Doodlebug Elizabeth

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  Copyright Page

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  To Judy Blume, my friend who saw me before she ever met me, and showed me that my feelings mattered. —R.V.

  For my very good friend, Greg. —P.K.

  Chapter 1

  Class 2B is getting pets!

  What pets?

  I don’t know.

  Our teacher, Ms. Patel, said, “It will be a surprise when you come back after the weekend!”

  I don’t like surprises.

  I like to know what to expect.

  But I do like animals!

  So I felt very excited and also very not.

  Chapter 2

  Our homework is:

  Guess what animals we will host in Class 2B!

  Draw a picture and write the name of the animals you think we’ll have in Class 2B on Monday!

  I love animals, and their names.

  And drawing!

  I got right to work.

  Chapter 3

  My first guess is an elephant.

  The name of this elephant is Perry.

  Chapter 4

  My second guess is an owl named Daffodil.

  Chapter 5

  My third guess is two jellyfish named Frederika.

  Chapter 6

  My brother, Justin, says the name we are supposed to put under the animal is just the type of animal. Like ELEPHANT or OWL or JELLYFISH.

  “Ms. Patel said put their NAME,” I told him.

  “The name of the animal,” Justin said.

  “Yes,” I said. “And this stegosaurus is named Sassafras. She has the most stegs of any stegosaurus ever. And her stegs are made of glitter.”

  “Are you supposed to be using that glitter?” Justin asked.

  “I am not taking questions at this time,” I answered. “I am busy guessing what animals we will get in Class 2B.”

  “You’re not getting a stegosaurus as a class animal,” Justin said.

  “Maybe we are,” I said. “Maybe we’re not. Stegosaurus is not my only guess. I have a lot of ideas.”

  “You might have to say good-bye to some of your ideas,” Justin said.

  “NO, I MIGHT NOT,” I said.

  I do not like saying Good-bye to my ideas.

  I like saying Hello and Have a seat would you like some cookies to my ideas.

  Chapter 7

  A lot of kids guessed GERBIL or HAMSTER.

  My best friend, Bucky, guessed LOBSTER.

  Anna, who is my not-best-friend-at-all, guessed CAT.

  Of course.

  Anna loves only cats.

  Mallory guessed TORTOISE, and her picture made everybody say ooooo.

  It was a very cute tortoise Mallory drew.

  Chapter 8

  Nobody else did what I did.

  They each had one drawing.

  Even though Ms. Patel had said animalS. With an S at the end.

  They didn’t write the animal’s name, just what type of animal.

  I might have done the homework wrong.

  Again.

  Chapter 9

  Cali guessed it right.

  BUTTERFLIES.

  Her picture of butterflies had wings that move.

  Cali is very good at making things, even though she is small and looks like a kindergartner.

  Her butterflies were much more beautiful than the real butterflies in Class 2B.

  Chapter 10

  The Class 2B butterflies don’t look like butterflies at all.

  They look like smudges.

  Chapter 11

  All my pictures of animals and their names got crumpled up.

  I tried to be quiet, but crumpling is a noisy activity.

  I shoved the crumpled papers in the garbage can while we lined up for recess.

  “Elizabeth,” Ms. Patel said. “Stay and chat with me for a minute.”

  Ms. Patel is very nice and beautiful.

  She has mooshy gooshy arms and smile crinkles near her eyes.

  I like to chat with her.

  But if I am in trouble for making loud crumpling noises, maybe I would rather say good-bye to her, and go out to play instead.

  Chapter 12

  “Why did you throw all these wonderful pictures away, Elizabeth?” Ms. Patel asked.

  I shrugged.

  I didn’t want to explain that I did it wrong.

  Ms. Patel’s long fingers smoothed my crumpled papers.

  Her smile-crinkle eyes looked at each one.

  “Ooo,” she said. “I love Perry! What kind of animal is Perry?”

  “An elephant,” I said. “But we didn’t get an elephant.”

  “Alas, we did not,” Ms. Patel said. “What a fun class pet that would have been!”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “For us,” Ms. Patel said. “Maybe not for Perry.”

  “Are you thinking about another animal for Class 2B?” I asked, very excited. “Did I give you ideas?”

  “I love your ideas, Elizabeth,” Ms. Patel said.

  “I love my ideas, too,” I said.

  “Perry would need a different habitat than we could provide in Class 2B,” said Ms. Patel.

  “We could push the desks to the side,” I suggested.

  Chapter 13

  “Maybe an elephant is a good animal to have as an imaginary class animal,” Ms. Patel told me as we walked out to the playground together. “Some things we can’t have in reality. But we can still have them in our imaginations!”

  “I have two imaginary friends,” I said.

  “What fun!” Ms. Patel said.

  “They aren’t elephants. They are people. Their names are Mrs. Noodleman and Mr. Noodleman.”

  “What wonderful names,” said Ms. Patel.

  “Yes,” I said. “I have one dog in reality named Qwerty, and one dog in imaginary named Spike. I also have an imaginary baby sister named…”

  “Named what?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “I just imagined her up right now. Because I was thinking maybe you like imaginaries.”

  “I do,” Ms. Patel said.

  Chapter 14

  When I got to the playground, all my friends crowded around me.

  “Did you get in trouble?” Bucky asked.

  I shook my head. “Just got a chat,” I said.

  “I had to stay inside for recess once,” Smelly Dan said. “I was in trouble.”

  “For pushing,” Zora said.

  “Yeah,” Smelly Dan said.

  “For pushing me,” Jace said.

  “Yeah,” Dan said. It’s not nice to call him Smelly Dan so I try not to, even in my mind. I sometimes forget to not.

  “Well, you’re in trouble now,” Bucky said to me.

  “Why?”

  “Because, TAG! You’re it!”

  We all ran around playing tag until it was time to go in and see if our smudges had grown into butterflies yet.

  Chapter 15

  Nope.

  Still smu
dges.

  The smudges are baby butterflies.

  Caterpillars are kid butterflies.

  I knew that already.

  I just thought maybe baby butterflies would have very tiny baby butterfly wings.

  Chapter 16

  Everybody in Class 2B gets an animal!

  We were so excited, we had a dance party about that news!

  “We may have a misunderstanding,” Ms. Patel said.

  Misunderstanding means we are excited but Ms. Patel is sorry because she wasn’t telling the truth.

  The animals we get are just in our minds.

  But not imaginary.

  Each kid of Class 2B gets to choose a real animal to learn about.

  Then we will write an information report about our animal, and draw a picture of it.

  It can be the animal you guessed, or another real animal.

  Ms. Patel smiled at me.

  I smiled back.

  I think it was me who gave her this great idea.

  “There are so many animals we are curious about, in Class 2B!” Ms. Patel said.

  While we wait for the smudges to grow up, we will learn about butterflies, but also about other animals!

  Chapter 17

  Ms. Patel wrote our animal choices on the board.

  “I want an antelope!” Zora yelled.

  “I still want a cat!” yelled Anna.

  Because of course she did.

  “I want a squid!” yelled Dan. “A squid can eat an octopus.”

  “I do NOT want an octopus,” said Jace.

  “I want a seahorse,” yelled Mallory.

  “Me too,” Bucky said. “We could ride them together in the ocean!”

  Ms. Patel wrote seahorse for Mallory and also wrote seahorse for Bucky.

  Chapter 18

  I slumped down in my chair.

  I was feeling very sad, imagining Bucky and Mallory riding seahorses together through the ocean waves.

  Bucky could have chosen lobster again.

  He didn’t have to choose seahorse with Mallory.

  “Elizabeth?” Ms. Patel asked. “Which animal would you like to study?”

  “A jellyfish,” I said in my crankiest voice.

  Chapter 19

  “Jellyfish,” I told my family at dinnertime. “JELLYFISH!”

  “You sure like saying jellyfish,” Mom said.

  “NO, I DO NOT!” I told her. “I DO NOT LIKE JELLYFISH AT ALL.”

  “So why did you choose jellyfish?” my brother, Justin, asked.

  “I DON’T KNOW!” I yelled.

  “Sounds like you feel a little disappointed with your choice,” Dad said.

  “NO, I DO NOT FEEL A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED!” I yelled, and sat under the table.

  I did not feel a little disappointed.

  I have never felt a little anything in my entire life.

  I felt a BIG disappointed.

  Chapter 20

  While I slept, I dreamed about butterflies with no wings and jellyfish with frowning faces.

  “Why are you such a frowny jellyfish?” I asked one, in the dream. “Are you a big disappointed, too?”

  “Why don’t you like us?” the jellyfish asked me back.

  “I do like you,” I said.

  Some seahorses galloped by, with Bucky and Mallory riding them.

  They were very beautiful.

  I put my arm around the jellyfish. “I’m sorry, Jellyfish. I like you very much.”

  The jellyfish smiled huge at that.

  “I like you very much, too, Elizabeth,” said the jellyfish.

  So when I woke up, I was happy about jellyfish.

  Well, happier.

  Chapter 21

  Ms. Patel had more exciting news for us.

  We are going to the library!

  We had to walk in a line and be as quiet as our baby butterflies.

  The new librarian, Ms. Robinson, said, “Welcome to the library, Class 2B!

  “This is a magical place,” she said. “If you are curious about anything, or if you just want to have fun and stretch your imagination, you’ve come to the right place!”

  I was happy to hear we were in the right place!

  “Some books are for information,” Ms. Robinson said. “Some for imagination, and some? Combination!”

  I think Ms. Robinson might secretly be a wizard.

  Maybe there is sparkle dust in her hair.

  Chapter 22

  We looked and looked at information books, deciding which we wanted to borrow.

  We had to find books with the animals we chose, to get information about them.

  I found a book with a jellyfish on the cover, so I checked that out.

  I put my name on the card.

  My name is very long so it took two lines, even though I am one kid.

  Mallory and Bucky were whispering together, looking at a book with seahorses in it.

  Chapter 23

  Every day our smudges are a little

  bigger.

  They still do not look like butterflies at all.

  They look like slightly bigger little smudges.

  “Growing takes time,” Ms. Patel said.

  Chapter 24

  Every day, the book about jellyfish stays in my backpack.

  It stays in at school.

  It stays in at home.

  It stays in on the bus.

  My fancy paper for my information report about jellyfish has no words or drawings on it except my name.

  A lot of things take time.

  Chapter 25

  “I’m happy and sad today,” I told Gingy and Poopsie.

  They are my grandparents and also my babysitters when Mom and Dad both are working at our store.

  “Mmm,” said Gingy. “That happens to me sometimes, too. That feeling is called ambivalent.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Just what you said—feeling one way but also the opposite way.”

  “Well, to me that feels confusing,” I said.

  “To me, too,” said Gingy.

  “I feel snacky,” said Poopsie.

  “You always feel snacky,” Gingy told him, and put some cookies and sliced apples on the table. “Elizabeth, what are you feeling ambivalent about?”

  “Jellyfish,” I said.

  “Oh! No wonder,” said Poopsie, with a cookie in each hand. “Jellyfish! Pound for pound, jellyfish are the most heartbreaking fish in the sea.”

  Chapter 26

  Poopsie told me a long story about a jellyfish and a peanut-butter fish.

  They fell in love because they were meant for each other, a perfect couple. But their families did not want them to get married.

  “Why not?” I asked Poopsie.

  “Exactly,” said Poopsie. “There’s no good reason to stand in the way of someone else’s happiness!”

  “Yeah!” I yelled.

  “More happiness! More love!” Poopsie yelled.

  “More happiness! More love!” I yelled, too.

  “Woo-hoo!” yelled Poopsie.

  “Woo-hoo!” I yelled, too. We made a protest parade, marching around with our fists in the air, yelling, “MORE HAPPINESS! MORE LOVE!”

  “I’ll write about peanut-butter fish and jellyfish in my homework and everybody will join our protest!” I yelled.

  “More happiness! More love!” yelled Poopsie.

  “Poopsie,” said Gingy.

  Poopsie sat down from our protest parade and looked bashful at Gingy.

  Chapter 27

  “Elizabeth,” said Poopsie. “There’s an extra detail in the tragedy of jellyfish and peanut-butter fish that I need to tell you about.”

  I sat down next to him. “Oh, good,” I said. “Tell me.”

  I like getting a check plus and a star sticker on my homework, so I wanted to make sure I got all the information right.

  “Tell her the truth, Poopsie,” said Gingy. “You don’t want Elizabeth to get in trouble because of things you mad
e up!”

  “The truth, okay,” Poopsie whispered, leaning close. “The big reason the jellyfish’s family didn’t want jellyfish to marry peanut-butter fish is because peanut-butter fish is imaginary.”

  I nodded.

  “And jellyfish are real,” he whispered.

  I nodded again.

  “You understand?”

  “That would make it hard to be married to each other,” I said. “Even if they really love each other.”

  “Yes, I knew you would understand,” said Poopsie.

  Chapter 28

  I took my library book out of my backpack and showed it to Gingy and Poopsie.

  “It has a lot of information,” I said, opening it.

  There were so many words on every page it was hard to pick one to start with.

  The words looked like thousands of baby butterfly squiggles.

  Gingy and Poopsie and I looked at those squiggles.

  “I think this many letters on one page is too many,” I whispered.

  “It is a bit overwhelming,” said Gingy.

  “Well,” I said. “I don’t know what that word means, either.”

  “I bet you do,” Poopsie said.

  I decided to guess. Hm. Overwhelming.

  “It sounds like, when you have to hurry in the bath so your dad pours water over your head to get the shampoo out. And it goes in your mouth and eyes. And you weren’t ready so maybe you might cry. Is that overwhelming?”