This Journal Belongs to Ratchet Read Online Free PDF

wrong.”
    â€œYes, ma’am.”
    Dad knew he couldn’t mess this up. It was community service or jail time.
    Soon we got the “all clear” from the fire department who’d showed up a couple of minutes after Dad.
    â€œC’mon, future mechanics of the world,” Dad said, waving his arm toward the door. “Let’s go build some go-carts.”
    Evan raised his eyebrows to the group. Then circled his finger by his head and mouthed the word crazy .
    He’d read my mind. This was only the beginning.

WRITING EXERCISE: Poetry
    Which one of these things
    Doesn’t belong?
    Mayor Prindle and Pretty Boy Eddie
    Dressed in suits
    Dumping a recycling bin
    Full of shredded paper
    Into a dumpster hidden by trees
    Behind the library.
    Something tells me
    More than one thing
    Doesn’t belong.

WRITING EXERCISE: Write a narrative essay about meeting a new person.
    I was holding a flashlight for Dad. It felt like my arm was going to fall off. He was changing the fan belt on a minivan, which was a tricky job. And it was taking forever .
    Sixties and seventies music blasted from the garage radio. I sort of hated to love Dad’s music because I should’ve been listening to pop and rap like other kids my age. But I still sang along with every song.
    That’s why I didn’t hear Hunter’s mom come into the garage. I smelled lilacs. And then there she was. I jumped. The flashlight moved.
    â€œRatchet!” Dad yelled. “Hold still!”
    Then he bumped his head on the hood of the car.
    â€œSorry!” Hunter’s mom called out over the music. “I don’t mean to bother you!”
    I looked past her. Hunter sat in the front seat of the car. For some reason he looked like a little first-grader sitting there in the car by himself. I’d never seen him without Evan.
    Dad pulled his head out from under the hood. “What’s the problem?”
    Dad always asked, “What’s the problem?” People didn’t come to our house for any other reason except problems. Car problems.
    Hunter’s mom looked worried. She explained she’d almost gotten into an accident that morning. She told Dad her car had died in the middle of traffic. She said she didn’t know what to do.
    People told Dad stuff like this all the time. But for some reason it sounded different when Hunter’s Mom talked. I don’t know if it was the lilac perfume. Or the way she used her hands to tell the story. Or just how pretty she looked in her sleeveless cotton shirt, matching capris, and flip-flops. Her hair was the same color as mine. And the same length. It was in a ponytail. But it looked so good . She was all put together like a mannequin in a store.
    Dad told her we’d take a look at the car. But he had to finish the fan belt first. She and Hunter should leave the car there and walk home. Hunter’s mom looked relieved.
    Dad got back under the hood. I aimed the flashlight on the pulleys for the fan belt. I took a deep breath, smelling the last of the lilac perfume before it got swallowed up by the smell of grease and oil.
    (I don’t know what Dad would think if he read this.)

WRITING EXERCISE: Make a web about a person or place.
    Writing Format —WEB: A graphic organizer that organizes important information into the shape of a web.
    My web is about Hunter’s mom. She picked up her car yesterday. The problem was only a bad spark plug wire. She paid Dad with a check. But she also brought us cookies. She still smelled like lilacs.

WRITING EXERCISE: Write a limerick.
    Writing Format —LIMERICK: A silly five-line poem with a specific rhyming pattern.
    There was a young girl named Ratchet.
    She had skill and no one could match it.
    She wanted to be
    More stylish and carefree,
    But she couldn’t give up her ratchet.

WRITING EXERCISE: Write a summary report of a class or club meeting.
    Dad’s Speech at the Last City Council Meeting
    Dad