Karen's School by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2016-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Smelly Mr. Howard

One Monday morning when I walked into my classroom, I had a surprise. Guess who was already sitting at Ms. Colman’s desk. Mr. Howard. He was going to be our teacher for the next two weeks. Ms. Colman would not be our teacher at all. Bullfrogs.

I sat down at my desk. My desk is smack in front of the teacher’s desk. In fact, they touch each other.

“Good morning, Karen,” said Mr. Howard. He smiled at me.

“Good morning,” I answered. Maybe Mr. Howard liked me after all. I could not tell. But I decided I would try to be nice to him.

I moved to the back of the room. Hannie and Nancy were there. They were sitting on their desks and talking. Nancy was wearing a flowery dress with a wide lace collar. On her feet were her black tappy party shoes with bows. She had tied a ribbon in her hair.

When Nancy saw me, she sighed. Then she said dreamily, “Just think. Two whole weeks with Mr. Howard.”

“And Chocolate Factory Day,” I added.

“With real chocolate,” said Hannie.

“With Mr. Howard,” repeated Nancy.

Soon Mr. Howard began to take roll. As I sat down at my desk, I told myself again to be nice to Mr. Howard. And to be polite. And to be a help. I decided to help him be just like Ms. Colman.

During science, Mr. Howard asked Natalie to read aloud.

I raised my hand right away and called out, “Oh, Mr. Howard, Ms. Colman doesn’t make Natalie read aloud unless she wants to. Because of her lisp.”

“But I am asking her to,” said Mr. Howard.

When art class was over, Mr. Howard collected the pictures we had colored of imaginary factories. He put them in our folders.

“Oh, Mr. Howard!” I called out. “Ms. Colman always puts our pictures on the bulletin board. So we can be proud of them.”

“The bulletin board is full, Karen,” said Mr. Howard.

I turned around to look at Ms. Colman. She was sitting in the back of the room. She was watching Mr. Howard. But Ms. Colman did not look back at me. She began to write in a notebook. Anyway, she had not said a word all day. She was letting Mr. Howard be in charge.

I decided that maybe Mr. Howard did not want my help.

On Tuesday, I did not help Mr. Howard, but I was still trying to be nice and polite. I thought he would want to know that he had a stain on his necktie. It looked like tomato soup.

“Mr. Howard?” I said. (I forgot to raise my hand.) “You have a stain on your necktie. You should probably wash it out.”

Mr. Howard’s face turned red. But all he said was, “Karen, can’t you remember to raise your hand?”

Then my face turned red.

On Wednesday, I was a little noisy. (I got excited thinking about Chocolate Factory Day.) When I am noisy around Ms. Colman, she just says to me, “Indoor voice, Karen.”

But Mr. Howard must not know about indoor voices. He said, “Karen Brewer, stop your shouting! I cannot hear myself think.

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