Free On Thin Ice by Nancy Krulik Page B

Folio told Kadeem, handing him a paperback book.
    “Hey, that’s not fair! I want a joke book, too,” George shouted out.
    Katie sighed. She’d been expecting that. George and Kadeem were always having joke-telling contests against one another.
    “Don’t get upset,” Ms. Folio told George. “I have a really special book for you. It’s a biography of Harry Houdini, the greatest magician who ever lived.”
    “But I don’t know anything about magic,”
    George said with a shrug.
    “You will after you read the book,” Ms. Folio told him.
    “Hey, you guys, this joke is sooo funny,” Kadeem said, looking up from the joke book. “Why was the Tyrannosaurus rex afraid to go to the library?”
    “Why?” Andy Epstein asked him.
    “Because his book was six million years overdue!” Kadeem said with a laugh.
    The other kids laughed, too.

    “Oh yeah?” George butted in. “Well, how can you tell if an elephant checked out a library book before you did?”
    “How?” Kevin asked him.
    “When you open the cover, peanut shells fall out!” George exclaimed.
    Everyone laughed again.
    “See? I don’t need a joke book to make me funny,” George told Kadeem.
    But Kadeem wasn’t scared off. He turned the page of his book and grinned. “Here’s a good one,” he told the kids. “What goes on a librarian’s fishing hook?”
    “A bookworm!” George shouted out before Kadeem could say the punch line. “That’s an old one.”
    “Okay, dudes,” Mr. G., Katie’s teacher, said, stepping between the boys. “Let’s put this joke-off off until later. There are still a few people who don’t have books yet, and we don’t have much library time left.”
    “Speaking of which,” Ms. Folio said, handing Emma S. a thick book. “Here’s a biography of Kerry Gaffigan for you to read, Emma. I hear she’s coming to town this weekend.”
    Emma S. nodded. “On Sunday. And I’m going to meet her. This book is absolutely perfect for me. Now I won’t just be Kerry’s biggest fan, I’ll be the world’s greatest expert on her, too.”
    Katie sighed. She was glad Suzanne wasn’t around to hear that.

Chapter 4
    “Does anyone have a nickel?” George asked the crowd of kids who had gathered around him on the school playground the next day at recess.
    “I have one,” Jeremy Fox said. He handed his nickel to George.
    Jeremy was Katie’s other best friend. “Careful, Jeremy,” she warned. “George is learning magic. He might make your nickel disappear.”
    “No I won’t,” George insisted. “In fact, I’m going to make this nickel grow into a quarter.”
    “That’s impossible, George,” Suzanne told him.
    “The Great Georgini can do anything!” George exclaimed.
    “This I’ve gotta see,” Suzanne scoffed.
    George took Jeremy’s nickel and placed it in a small, red, rectangular plastic box. He shut the box and waved his hand over it. “Abracadabra!” he said in his best magician’s voice.
    The kids all watched as George opened the box once again. “Ta-da!” George shouted.
    Katie’s eyes opened wide as she looked in the open box. Sure enough, the nickel had become a quarter. “Wow! That is so cool, Great Georgini!” she exclaimed.
    “Thank you, Katie Kazoo,” George said with a bow.
    Katie grinned. She loved the way-cool nickname George had given her back in third grade.
    “You should try that with dollar bills,” Mandy told George. “You could be a millionaire.”

    “It only works with nickels and quarters,” George explained.
    “Speaking of nickels,” Jeremy reminded him. “Can I have mine back?”
    “Yeah, sure,” George said. He closed the little box, waved his hand over it, and said, “Abracadabra!” When he opened the box again, the nickel was back in place.
    “Can you teach me how to do that?” Andy asked him.
    The Great Georgini shook his head. “A magician never reveals his secrets.”
    “Then how did you learn the trick?” Suzanne asked him.
    “They’re illusions , not