Gooney the Fabulous Read Online Free PDF Page A

What does a fable always have?"
    "Gettin' to that," Tyrone explained. He turned to the class. "Wanna hear a moral?"
    They nodded.
    "I can't
hear
you!" Tyrone called. "Wanna hear a moral?"
    "Wanna hear a moral!" the class chanted.
    "Louder!"
    "WANNA HEAR A MORAL!"
    Tyrone resumed his position, tapped his feet, and finished his rap.
Big be nice, and big be cool, but big don't mean that you gonna rule, cuz here's the moral of ole T rex:
BIG MEAN NUTHIN' IF YOU DON'T DO SCHOOL!
    "School! School!" the class repeated, chanting and clapping.
    "Well," said Mr. Leroy as he unfolded his long legs and stood up, "thank you, Tyrone. That made my day.
    "Made my day," the principal chanted, dancing toward the door. "Made my day.
Big mean nuthin' if you don't do school
. "He disappeared, still chanting, into the hall.
    Mrs. Pidgeon went to the board and wrote TYRANNOSAURUS REX below FLAMINGO. "Now: lunchtime, class," she said with a smile.

7.

    "Mrs. Pidgeon?" Tricia asked the teacher at lunch. Sometimes the teachers all sat together at a separate table, or even ate their lunch in the teachers' room. But today Mrs. Pidgeon was eating with the children. She had even made a trade, and given Gooney Bird a nice red apple in exchange for the five olives-stuffed-with-anchovy that Gooney Bird had brought as an hors d'oeuvre.
    "I think lunch ought to have courses," Gooney Bird always said. "I like to have an appetizer—sometimes I call it the hors d'oeuvre—and a salad, and an entrée, and a dessert course. I'd do a soup course, too, but every time I've tried it, my soup has spilled before lunchtime. And I do hate it when my dessert gets wet."
    Today Gooney Bird, to everyone's amazement, had taken something made of embroidered cloth out of her lunchbox. She unfolded it carefully and tied it around her neck.
    "That's a bib!" Malcolm bellowed. "That's what babies wear! Babies wear bibs!"

    "I know that," Gooney Bird replied calmly. "Actually, I bought this one in the baby section of the Goodwill store."
    "But why would you wear a baby thing?" Beanie asked.
    "It's sensible," Gooney Bird replied. "Babies wear bibs to keep their clothes clean. That's a sensible thing to do. I am a sensible person. So I have decided to wear a bib." She smoothed the bib over her chest. It had an embroidered duck on it.
    "But aren't you embarrathed?" Felicia Ann whispered.
    "I am never ever embarrassed," Gooney Bird replied.
    Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Malcolm said, "We have a whole lot of bibs at home. A million bibs. We have—"
    Mrs. Pidgeon interrupted him in a kindly way. "Time to eat, Malcolm," she said gently. Then she turned to Tricia. "Did you want to ask me something? I think we all got distracted by Gooney Bird's bib."
    Tricia nodded. "Me and Ben—" she began. Then she stopped. Mrs. Pidgeon had held up a finger—she called it her grammar finger—as a reminder.
    "Ben and I," Tricia corrected.
    "Good. That is much better grammar," Mrs. Pidgeon explained.
    "How come Tyrone can use bad grammar when he raps?" Malcolm asked. "And you never once hold up your grammar finger?"
    "Ahhh," Mrs. Pidgeon said with a chuckle. "Good question, Malcolm. Rap is a special art form. And it uses a different
grammar. So Tyrone can say, in a rap—well, give us an example, Tyrone, would you?"
    Tyrone looked down at his lunch, a pear and a sandwich on a paper napkin in front of him. He thought for a moment, then chanted,"
Ain't no pear as big as my hair, cuz pears be small and my hair be tall...
"
    Mrs. Pidgeon laughed. "All right," she said. "Now, Tyrone, tell us that in proper grammar."
    Tyrone grinned. Then he said, "There isn't any pear as big as my hair, because pears are small, but I always comb my hair up to make it look pretty large."
    "See the difference?" Mrs. Pidgeon asked, and the children nodded.
    "So: what were you going to ask me, Tricia? About you and Ben?"
    "Is it okay if Ben and I do our fable together?"
    "Certainly."
    "Because we