Free Gooney Bird and the Room Mother by Lois Lowry Page A

camellia."
    "And where did you go, wearing your businesslike outfit?" Mrs. Pidgeon asked. She handed a dictionary to Tricia and reached for another.
    "I went to the public library. We only just moved to the town of Watertower, as you know. But my parents have always told me that the public library is one of the first places you must visit in a new town. So I did that..."
    "Wearing your hat with the camellia?" Mrs. Pidgeon asked.
    "Yes, of course. I introduced myself to the head librarian,
the assistant librarian, the children's librarian, the reference librarian, and the janitor."
    "Just the way you introduced yourself to us on the first day? I remember you said—"
    All of the children remembered too. They said it together. "
My name is Gooney Bird Greene and I want a desk right smack in the middle of the room, because I like to be right smack in the middle of everything.
"
    "Well, why would I say that to the librarians? I didn't want a desk in the library. I wanted dictionaries."
    Mrs. Pidgeon was laughing. "And so you said—"
    "I said, 'I'm Gooney Bird Greene and I'm new in town and I would like to know what you do with your old dictionaries, because my second-grade class needs twenty-two of them.'"
    The children all applauded. "And so they sent us the dictionaries!" Mrs. Pidgeon said in delight.
    "Nope."
    "Oh. Well, what happened?"
    "They said that the old dictionaries were in the basement collecting dust, but they didn't have twenty-two, and also the old dictionaries were obsolete—we can look that word up after we get them all unpacked—and anyway what we needed were nice
new
dictionaries."
    "These
do
look brand new," Mrs. Pidgeon said, examining one.
    Gooney Bird continued. "Then, suddenly..."
    The class grinned. They loved it when Gooney Bird said "suddenly." They waited eagerly to hear what came next.
    "...the head librarian went to the phone and called a rich man she knew and said, 'Charles, get down here right away, because there's an enterprising young lady you must meet.'
    "So a man named Charles came and shook my hand, and—"
    "With your glove on? Or did you take your glove off?" Chelsea wanted to know.
    "On. He shook it through my glove. Then we talked and had tea, and suddenly..."
    Everyone grinned again, and waited.
    "...he ordered twenty-two brand-new dictionaries, and here they are."
    When the dictionaries had been distributed to every student, Mrs. Pidgeon moved the empty carton to the coatroom. "Gooney Bird Greene," she said, "you are indefatigable."
    The students tried to say the word.
    "
Indefeat...
"
    "
Undeff...
"
    "
Indeteff...
"
    Mrs. Pidgeon wrote it at the top of the board, in large printing. "Class," she said, "get out your dictionaries. We will have a lesson in dictionary use."

2.

    The word INDEFATIGABLE was still on the board, in the upper-right-hand corner, followed by its definition:
never showing any sign of getting tired.
Now, after the discussion about matching socks, Mrs. Pidgeon carefully wrote ENNUI at the end of the word list, because Gooney Bird had said that wearing matching socks gave her a feeling of ennui. The children knew exactly what to do when a new word appeared. They each got out a dictionary and began to look carefully through the pages.
    "I found it!" Tricia called out, with her hand raised.
    Mrs. Pidgeon pointed to Tricia and she read the definition aloud carefully. "
A feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction.
"
    "That's right," Gooney Bird said, nodding her head. "That's exactly how I feel when I wear matching socks. Weary and dissatisfied.
    "May I be right smack in the middle of the Muriel, Mrs.
Pidgeon?" she asked. "I want to work on Squanto. I want to color his feather."
    "It's
mural,
GooneyBird," Mrs. Pidgeon said. "Not Muriel."
    "I know that," Gooney Bird replied. "I just like to call it the Muriel. Because of Muriel Holloway in the office."
    Muriel Holloway was the school secretary. She had spiked hair and fancy fingernails. If you threw up