Birney Surprises According to Humphrey

Main
ISBN: 978-0-571-24819-3
Verlag: Faber & Faber
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 160 Seiten

Reihe: Humphrey the Hamster

Surprises can be good, like my brand new hamster ball or a surprise party. But surprises can be bad, like coming whisker to whisker with a cat (EEK!) or having an alien from another planet move into Room 26. All this and LOTS-LOTS-LOTS more happens in my new book of adventures, Surprises According to Humphrey.

Betty G. Birney worked at Disneyland and the Disney Studios, has written many children's television shows and is the author of over forty books, including the bestselling The World According to Humphrey, which won the Richard and Judy Children's Book Club Award, as well as a further nine books in the According to Humphrey series, and eight books in the Humphrey's Tiny Tales series. Her work has won many awards, including an Emmy and three Humanitas Prizes. She lives in America with her husband.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Birney, Betty G.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Chapman, Jason

Leseproben

1

Spring has Sprung

Monday mornings are different from other mornings.

That’s just one of many things I’ve learned in the months I’ve lived in Room 26 of Longfellow School.

For one thing, on Mondays, I’m usually tired from a weekend spent visiting the home of one of my classmates. That’s the BEST-BEST-BEST part of my job as classroom hamster.

My friends are also quieter than usual on Mondays. It takes them at least a half a day to get back up to speed after their weekends away from school.

Don’t-Complain-Mandy Payne complains more than usual on Monday. Today she complained that it was too hot. Our teacher, Mrs Brisbane, opened a window.

Sit-Still-Seth Stevenson jitters in his seat more on Monday mornings. But he tries to sit still – he really does.

And even Lower-Your-Voice-A.J., who can rattle the walls with his loud voice, is quieter on Monday mornings. It’s weird.

Mrs Brisbane, however, is always up to speed, and she likes to get Monday mornings rolling with something interesting.

‘Class, in case you hadn’t noticed, spring has sprung!’ Mrs Brisbane announced one Monday.

I don’t know about the other students, but I’d certainly noticed that the March rains had stopped and everything had changed. The world, which had been drippy and dreary, was now bright green. The trees, the grass – just about everything outside – matched the colour of my goofy green neighbour, Og the Frog, who lives in a tank next to my cage.

For some reason, all that green made me feel like springing up onto my bridge ladder, which goes across my big cage.

Mrs Brisbane kept talking. ‘And today, I have a special spring surprise for you!’

Surprise? Surprises are fun, like birthday presents. But surprises can be not-so-fun, like unexpected storms with LOUD-LOUD-LOUD thunder that can hurt the ears of small, sensitive creatures like me. Just thinking about thunder made me bobble, then wobble. I tried to catch my balance, buttumbled off my ladder with a loud ‘Thump!’ Luckily, I landed in a pile of soft bedding (and not in my poo corner), but still, I was very surprised and quite startled.

My neighbour Og was startled, too, I suppose, because he let out a large ‘BOING!’ which is the strange twanging sound that green frogs, like him, usually make.

‘What’s going on over here?’ Mrs Brisbane walked towards the table by the window where Og and I live.

‘Humphrey fell! I saw him!’ a voice called out. Even though I couldn’t see who was talking from underneath all that bedding, I knew it was Raise-Your-Hand-Heidi Hopper, because no matter how many times she’d been told, Heidi never remembered to raise her hand.

‘Hands, please, Heidi,’ Mrs Brisbane reminded her.

I poked my head out of the bedding and saw her looking down at me. ‘Are you all right, Humphrey?’

‘I’m not hurt,’ I explained. ‘But I am a bit shaken up.’

As usual, all that came out was ‘SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK.’

‘He certainly sounds fine,’ said Mrs Brisbane. ‘Now, back to our surprise.’

I stood up to give her my full attention.

‘I’ve been working you pretty hard on our pretest exercises,’ she continued.

That was certainly true. We had tests from time to time in Room 26. But there were bigger tests coming and Mrs Brisbane wanted to make sure her students did well. There were maths exercises and reading exercises and her favourite: the dictionary exercise. Every day, she had a list of words for us to look up in the dictionary. Then we were supposed to write sentences using the words correctly.

There was just one problem: everyone in class had a dictionary except me! This was very annoying to me, because I try to keep up with my friends. Finally, I came up with a solution and made my own dictionary by writing words and definitions in the tiny notebook I keep hidden in my cage. Ms Mac, the wonderful supply teacher who brought me to Room 26, gave it to me. (She also gave me a broken heart when she left to teach in faraway Brazil. I still think about Ms Mac a lot.)

Now Mrs Brisbane was smiling broadly. ‘This morning, we’re taking a break from exercises to decorate the room.’

My classmates cheered.

‘What did she say?’ Pay-Attention-Art Patel asked Lower-Your-Voice-A..J.

‘No test exercises!’ A.J. bellowed loudly.

That got Stop-Giggling-Gail Morgenstern chuckling and her best friend, Heidi, joined in.

Mrs Brisbane shushed everyone. ‘Settle down now. The theme of the day is Spring into Numbers. Now, let’s get to work!’

None of us knew what she was talking about, but soon, all my friends were busy with paper, paint, markers, cotton wool, string and wire. How I wished I could get my paws on some of those things!

While Mrs Brisbane explained that the students were supposed to hide maths problems in their flower, tree and kite projects, I scurried to my wheel for a little exercise. Spring made me feel frisky and full of life! I spun faster and faster until the whole room was a blur. And then the break bell rang.

My classmates dropped their markers and construction paper and raced towards the door. Wait-For-The-Bell-Garth Tugwell was the first one out, as usual.

For some reason, the bell surprised me, maybe because it sounded a little softer than normal. I think it surprised Mrs Brisbane, too, because she glanced at the clock and shouted, ‘Children! Come back here!’ She raced to the door and called the students back. ‘It’s not break yet.’

I could hear them objecting.

‘It was the bell!’ A.J. bellowed.

‘We’ll miss break!’ Mandy protested.

But Mrs Brisbane was firm. Once my friends were back in the room, she pointed to the clock. ‘See? It’s not time yet.’ She checked her watch. ‘Not for another half an hour.’

‘But the bell rang!’ Heidi argued.

‘Raise-Your-Hand-Heidi,’ Mrs Brisbane said, just as she’s said hundreds of times before. ‘Would someone like to tell me what just happened?’ Mrs Brisbane’s eagle eyes stared out at the classroom.

‘April Fool!’ a voice called out.

‘I-Heard-That-Kirk Chen,’ the teacher said. ‘It was you, wasn’t it?’

Kirk was the class comic, but he’d been better lately about playing practical jokes during school hours.

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Brisbane,’ Kirk answered. ‘But it’s April the first. April Fools’ Day! You’re supposed to play jokes on people.’

Mrs Brisbane asked him to explain what he did.

‘Last week, I made a recording of the break bell.’

He held up a TINY-TINY-TINY tape recorder. ‘I just played it a little ahead of time.’

Mrs Brisbane shook her head. ‘Kirk, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.’

‘I didn’t hurt anybody,’ Kirk protested.

‘No, but –’

Mrs Brisbane didn’t finish, because all of a sudden the loudest sound I’ve ever heard rattled my furry little ears. It was much louder than the buzzers and bells that sound at morning, break, lunchtime or at the end of the day. It was louder than the loudest voice A.J. ever used. It wasn’t a ringing or a buzzing – it was an ear-splitting BEEP-BEEP-BEEP without stopping.

‘Help!’ I squeaked, plummeting off my wheel and somersaulting through my bedding. It’s never a good idea to stop spinning too quickly.

‘Fire drill!’ Heidi called out. She didn’t raise her hand but this time Mrs Brisbane didn’t scold her.

The beeps kept blaring. Couldn’t someone turn them off?

‘Boys and girls, it is the fire alarm,’ Mrs Brisbane shouted. ‘Leave everything on your desks. Line up row by row and we’ll calmly walk out to the playground.’

‘BOING-BOING!’ Og sounded worried.

We hadn’t had a fire drill since Og came to our classroom. No wonder he was alarmed. I quickly explained that a fire drill is a time for students to practise how to act if there’s a fire. My friends knew just what to do. They put down their pencils, scissors and papers, stood up and began to form lines.

‘Stay calm,’ Mrs Brisbane said. I don’t know how anyone could stay calm with that noise. ‘They didn’t tell me about a fire drill, so this one could be a real alarm.’

I was impressed with how orderly the students were, except for Miranda Golden, who was usually one of the best-behaved students in class. She left the line and hurried to my cage. ‘Come on, Humphrey, I’ll look out for you.’

Good old Miranda. I think of her as Golden Miranda, because she is an almost perfect person. And her hair is as golden as my fur.

Then Garth and A.J. broke ranks and raced over to Og. Each of them took one end of his tank to carry him.

‘Children! Stop!’ Mrs Brisbane shouted. ‘Leave Og and Humphrey here. You must leave everything in the classroom!’

‘But if it’s a real fire, we can’t leave them here!’ Miranda protested. I do love that girl.

‘Yeah, that would be awful!’ A.J. agreed.

Mrs Brisbane bit her lip and looked out into the corridor. ‘It’s probably a surprise drill, but all right. Hurry along. And keep that tank level, please!’

I didn’t know if there was a fire or not, but it felt like we were having an earthquake, because as Miranda carried my cage, I was slipping and sliding. Thank goodness for that nice soft bedding!

As my cage lurched down the corridor, I saw us head towards a side door. This was a surprise because I’d only been in and out of the school through the main entrance before. Suddenly, I felt...