Gooney Bird Greene Read Online Free PDF Page B

my stories are absolutely true."
    Then she curtsied, and began.
    Why Gooney Bird Was Late for
School Because She Was Directing
a Symphony Orchestra
     
     
    Once upon a time, in fact it was just this morning, Gooney Bird Greene got up and got dressed in the clothes that she had carefully laid out the night before.
    She ate her breakfast, brushed her teeth with her pre-pasted toothbrush, gathered up her homework, put on her elbow-length gloves, and started off to the Watertower Elementary School.
     
     
    Gooney Bird interrupted herself. She explained to the teacher and the class, "Sometimes stories start in the most ordinary way. Then they become exciting when something unexpected happens. Don't you find that to be true?"
    The children nodded, thinking about their favorite stories.
    "Like Where the Wild Things Are, " Ben suggested.
    "Or Little Red Riding Hood, " Beanie said. "When the wolf appears, and you don't expect it!"
    "Oh, I'm so scared of the wolf!" Keiko whispered loudly. "Every time the wolf appears, I—"
    "Shhhh," the children said.
    Gooney Bird continued.
    Gooney Bird walked down Park Street, and turned the corner onto Walnut Street, and when she was halfway down Walnut Street, halfway to school, suddenly...
     
     
    She paused. "I've explained before," she said, "about the word suddenly. It makes things exciting. Sometimes, class, if you're creating a story and you get stuck, just say the word suddenly and you won't have any trouble continuing at all."
    "What a good idea!" Mrs. Pidgeon said. "We should start a list called 'Writing Tips.' What happened suddenly on Walnut Street, Gooney Bird?"
    Gooney Bird continued.
     
     
    Suddenly she saw an enormous red and white bus coming, very slowly. Each window had a head in it. The bus was quite full of people.
    Gooney Bird was amazed. Even though she had lived in Watertower only a short time, about a week, she knew that the town of Watertower did not have enormous red and white buses.
    Watertower had two medium-sized yellow school buses, Gooney Bird knew. And she knew, also, that one of the Watertower churches had a small white bus, really a long van, that had a rainbow painted on it, and said JESUS IS LORD on each side.
    But an enormous red and white bus was completely new to Watertower.
    As Gooney Bird watched, it moved very, very slowly down Walnut Street. She could see that the driver, though he was steering carefully, was also trying to look at a map in his hands.
    The bus driver saw Gooney Bird, and he beeped his horn a very small beep. He pulled the bus to a stop with a breathy sound of brakes. Then he pushed the handle that opened the folding door.
    "Excuse me?" the bus driver said. "You look as if you're on your way to school."
    "Yes, I am," Gooney Bird replied, "and I certainly don't want to be late. I am never, ever late."
    The bus driver looked as if he might begin to cry. "I feel exactly the same way," he said. "I am never, ever late. But this morning I have a terrible problem." He held up his unfolded map.
    "Do you need help folding your map?" Gooney Bird asked. "It is hard to fold a map. But I find that if you follow the creases very carefully—"
    "No," the bus driver said. "My problem is that I'm lost."
    "Oh, dear," Gooney Bird said.
    "And," the driver continued, "we are going to be late for a concert."
    "A concert?"
    "Yes. I have an entire symphony orchestra on this bus."
     
     
    Gooney Bird paused. "Questions about orchestras?" She asked. "Class?"
    Barry Tuckerman was waving his hand wildly. "We know all the parts of an orchestra! We listened to A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra! "
    "Winds!" Ben called.
    "Strings!" Tricia called. She pretended to play an imaginary violin.
    "Brass!" Chelsea called. She tried to make a trombone noise, not very successfully.
    "Percussion!" said Malcolm loudly, and he began to tap his two pencils in rhythm on his desktop.
    "And also," Barry called out, his hand still waving, "we listened to Peter and the Wolf