Fractions = Trouble! by Claudia Mills

Author:Claudia Mills
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2011-08-10T04:00:00+00:00

That afternoon Kipper and his mom made sleeping bags for Peck-Peck and Snappy out of squares of felt. They folded the squares in half (fractions!) and then sewed up two of the open sides. Peck-Peck and Snappy got new pillows, too, also made of folded felt, stuffed with cotton balls. To cut out the pillows, Kipper’s mom folded each square of felt in fourths (more fractions).

“You don’t take pillows on a camping trip,” their dad scoffed. “On a camping trip you’re supposed to rough it.”

Kipper ignored this remark.

Wilson had to admit that Peck-Peck and Snappy looked cute tucked into their matching sleeping bags with their little heads resting on their matching pillows. He almost made a sleeping bag himself for Pip, but she already had a cozy hamster “cave” just her size for sleeping.

At bedtime Kipper carried the two tiny sleeping bags outside and placed them tenderly in the tents, even though the wind was dying down. So 2/3 of the tents were now occupied.

“I want to sleep in a tent,” Kipper begged one last time.

His mother refused to give in.

“You belong in your bed,” she repeated. “And you belong in it now.”

Wilson had hoped that Josh would call and tell him what had happened with the pickle in the microwave, but he hadn’t. Maybe Josh was still mad that Wilson had done his “stuff” instead, and hadn’t even told him what the “stuff” was.

Finally, just before his bedtime, he called Josh. He had to call him, anyway. It was Josh’s weekend for Squiggles, and Wilson needed to ask Josh if he could borrow Squiggles on Sunday to work on the science fair.

“So?” Wilson asked, as soon as Josh picked up the phone. “What happened with the pickle? Did it explode this time?”

“Nah. This pickle got all wrinkled and weird-looking, and kind of brown and bumpy, but it didn’t blow up.”

“So pickles don’t explode.”

“Pickles don’t explode in an oven, or in a microwave. Next I’m going to try boiling one.”

Wilson waited to see if Josh would invite him to watch the third—and final?—attempt at a pickle explosion.

There was an awkward silence.

“What about you?” Josh asked. “Did you have fun doing your stuff this morning?”

“Not really,” Wilson said. “Oh, can I borrow Squiggles for a while tomorrow? I’ve decided I’m going to make my science fair project about seeing which color hamsters like best, and it would be better to do it with two hamsters instead of just one.”

“Sure,” Josh said. He didn’t offer to come over to help with the testing.

Then, “Well, see ya,” Josh said.

“See ya,” Wilson replied.

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