Free Gooney Bird and All Her Charms by Lois Lowry

and ate every single one, and then had ice cream. After I threw up, my stomachache disappeared.”
    Mrs. Pidgeon chuckled. “Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm,” she said.
    â€œAppendix isn’t an
organ
,” muttered Berry.
    Gooney Bird raised her hand politely. “If we’re only doing one more part of Napoleon, it should be a really important part.”
    â€œI agree,” said Mrs. Pidgeon. “Of course all the parts of the body are important. They all do their work together. And while you children have been thinking about which part of Napoleon we’ll use for our final exhibition, none of you noticed that I was about to use the most important part for one of our spelling words.” She reached for the chalk. The children looked carefully at what she had written on the board.
    H E A
    â€œHead!” Barry called.
    â€œHead?” said Tricia. “But we already did the brain!”
    â€œWe could put a big hat on him, though, or maybe a wig,” Chelsea suggested, “and then we could maybe talk about his hair, and—and—?”
    Felicia Ann said, in her small voice, “I don’t think
head
will be very interesting.”
    Mrs. Pidgeon smiled and added another letter to the board. Now it said
H E A R
    â€œHearing?” asked Keiko. “But we already talked about how we hear when we did the brain.”
    Gooney Bird was grinning. “Everybody!” she called. “Close your eyes and listen to this!”
    All of the children closed their eyes and sat quietly.
    In a soft, mysterious voice, Gooney Bird said, “Thu-dump, thu-dump, thu-dump. Put your hands on your chests.”
    The second-graders, with their eyes tightly closed, put their hands on their chests as if they were saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
    Â 

    Â 
    â€œThu-dump, thu-dump.”
    The children, with their hands still on their chests, all opened their eyes. They were smiling.
    â€œHeart!”
they said, and Mrs. Pidgeon added the final letter to the word.

11
    â€œMarch is finally like a lamb, not a lion!” Mrs. Pidgeon pointed out as the children streamed onto the playground wearing only sweaters: no hats, mittens, earmuffs, or parkas. Spring was here at last. The sun was shining and the willow tree at the corner of the playground had turned pale green.
    Napoleon had been returned to them safely, and now they edged the skeleton, dangling from his stand, down the front steps. It was his final day at Watertower Elementary School.
    â€œWe didn’t even need to dress Napoleon,” Malcolm pointed out. “Napoleon is
naked!
”
    Keiko squealed and put her hands over her ears. “Don’t say ‘naked,’” she said.
    â€œHe’s not wearing clothes, but he’s wearing gardenia perfume,” Chelsea pointed out, wrinkling her nose.
    â€œI’ll have to explain to Uncle Walter that Napoleon got Gooched,” Gooney Bird said. “It will wear off.”
    â€œIs Dr. O. here yet?” Barry asked, looking around.
    â€œNo. But he will be,” Gooney Bird told him. “No one in my family is ever, ever late.
    â€œLook! There are my parents, over there.” She waved. Her mom, who had long pigtails and was wearing army boots, waved back.
    â€œMine too!” said Chelsea.
    â€œAnd my mom,” sighed Malcolm, “with the babies.” He waved to a woman standing beside a huge stroller.
    Â 

    Â 
    â€œAnd mine!” Tyrone said, grinning at his mom and dad.
“There they be, standing by the fence,”
he chanted. “
The brothers and the sisters and the triplets and the ’rents!”
    The second grade parents, who had been invited to Napoleon’s final lesson and farewell, were all standing together at the edge of the playground, smiling.
    Mr. Leroy, the principal, came down the front steps of the school. He greeted the parents.
    â€œReady, Gooney Bird?” he asked.
    Today Gooney Bird was wearing