Judy Moody: Around the World in 8 1/2 Days

by Megan McDonald

  Who’s Who

  Rhyme Time

  Heebie-Jeebies

  Club Snub

  Nellie Bly Says Goodbye

  Bella Tarantella

  Fratellino Bratellino

  Addresses and Messes

  Pickle Chicle

  No-Talky Rocky vs. Judy Snooty

  Elf Schmelf

  Red-White-and-Green Machine

  Eatsa Pizza

  10 Things You May Not Know About Megan McDonald

  10 Things You May Not Know About Peter H. Reynolds

  The girl had a notebook and a clipboard. The girl wore a blue plaid skirt like a school uniform, and not one but TWO watches. The girl had a pencil behind her ear. The girl looked very noticeable in her blue-green glasses.

  The girl came over to Judy Moody’s lunch table and plopped herself down right beside Judy’s friends Rocky and Frank.

  She, NOT Judy Moody, looked like she was in a reporter mood.

  Who was this important-looking, glasses-wearing girl, anyway? Judy wondered.

  “Amy Namey, Girl Reporter,” said the girl. “What’s the scoop?”

  “Um . . . Screamin’ Mimi’s chocolate mud?” asked Judy.

  “Not the ice-cream kind of scoop,” said the girl. “The story kind of scoop. I’m a reporter,” she said. “Like Nellie Bly, Daredevil Reporter.”

  She, Judy Moody, could not believe her ears.

  Frank asked, “Is that like Elizabeth Blackwell, First Woman Doctor?”

  Judy leaned in closer.

  “Check!” said the girl. She wrote something on her clipboard. “I’m from Ms. Valentine’s class, 3V. Can I ask you a few questions? For my newspaper?”

  “You have your own paper?” asked Frank Pearl.

  “Sure!” said the girl. Just then, Super-Important Girl Reporter held out a ketchup-bottle microphone.

  “What’s your favorite school lunch?” she asked. “Quesadilla pizza, popcorn chicken, or French toast sticks?”

  “French toast is breakfast,” said Judy.

  “Pizza!” screamed Rocky and Frank at the same time.

  “Check!” said the girl. She checked the paper on her clipboard.

  “I pack my lunch,” said Judy.

  “How many times a week should the cafeteria have pizza?” she asked.

  “Three,” said Frank.

  “Five!” said Rocky. “Every day! With extra cheese!”

  “Check!” said the girl.

  Who was this list-checking, clipboard-carrying Pizza Reporter, anyway? And why were Rocky and Frank, Judy’s best-ever friends, talking to her?

  “You can’t really get us pizza every day for lunch,” said Judy.

  “Why not?” asked the girl. “My mom knows the lunch ladies. Besides, it’s a free country.”

  “Hey! That’s what you always say!” Frank said to Judy.

  “Do not!”

  “Do too!” said Rocky and Frank at the same time.

  “Question Number Three,” said the girl. “What else would you like to change about Virginia Dare School?”

  “Candy machines!” said Frank.

  “A swimming pool!” said Rocky.

  “A skate park!” said Frank.

  “No School Picture Day!” said Rocky. Girl Reporter was writing as fast as they could talk.

  “No Pizza Reporters bugging us at lunchtime,” said Judy. The girl stopped writing. The girl did not say “Check!”

  In spite of herself, Judy got caught up in the moment. “Okay. I have an idea! For real!” said Judy. “Chew gum in school!”

  “Yep,” said Rocky.

  “Yes!” said Frank.

  “Check!” said the girl.

  “I could work on my ABC gum collection at school,” said Judy. “Start one under my desk. Not just at home on the lamp by my bed.”

  Girl Reporter was writing again.

  “ABC stands for Already Been Chewed,” said Judy.

  “I know that,” said the girl. “I collect gum too. I’ve been to the world’s best-ever collection of ABC gum. The biggest in the world.”

  “Huh?” asked Judy.

  “Sure!” said the girl. “Bubblegum Alley. It’s in California.”

  “I went to Boston,” said Judy.

  “I saw it on summer vacation. You walk down this alley between two buildings and there’s a Wall of Gum on each side. Chewed-up gum that people stuck there. Some even made pictures and stuff out of gum. I chewed five black gumballs from the machine they have there and added it to the wall.”

  “No way!” said Rocky.

  “Way!” said the girl. “It’s like a Gum Hall of Fame. Or a Gum Wall of Fame.” The girl cracked herself up.

  “Double cool!” said Frank.

  “I sent away for a Make-Your-Own-Gum Kit,” said Judy. Nobody said a word.

  “I’d sure like to see a Wall of Gum!” said Frank.

  “I have a picture of me standing in front of it,” said the girl. “It was in my last issue of the paper. See?” She pulled out a page from the back of the clipboard.

  “Whoa!” said Rocky. “Weird. Look at all that chewed-up gum!”

  “Wow,” said Frank. “You really were there!”

  “I had my picture in the real newspaper once,” said Judy.

  “Yeah, your elbow,” said Rocky. Frank and Rocky cracked up.

  “Thanks for your ideas,” said the girl. “I’ve got to go talk to Mr. Todd.”

  “Mr. Todd? That’s our teacher,” said Judy.

  “I know. He has a big scoop for me.”

  “We already know that he’s getting married,” said Judy.

  “She tries to predict the future,” Rocky explained.

  “And one time she predicted Mr. Todd was getting married. And he is!” Frank announced.

  “Wow!” said the girl. “That’s a good scoop!” Judy sat up taller.

  “Do real reporters wear pencils in their ears?” asked Frank.

  “Check!” said the girl. She looked at both of her watches. “Later, alligators!” she called, tucking the pencil behind her ear.

  “Wow!” said Frank. “That girl is just like you, Judy!”

  “Nah-uh,” said Judy.

  “Yah-huh!” said Rocky and Frank together.

  “You’re like twins or something,” said Frank.

  “Two of a kind,” said Rocky.

  “Name one thing the same,” said Judy.

  “Amy Namey. Judy Moody. Her name rhymes. Your name rhymes. Same-same!” said Frank.

  “So? She has long, not-messy hair and dimples. And she wears glasses,” said Judy. “I don’t wear glasses.”

  “She dresses up like Some Lady, First Woman Reporter,” said Rocky.

  “I only dressed up like Elizabeth Blackwell, First Woman Doctor, once.”

  “And she collects ABC gum and likes getting her picture in the paper,” said Frank.

  “And don’t forget she gets scoops,” said Rocky, “which is like trying to predict the future.”

  “She probably likes Band-Aids and pizza tables, too,” said Frank. “We should ask her.”

  “And she says weird stuff, like ‘check,’ all the time,” Rocky added.

  “I do not say weird stuff all the time,” Judy protested.

  “It’s like they took a machine and made a copy,” said Rocky.

  “Maybe she’s your clone!” said Frank.

  “ROAR!” said Judy.

  She, Judy Moody, liked being one of a kind. An original. Her mom said she was unique. Her dad said she was an individual. Mr. Todd said she was in a class by herself (even though there were twenty other kids in Class 3T!).

  Being unique mad
e Judy feel special. That’s the way it is, was, and always would be. Should be.

  Until now. Until Amy Namey, Gum-Chewing Girl Reporter, moved in.

  Now she felt like a NOT-one-of-a-kind, machine-made copy. A two-of-a-kind, un-original, boring old not-stand-alone clone.

  Judy was helping Stink with his homework, quizzing him for a science test.

  “Name the four seasons,” said Judy.

  “Easy. Salt, pepper, ketchup, and mustard,” said Stink.

  “Seasons of the YEAR, Stink,” said Judy. “Never mind. How about this one. What makes dew form?”

  “When leaves sweat?” asked Stink.

  “N-O!” said Judy. “Here’s one. You have to know this. What is a fibula?”

  “Oh, I know. That’s like when you tell a lie, but not a really big one. A little one.”

  “No, Stink. It’s a bone! In your leg! Between your knee and your ankle. I think you better study some more. Now, can I ask you a question?”

  “I thought that’s what you were doing.”

  “Not a science test question. What would you do if you thought there was just one Stink, then you found out there was somebody else out there just like you? Like another Stink?”

  “I’d bug you TWICE as much.”

  “Never mind. I’ll ask Mom and Dad.”

  Judy asked her mom. Mom just hugged her and said, “You’re the one and only Judy Moody in my book.”

  “Is this for science? Or social studies?” asked Dad.

  “You don’t understand,” Judy told her dad. “There’s only ONE of you and ONE of Mom and ONE of Stink. But, well, I mean, what if you met somebody and they were just like you? And you didn’t feel special anymore?”

  “At least I’d have a new best friend,” said Dad.

  Hmmm. Judy thought about that one. Best friend? Or best enemy?

  The next day, Best-Enemy Girl Reporter came up to Judy at recess. “Hi! Remember me?”

  “Check,” said Judy, frowning.

  “You do remember! Your name’s Judy. Right? What’s your last name? I want to put your chew-gum-in-school idea in my paper.”

  Judy perked up. “Moody. Judy Moody.”

  “Judy Moody? For real? Hey, you rhyme! Just like me!”

  “Same-same,” said Judy excitedly.

  “So, do kids always try to rhyme stuff around you? Like ‘Amy Namey, how’s Jamie? Want to play a game-y? You’re so lame-y.’ Stuff like that?”

  “I’ve heard ‘Howdy Doody, Judy Moody’ and ‘Judy Moody has cooties’ about ten hundred million times!”

  “Exactly! That’s so cool we both have the rhyming name thing. You could be in my club.”

  “I’m already in a club. The Toad Pee Club. With my friends.”

  “But this is a real club. It’s not just for anybody. It’s for people all over the world with names that rhyme. It’s called the My-Name-Is-a-Poem Club.”

  “For real?” asked Judy.

  “How real is this?” Amy reached into her pocket and pulled out a card. A way-official, real-and-true membership card.

  “RARE!” said Judy. “You mean I could be a member? Of a club that has people in it from all over the whole world?”

  “Sure! I can sign you up!”

  “You mean I’d get a card like this? A real membership card with my name on it and everything?”

  “Check!” said Amy.

  “Wow,” said Judy. “How come I never knew about you before?”

  “Oh, I’ve been around,” said Amy. “Around the world!” She cracked up.

  “What stuff do you do in your club?” Judy asked.

  “Mostly you just carry this card around. But you can write to anybody in the club. And sometimes they write back and send you a postcard. With a cool stamp from another country and everything.”

  “Whoa!”

  “I know! I get postcards from people around the world, like, let’s see . . . Nancy Clancy, Newton Hooton, and Sing Ling. Even Mark Clark van Ark from Newark! That’s in this country. In New Jersey.”

  “No way!”

  “Uh-huh. I even got one from somebody named Heebie Jeebie.”

  “That gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

  “I think that one was a joke, for sure. But my favorite is the one I got from Chip Dippe.”

  “Like potato chips and dip?”

  “Exactly.” Judy and Amy cracked up.

  “I want to do it!” said Judy. “I want to be in the club!”

  “Great!” said Amy. “Why don’t you come over to my house Saturday morning? I’ll get you a membership card and everything.”

  “I’ll ask. Do I have to pay any money?” Judy asked.

  “Nope. It’s a freebie,” said Amy.

  “So I won’t have to get the heebie-jeebies,” said Judy.

  “Nopey-dopey!” said Amy.

  “Okey-dokey!” said Judy. They fell on the ground laughing.

  Amy Namey sure was smart. And funny. And important-looking in her glasses, with two watches, and a pencil behind her ear.

  AND her name rhymed. AND she was a member of a way-cool, around-the-world club. AND she knew a top-secret scoop from Mr. Todd.

  Amy Namey had all the things that made a New Best Enemy into a New Best Friend.

  The next day before going to school, Judy rummaged through her top drawer, looking for her old purple watch. It still worked! She wore it right next to her new red striped one.

  She looked around for a clipboard, but she couldn’t find one. So she stuck a Grouchy pencil behind her ear and went to school.

  “There’s a pencil in your hair,” said Rocky.

  “I know,” Judy said. “Amy Namey says I can help her with her newspaper. A good reporter should have a pencil ready at all times.”

  “How come you’re wearing two watches?” asked Frank.

  “The better to tell time with,” said Judy in a Red-Riding-Hood-and-the-Wolf voice.

  “No, really,” said Frank.

  “Amy Namey has one watch that tells regular time, and one that tells France time. Just like Nellie Bly, Daredevil Reporter. Amy says Nellie Bly always kept one watch on the time it was at home in New York. The other watch she changed to the time of England or Italy or France — wherever she was.”

  “Whatever,” said Rocky.

  “How come Amy’s other watch is on France time?” asked Frank.

  “I don’t know,” said Judy. “I’ll just have to get the scoop, won’t I?” She took the pencil from her ear and wrote herself a note. Just like a real reporter would do. “Maybe I’ll ask her when she comes to our class right after morning recess to tell us a top-secret scoop that only Mr. Todd knows.”

  “Wait. She’s coming here? To Mr. Todd’s room?” asked Rocky.

  “She’s not going to be in our class, is she?” asked Frank.

  “No. She just has a big fat secret to tell us.”

  “How do you know?” Rocky asked.

  “I know,” said Judy. “Or . . . maybe I can ask her when I go over to her house to have a meeting of our new club.”

  “What new club?” asked Rocky.

  “What new club?” asked Frank.

  “The My-Name-Is-a-Poem Club,” said Judy.

  “Can we be in the club?” asked Frank.

  “It’s for people all over the world who have names that rhyme. Like Judy Moody. Amy Namey. Hello! Frank does not rhyme with Pearl. Rocky does not rhyme with Zang.”

  “No fair,” said Rocky. “We can’t help it that our names don’t rhyme.”

  “I didn’t make the rules,” said Judy.

  “What if I change my name to Earl? Earl the Pearl rhymes.” Judy and Rocky cracked up.

  “Then we’d have to call you Earl,” said Rocky. “That would be weird.”

  “Okay. So keep calling me Frank and come to the Toad Pee Club meeting on Saturday morning. Don’t go to that rhyming girl’s house.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Judy.

  “Didn’t Stink tell you?
We’re having a really big, important meeting of the Toad Pee Club,” said Frank.

  “How come?”

  “We want to enter Toady in a race they’re having at the pet store that morning. Fur & Fangs. You can win a tarantula.”

  “Stink told you this?” asked Judy.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “It’s a girl tarantula named Trudy,” added Frank. “It’s a painted tarantula and has orange stripes.”

  “And it has eight eyes, and fangs, and it keeps away robbers,” said Rocky.

  “Robbers!” said Judy. “There aren’t any robbers around here.”

  “Yah-huh. Friend robbers,” Rocky said. “Maybe it works on people who steal other people’s friends, like Little Miss You-Know-Who.”

  “Well, sorry, but I have to go to my new club. Amy Namey says —”

  “AmyNameyAmyNamey. That girl’s all you talk about now,” said Rocky.

  “Amy Namey sounds lame-y if you ask me,” said Frank.

  “Ha! Amy Namey said you’d say that!” said Judy.

  Rocky looked at Frank. Frank looked at Rocky and shrugged.

  “What’s wrong with you guys?” said Judy. “Yesterday you liked her.”

  “Yeah, and yesterday you didn’t like her,” said Rocky.

  “Just ’cause she rhymes,” said Frank. “We were friends with you FIRST. Before Suzy New-Club came along.”

  “Yeah, along comes Amy Rhymey and you forget about us,” Rocky said.

  “I bet any money a toad never peed on her,” said Frank. “So she can’t be in OUR club. No way.”

  “Shh! Here she comes!” said Judy.

  “Bonjour!” said Amy Namey. “That means ‘hello’ in France.”

  “Whatever,” said Rocky.

  “Hey, can we ask you a question?” asked Frank.

  “Okay, shoot,” said Amy. “But hurry up. I have to give a report to your class.”

  “Did a toad ever pee on you?” asked Rocky.

  “What? NO!” said Amy.

  “See?” Rocky and Frank said to Judy.

  “Class!” said Mr. Todd, blinking the lights. “Morning recess is over. Everybody find your seat. We have a special visitor today. And she has some interesting information to share with us.”

  “Is it the Crayon Lady?” somebody asked.