Miss Brooks' Story Nook (where tales are told and ogres are welcome) Read online

  For Miranda and Brandon, Valerie amd Geoff

  —B.B.

  For Liz G. and Deb P., who together inspired Miss Brooks, and for Violet, the original woolly hat missy

  —M.E.

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Text copyright © 2014 by Barbara Bottner

  Jacket and interior illustrations copyright © 2014 by Bird Productions, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web! randomhousekids.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at

  RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Bottner, Barbara.

  Miss Brooks’ Story Nook / by Barbara Bottner ; illustrated by Michael Emberley.

  p. cm.

  Summary: A school librarian encourages her students to make up stories, and teaches a lesson about bullying in the process.

  ISBN 978-0-449-81328-7 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-449-81329-4 (lib. bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-449-81330-0 (ebook)

  [1. Storytelling—Fiction. 2. Bullies—Fiction. 3. Librarians—Fiction.] I. Emberley, Michael, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.B6586MI 2014 [E]—dc23 2013013799

  The illustrations in this book were drawn with pencil, scanned, then printed onto Arches 90 lb. hot press watercolor paper using waterproof inks, then painted with tube watercolors.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  Title Page

  Copyright

  First Page

  Miss Brooks has Story Nook first thing before school, and I don’t like to miss it.

  But whenever I take the shortcut past Billy Toomey’s house,

  he grabs my hat and yells, “I’m going to get you, Missy!”

  It’s vexing.

  So mostly, I take the long way to school.

  But today it was raining and I was late. . . .

  I slipped into Story Nook.

  Then, suddenly, there was a crack of thunder.

  All the lights went out!

  “It’s too dark to read. So let’s huddle in close and make up our own tales,” said Miss Brooks.

  “I mainly like to read stories,” I said. “Not tell them.”

  “Good readers make wonderful storytellers,” said Miss Brooks.

  In a squeaky voice, Violet said, “I love the dark. Maybe we’ll see ghosts!”

  “Violet loves ghosts more than anything,” said Plum.

  “I love stories more than anything,” said Miss Brooks. “So let’s close our eyes and let our minds wander. Everyone has a tale to tell.”

  “I’ve got nothing,” I said.

  “One way to begin is to think of a problem that needs solving,” said Miss Brooks.

  My problem was Billy Toomey. But there was no way I was going to make up a story about him.

  “Or sometimes,” said Miss Brooks, “you can start with an interesting character.”

  Wilbur said aliens in spaceships were interesting.

  Violet said she liked ghosts.

  Plum thought aliens and ghosts were too scary.

  I thought it would take more than aliens or ghosts to scare Billy Toomey.

  I wondered if anything would. . . .

  “An ogre lives down the street from me . . . ,” I said.

  “That’s interesting,” said Wilbur.

  “Really?” said Violet. “An ogre?”

  “Yes, and she has a bunch of wild animals for pets.”

  “That’s an excellent start!” said Miss Brooks. “What kind of animals?”

  “Graciela has a lion, an alligator, and maybe a couple hyenas. And disgusting smells drift up from her basement. Probably from the snake.”

  “Why doesn’t she just have a dog?” Wilbur asked.

  “According to Graciela, snakes make great pets. She doesn’t have to walk them and they don’t bark.”

  “I’d rather hear about kittens,” said Plum.

  “Ghosts,” said Violet.

  “Now what happens, Missy?” asked Miss Brooks. “Stories need action.”

  “Graciela’s snake gets out of its cage.”

  “But then Graciela catches it right away. The end!” said Plum.

  “Not so fast!” I said.

  “You’re right, Missy,” said Miss Brooks. “This story needs more plot—what happens next?”

  “Her snake slithers up the street to that exasperating Billy Toomey’s house,” I said.

  “It wraps around him and squeezes so hard, his eyes pop out. He won’t be bothering anyone anymore.”

  “Whoa!” said Wilbur.

  “I guess that takes care of Billy Toomey!” said Violet.

  “Why can’t there be kittens?” whimpered Plum.

  “And poor Graciela,” I said, on a roll now, “came to a wretched end.”

  “Really? How wretched?” asked Miss Brooks.

  “Well, her lion finished her off. She’s dead, dead, dead.”

  “Is she a ghost now?” asked Violet.

  “Why would you get rid of Graciela? She wasn’t bothering anyone!” said Plum.

  “Plum has a good point, Missy. We all like stories to have satisfying endings,” said Miss Brooks.

  So I said, “Okay, she doesn’t get eaten. . . .”

  “Instead,” said Wilbur, “Graciela gets on a spaceship and returns to her planet!”

  “Too lame!” I said.

  “The Kitten Planet?” said Plum.

  “Too tame!”

  “The Ghost Planet,” said Violet.

  “All Violet’s stories are the same,” said Wilbur.

  “I’d like to know what happens to that snake,” said Miss Brooks.

  “Well,” I said, “Graciela decided snakes might be too much trouble after all.”

  “So what did she do with it?” Plum asked.

  Storytelling was full of questions.

  “She gave it to me!” I said at last.

  “But what will you do with it?” Wilbur asked.

  Suddenly, the lights came back on. Story Nook was over.

  But my story still needed an ending. . . .

  The next morning I wasn’t late, but I took the shortcut to school anyway.

  When Billy Toomey said, “I’m going to get you!” I was ready. I gave him my best snake-eyed stare and said:

  “Hey, Billy, did I ever tell you about the enormous, slimy boa constrictor my neighbor Graciela gave me?

  “It hisses and flicks its tongue, and slithers around the

  neighborhood, sniffing out its favorite meal . . .”

  “. . . which is exasperating boys like YOU.”

  At Story Nook, Miss Brooks asked, “Did you think more about how to end your story, Missy?”

  “I did. And I told the whole slimy tale to Billy Toomey.”

  “Really? What did Billy think?”

  “He loved it!”

  I loved it too! It was a revolting tale with a happy ending.

  And I made it up myself.

  Barbara Bottner produced, wrote, and designed award-winning animated shorts for Sesame Street. She has been a journalist, humorist, and writer for television and movies, but her abiding love is children’s fiction. She has written a
nd/or illustrated more than thirty-five books.

  Barbara Bottner lives in Los Angeles. You can learn more about her work at barbarabottnerbooks.com.

  Michael Emberley has been writing and illustrating children’s books since 1979 and has more than twenty books to his credit. Books have always been a big part of Michael’s life—both his sister and his father (Rebecca and Ed) also make children’s books.

  Michael Emberley lives in Ireland. You can visit him at MichaelEmberley.com.

 

 

  Barbara Bottner, Miss Brooks' Story Nook (where tales are told and ogres are welcome)

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