Free Gooney Bird and All Her Charms by Lois Lowry Page A

a men’s felt hat, the kind of hat that she said was called a fedora. “When I have a daughter someday,” she had once said, “I am thinking of naming her Fedora. It has a nice sound to it.”
    Now she nodded. “Ready. I’ll just pass these out to the parents.” She was holding a stack of papers that she had prepared that morning, in Mr. Leroy’s office. Carefully she distributed them to the audience. Then she gave one to Mr. Furillo, who was standing with Bruno near the door.
    â€œWhere’s Uncle Walter?” she asked her parents. “No one in our family is ever, ever late!”
    â€œHe’s on his way,” Gooney Bird’s father explained. “He called a few minutes ago. He had car trouble. He said to start without him.”
    Mrs. Pidgeon began the ceremony. “This is Napoleon,” she said to the gathering of parents. “He has been visiting our school since the beginning of March, but today is his last day with us. Gooney Bird has given each of you a picture. Now she’s going to explain what you are looking at.”
    Gooney Bird went to the top of the steps and adjusted her hat. Her wrist jingled. “I am wearing my charm bracelet,” she told everyone. “I wear it on special occasions, like today. And this morning I used the copying machine in Mr. Leroy’s office, and I copied my charm bracelet so that you could each see it up close. Take a look.”
    The parents and Mr. Furillo all looked carefully at the papers they were holding. There was a picture of Gooney Bird’s bracelet with all its small silver charms.
    â€œWe’re going to use the charms to tell you about what we’ve been learning about the human body. Napoleon has been helping us. Chelsea is going first. Chelsea?”
    Gooney Bird took off her fedora and placed it on Chelsea’s head as she stepped forward.
    â€œFirst charm is a skull,” Chelsea said in a loud voice. They had all practiced using outdoor voices. “Sometimes skulls look scary. But they shouldn’t. This is Napoleon’s head. And he is smiling. And also he took very good care of his teeth. Everybody? Smile like Napoleon!”
    All of the children, and the parents, and Mr. Leroy, and Mr. Furillo, gave big smiles that showed their teeth. The only ones not smiling were Bruno, who was chewing on a stick, and the triplets, who were asleep in their stroller.
    Chelsea removed the fedora and gave it to Ben, who came forward and put it on.
    â€œNapoleon’s skull is protecting his brain,” Ben explained. “If you look at the charm bracelet, you can see how when we took him to the library and learned about his brain, Napoleon sat in a rocking chair, wearing glasses and reading a book.”
    All of the parents, looking at the pictures they were holding, smiled as they identified the chair, the spectacles, and the book.
    â€œHe was using his brain for all of that,” Ben pointed out. Then he bowed, and removed the fedora. “Malcolm? You’re next,” he said.
    Malcolm put on the fedora. “Next,” he announced, “find the lobster and the wineglass and the pizza slice.”
    The parents all nodded, after they had located those charms on their pictures.
    â€œWe learned about digestion from Napoleon,” Malcolm continued. “We had to take away his wineglass because someone named Mrs. Gooch got all upset and—”
    Mrs. Pidgeon put her hand on Malcolm’s shoulder. “I don’t think we need to talk about Mrs. Gooch,” she murmured.
    â€œWell, anyway, when Napoleon was drinking and eating the lobster and the pizza, everything got mixed with saliva and went down his esophagus, and then it churned around and turned into moosh in his stomach, and after that the moosh went into his intestines, and . . .”
    â€œI think you can stop there, Malcolm,” Mrs. Pidgeon whispered.
    â€œCan I say about the