The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates by Susan Shreve

Author:Susan Shreve [Shreve, Susan Richards]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-78902-0
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2011-02-16T05:00:00+00:00

One afternoon at Mrs. Goodwin’s house, waiting for the sweet brownies in the oven to cook through, Joshua told Mrs. Goodwin about Andrew and Tommy Wilhelm.

“I can’t even count on my own best friend,” Joshua said.

Mrs. Goodwin took the brownies out of the oven and put a hot one on a plate for Joshua. She took two brownies for herself and sat down in a chair next to Joshua with The Joy of Reading: 4.

“I know exactly how you feel,” she said. “Sometimes the only person you can count on is yourself.”

“Have you ever had a best friend let you down?” Joshua asked.

“For a very long time Mr. Goodwin was my best friend,” Mrs. Goodwin said softly.

“And now he won’t even take his stinking snake away. Right?”

“That’s right,” Mrs. Goodwin said, and they both laughed.

By late September, Mrs. Goodwin had made Joshua her permanent assistant in the 3X classroom. He read with the bottom reading group, helping the children with phonics. He showed the new boys who had not had multiplication how to multiply and worked on arithmetic facts with flash cards. He helped the girls build a tepee in the classroom, building most of the frame himself. He was the captain of the third-grade softball team, the best player in the class.

“So what?” Tommy Wilhelm said when Paulie Soll, one of the new boys in 3X, told him about Joshua’s athletic skills. “Of course he’s good. He’s a year older than everyone and twice the size of most of you.”

“You’re probably jealous of Josh,” Paulie Soll said to Tommy and then reported the conversation to Joshua.

“You bet,” Tommy Wilhelm said. “I always wanted to spend the rest of my life in third grade.”

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