. She dropped down on all fours and started barking like a dog. “Ruff! Ruff!”

  Emma grinned. She got down on all fours, too. “Arrooooo!” she howled.

  “Arf ! Arf !” Pepper barked.

  “Ruff !” Katie barked. Then she wiggled her rear end. “Look, I’m wagging my tail,” she told Emma.

  Emma dropped down onto her belly. Then she flipped over onto her back.

  “What are you doing?” Katie asked her.

  “I’m rolling over,” Emma told her.

  Katie laughed and rolled over in the grass, too.

  “Animals have all the fun,” Emma said.

  “They really do,” Katie agreed. “Nobody ever yells at them for getting dirty.”

  Emma wriggled out of her sweater, which had leaves and mud stuck on it. “Now I’m a snake. Get it?”

  “Yes! Just like Slinky.” Their class was learning about reptiles. Snakes like their class pet, Slinky, shed their old skin. Then there was a clean new skin underneath.

  Katie got down on her belly and began slithering around in the grass. “Look at me! I’m a snake, too!” she told Emma.

  Clunk. Just then another acorn fell from

  the tree. This one hit Katie on the arm. She looked up.

  The three squirrels were sitting up there. They almost seemed as if they were laughing at her.

  “That’s it!” Katie exclaimed, leaping back up onto all fours. “Come on, Emma. Let’s be dogs again. Pepper needs all the help he can get!”

  “Arff !” Emma barked.

  “Aroo!” Katie howled.

  “Grrrr ruff! Ruff!” Pepper growled.

  That was enough to scare the three squirrels out of the tree. They leaped onto a nearby fence, and ran out of the yard.

  “Victory!” Emma shouted.

  “Arooooo!” Pepper howled happily.

  “Yes, Pepper. You’re right. Dogs rule!” Katie cheered.

  Chapter 2

  “This is the best vegetarian chili I’ve ever eaten,” Emma W. told Katie’s mom later that evening. She stopped for a second and thought. “It’s also the only vegetarian chili I’ve ever eaten.”

  “Vegetarian lasagna is yummy, too,” Katie told Emma. “Oh, and veggie burgers. I love when Daddy makes those on the grill.”

  “Don’t forget the grilled vegetables I pile on top of them,” Mr. Carew proudly reminded Katie.

  “Is it hard being a vegetarian?” Emma asked Katie.

  Katie shook her head. “No. It’s easy. I’ve been a vegetarian for a long time.”

  “How come?” Emma asked her.

  “I just don’t want to eat anything that ever had a face,” Katie explained. “I guess I stopped eating meat right around the time we adopted Pepper from the animal shelter.”

  At the sound of his name, Pepper came running over. He plopped himself down beside Katie and looked up, hopefully.

  “I think Pepper wishes he had some of this people food,” Emma said.

  Katie gulped. “He does not!” she insisted. “He doesn’t wish that at all!”

  Everyone at the table stopped eating and stared at her. Katie turned beet red. She knew they all thought sh
e was acting weird.

  But it was just that Katie hated wishes.

  It all started back in third grade on one terrible, horrible day. Katie had missed the football and lost the game for her team. Then she’d fallen in a big mud puddle and ruined her favorite pair of jeans. Even worse, she’d let out a huge burp in front of the whole class. How embarrassing!

  That night, Katie had wished she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star overhead or something, because the next day the magic wind came.

  The magic wind was a super-strong, tornado-like wind that blew only around Katie. It was so powerful that every time it came, it turned Katie into someone else.

  The first time the magic wind came it turned Katie into Speedy, the class 3A hamster. After escaping from the cage, she wound up inside George’s stinky sneaker. YUCK! Luckily, the magic wind had returned to switcheroo Katie back into a kid again, before anyone realized that she’d been running around the school—with nothing on but hamster fur!

  The magic wind followed Katie everywhere she went—even all the way to Europe. When Katie was in England on vacation, the wind turned her into a guard at Buckingham Palace.

  Those guards are trained not to smile no matter what the people around them are doing. But Katie wasn’t trained for anything. And she didn’t just smile. She burst out laughing—and got the poor guard she’d turned into fired!

  Then there was the time the magic wind turned Katie into Pepper. She’d accidentally

  broken a statue in her next-door neighbor’s yard.

  After that Pepper had to be on a leash if he wanted to walk anywhere! That wasn’t very fair, since it was actually Katie who had caused the mess. Of course, Katie was the only one who knew that, so no one suggested she be put on a leash to go for a walk!

  That was the biggest problem with the magic wind. It always blew in trouble. Then it was up to Katie to make things right again.

  The magic wind was the reason Katie never made wishes anymore. But of course she couldn’t explain that to Emma W. and her parents. They wouldn’t believe her, anyway. Katie wouldn’t have believed it herself if it didn’t keep happening to her.

  Still, she knew she had to say something, and fast.

  “Um . . . I just mean Pepper is better off with his food,” Katie told them. “This chili would be too spicy for him.”

  “That’s true,” Katie’s dad said. “Dog food is the best thing for dogs.”

  “But people eat different foods every day,” Emma W. insisted, “and all he gets is the same old doggie kibble in his bowl.”

  “Oh, I can fix that,” Katie told her. She got up from the table and walked over to the cabinet where the dog food was kept. She pulled out a green bone-shaped doggie cookie.

  “Pepper, treat!” she called out.

  Pepper knew what that meant. He raced over to Katie, his little tail wagging.

  “Sit,” Katie said.

  Pepper sat.

  “Give paw,” Katie said.

  Pepper lifted up his right front paw.

  Katie shook his furry hand. “Good boy,” she praised her dog. Then she gave him the cookie.

  Pepper swallowed it up in one gulp. Then he let out a little bark.

  “You’re welcome,” Katie said with a giggle.

  “How did you know he said ‘thank you’?”

  Emma asked her.

  Katie smiled. “Oh, I just think I know what it’s like to be a dog. Isn’t that right, Pepper?”

  “Aarf !” Pepper agreed.

  Chapter 3

  “Katie Kazoo, you gotta hear about this!” George Brennan shouted the next morning as Katie arrived at the school playground.

  Katie grinned when she heard George using the way-cool nickname he’d given her last year. She loved the way it sounded.

  “What’s up?” Katie asked him.

  “I’m gonna be a rock star!” George told her. “And so are Jeremy and Kevin. We’re starting a band. I’m going to be the keyboard player.”

  “But you don’t play the keyboards,” Katie reminded him. “You play the tuba in beginning band.”

  George shook his head. “Not anymore. There aren’t tubas in rock bands. So I’m switching. Kevin’s switching, too, from trumpet to guitar. Mr. Starkey said it would be okay.”

  Katie nodded. Mr. Starkey was the band teacher. If he said it was okay, it must be. “But Jeremy’s still playing drums, right?” Katie asked him.

  George nodded. “You need drums if you’re going to have a really rocking band.”

  Just then, Kevin Camilleri and Jeremy Fox—the other two boys in the band—walked over. Jeremy made two fists and began to drum in the air. Kevin played air guitar.

  “Rock on, dudes!” Kevin exclaimed.

  “Rock on!” Jeremy and George shouted back. Then they all went back to playing their imaginary instruments.

  “What are you guys doing?” Suzanne Lock asked as she walked over to the group.

  “Did you hear the news?” Katie asked her.

  Suzanne scrunched up her mouth and

  squinted slightly. “What news?” she asked kind of angrily.

  Katie knew why Suzanne was upset. She hated it when anyone found things out before she did. And this time Katie was the one with the info.

  “These guys have started a band!” Katie exclaimed.

  Suzanne looked over at the boys. George was still moving his fingers back and forth across his imaginary keyboard. Jeremy was drumming on nothing, and Kevin was rocking out on air guitar.

  “They sound great,” she joked.

  “No, seriously,” Katie said. “George is going to play keyboards, Jeremy is going to play drums, and Kevin is going to play guitar.” She looked at the expression on Suzanne’s face. “Real ones,” Katie insisted.

  “But they don’t know how to play those instruments,” Suzanne said.

  “We’re going to start taking lessons,” Kevin told her.

  “A fourth-grade rock band,” Katie said. “It’s going to be so cool.”

  “Do you want to join?” Jeremy asked her. “Maybe you could play bass guitar or something.”

  Katie smiled. Jeremy was a really great friend. He always tried to include her. But this time, Katie wasn’t interested. “I think I’ll stick with the clarinet,” she told him. “I’m getting pretty good.”

  “Yeah, I heard you at beginning band practice,” Jeremy agreed. “You sounded great on ‘This Old Man.’”

  “We’re not going to play any of those old songs,” George told her. “We’re doing new, rocking songs.”

  “Our first single is going to be ‘Lizard Rock,’” Kevin said. “We wrote the beginning of it on the phone last night.”

  “Lizard on a rock, listening to rock. Rock on!” the boys all sang at once. “That reptile’s gone wild. Rock on!”

  “That was deep,” Suzanne said sarcastically.

  “I liked it!” Katie exclaimed.

  “Thanks,” Jeremy told Katie. “We got the idea for it from studying reptiles.”

  “I figured,” Katie said. “It’s awesome. You guys can count on me to be your biggest fan. And I want you to give me your autographs right now. Who knows? Someday you might be famous!”

  Chapter 4

  Katie walked into class 4A and sat right down in her beanbag chair. All of the kids in class 4A sat in beanbags. Katie’s teacher, Mr. Guthrie, thought kids learned better when they were comfortable.

  For Katie, the best part of having a beanbag chair was that the kids got to decorate them every time they had a new learning adventure. (That’s what Mr. G. called lessons.)

  Right now they were studying reptiles. So Katie had decorated her beanbag to look like a gecko—with a long green crepe-paper tail, brown and green construction-paper scales, and feet made of green felt.

  Emma W. had decorated hers to look like a tortoise.

  Emma Stavros had made hers look like a brown-and-white desert iguana.

  Mandy Banks had
turned hers into an amazing Komodo dragon lizard.

  Kadeem Carter’s was a rainbow-colored chameleon.

  George and Kevin were sitting in matching crocodile beanbags.

  And Andrew Epstein had created an alligator, which looked a lot like George and Kevin’s crocodiles, but with a wider snout.

  No doubt about it. Class 4A was Reptile World. But that was nothing new. All year long, Class 4A had been Slinky the snake’s home.

  As far as Katie was concerned, Slinky was the coolest pet in the whole school. Lots of classes had guinea pigs, hamsters, and gerbils in their rooms. But 4A was the only class with their very own snake.

  “Okay, dudes,” Mr. G. said, once all the kids were seated. “Time for that awesome creative-writing assignment I promised you yesterday.”

  Katie sat up tall in her lizard beanbag. She loved any kind of assignment that was creative. Especially the ones Mr. G. came up with.

  “I want you each to write a poem,” Mr. G. continued. “And not just any poem. I want you to write a poem about reptiles.”

  Katie frowned. That was a tough one. Usually, she liked to write poems with words that rhymed. But what rhymed with lizard? Gizzard? Schnizzard?

  And what about gecko? Let go? Not exactly.

  Tortoise? Well that sort of rhymed with porpoise. Except not really. And porpoises weren’t reptiles, anyway.

  Katie’s eyes drifted over to where Slinky the snake was lying in his cage. That was it! Katie would write a poem about the class snake. Lots of things rhymed with snake! She opened her notebook to a clean page and began to write.

  SLINKY THE SNAKE

  By Katie Carew

  We saw an eggshell break,

  And out came Slinky the snake.

  So you could say maybe

  He’s our little baby.

  He crawls on his belly

  He’s not slimy or smelly.

  His skin has scales

  To grip trees and rails.

  Scales keep water out, too,

  Like our raincoats do.

  He’s the best pet in school

  I think snakes rule!

  When she was finished, Katie read her poem from top to bottom. It was almost perfect. Except for one thing. Katie wanted to draw a picture of Slinky to go with the poem.