Of course Amy knew the answer! Carolyn Keene! Amy had read almost every book in the series. Her heart was racing. Her legs were shaking under the table. But she took a deep breath and she opened her mouth to answer.
No sound came out.
She cleared her throat and tried again. This time, she managed to get the first syllable out. “Car—”
But it was barely a whisper. The host put a hand to his ear. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Can you speak up, please?”
Amy’s heart was pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. It felt like the answer was stuck in her throat.
“Are you okay?” Ellie whispered.
Amy felt tears filling her eyes. She stood up and ran off the stage.
A Shady Idea!
Inside the chicken run, Amy tossed cracked corn at the chickens. They squawked and ran in all directions.
“I know how you feel,” she said gloomily.
She groaned, remembering that morning. After she’d run off the stage, her friends had come after her. They tried to figure out what was wrong. But Amy just wanted to go home.
Later she’d talked it over with her mom.
“You don’t have to be on the team,” her mom said. “It’s okay if you don’t want to do it.”
“But I do want to,” Amy replied. “I just don’t think I can.”
At The Critter Club that day, Amy had decided. She needed to tell the girls that she had to quit.
Marion, Ellie, and Liz arrived a short time later. They hurried over to Amy. “We called your house,” Ellie said gently.
“We were worried,” Liz added. “Your mom said we’d find you here.”
“Are you okay?” Marion asked.
Amy nodded. She took a deep breath. This was it. She had to tell them now.
“Amy,” Marion said, before Amy could speak. “We know what the problem is.”
Caught off guard, Amy was quiet and listened.
“You know the answers to the questions,” Liz said. “You just get nervous!”
Ellie nodded. “I get nervous too, any time I perform.”
Amy was shocked to hear that. Ellie? Nervous?
“You never seem nervous,” Amy said. “So what do you do? How do you get rid of your nerves?”
Ellie shrugged. “Well, I pretend like I’m just performing in my own living room. For my family!”
Amy thought about it. She never felt nervous answering questions with just the girls there. “But the theater is so big!” Amy said. “It’s hard to pretend no one’s there when so many people are.”
Amy gazed off into the distance, as if looking out into the audience. She saw something on a fence post by the barn. It was Ms. Sullivan’s floppy hat. She’d left it outside again. One time, the girls had tried it on. It was so big on them it came down over their eyes.
Wait a second, thought Amy. What if I really couldn’t see the audience? Would it be easier to pretend they weren’t there?
Suddenly Amy ran over and grabbed the hat.
“Guys!” she cried. “I have an idea!”
The Quiz Bowl
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman!” the host announced. “Welcome to the Santa Vista Quiz Bowl!”
From backstage, Amy heard the audience erupt into applause. It sure sounded like a full house!
Liz, Ellie, and Marion were at Amy’s side. Ellie gave Amy’s hand a squeeze. “Ready?”
Amy nodded. They had spoken to the host earlier. Amy asked if it was okay to wear the floppy hat onstage. “It might help me be less nervous,” she explained.
The host gave her a kind smile. “If it works for you, it works for me!” he said.
The girls could hear that the host was about to introduce the second- and third-grade teams. Then they’d go out onstage.
Liz tapped Amy’s shoulder. Amy peeked out from under the brim. “Look,” Liz said, pointing to a big backstage mirror.
In the reflection, Amy almost didn’t recognize herself with the hat on. She giggled. Then she heard the host announcing the first team.
“Team number one, The Whiz Kids, who are the defending champions—Samantha, Danielle, Aiden, and Joseph!”
The audience applauded again. Marion took Amy’s hand. “I think we’re next!”
“Team number two, The Critter Club Girls!” said the host. “Ellie, Marion, Amy, and Liz!”
Marion led Amy out onstage. Amy tried to ignore the applause. She kept her head down as they took their seats at their table. She listened and clapped for the other teams.
Teams three and four were second-grade teams. Team five was a mixed team with two second graders and two third graders.
“Good luck to all the teams!” said the host. “And now a quick review of the rules.”
Each team had a buzzer. Whoever buzzed in first could answer. If they answered correctly, their team got a point. If not, another team could buzz in and answer. “The team with the most points at the end of the round is our winner!”
Amy took a deep breath. So far, the hat was working! In her head she knew that there was a huge audience watching her. And they’re probably wondering what’s up with the hat, Amy thought.
But without seeing them, Amy could almost imagine they weren’t there. Her body felt calm.
The host cleared his throat. “Here is the first question. What term describes two words or phrases that mean the same thing?”
Amy knew they’d learned this in language arts. But she couldn’t think of the word. She and the girls huddled up to talk it over.
“Is it ‘thesaurus’?” Liz asked.
Amy shook her head. She knew that wasn’t it.
BUZZZZZZZZZZ! Another team buzzed in. “Team one, do you have an answer?” the host asked.
“Synonym!” said Samantha, loud and clear.
Right away, Amy knew it was right. Team one got the first point.
The audience applauded. Then the host was on to the next question. “What are the four stages of a butterfly’s life cycle?”
Four words flashed through Amy’s mind as bright as a neon sign. She knew it! She was sure!
Amy reached out for the buzzer.
Then she froze. If she pushed it, everyone in the whole theater would look at her.
But if she didn’t, one of the other teams might get their point!
BUZZZZZZZ!
“Team two,” Amy heard the host say. “Do you have an answer?”
And the Winner Is . . .
The whole theater was silent. Everyone was waiting for Amy to answer. She opened her mouth—
But her mind was a blank! The answer was gone!
Then Amy heard a voice in her ear. “Take a breath,” Marion whispered.
“Team two, I need an answer,” the host said. “What are the four stages of a butterfly’s life cycle?”
Amy smiled. She breathed. The answer came flooding back. “Egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly,” Amy said. Her voice sounded louder than she’d expected.
There was a pause. Then the host said, “That is correct!”
The whole theater clapped. Amy could even hear a couple of cheers. Amy couldn’t help but smile.
Suddenly she felt an urge to take a peek.
She looked out from under the brim of her hat. Yep. There were a lot of people there. And everyone was looking at her.
But somehow it didn’t feel like such a big deal. It just looked like a room of people who wanted all the teams to do well.
Amy took off the hat. She tucked it safely under her seat. She glanced over at her teammates. Their smiles and thumbs-up made Amy smile even wider.
The next half hour was a blur. Amy’s team knew lots of answers! But so did team one, The Whiz Kids.
The host held up a question card. “We have come to the end of the round. I have one question left. Two teams are tied for the lead—team one and team two. I would like to use this last question as our tiebreaker. Only teams one and two may buzz in. Are we ready?”
Amy wasn’t sure she was ready. But she tried to focus on the question. Whoever got the answer right would win!
The host read: “What is a group of lions called?”
Amy almost jumped out of her seat. She knew it! She reached for the buzzer.
BUZZZZZZ!
The other team had buzzed in first!
“Team one, do you have an answer?” the host asked.
“Yes,” Danielle said calmly. “It’s a herd.”
The crowd was silent, waiting for the host’s reply.
“I’m sorry,” the host said gently. “That is not correct.”
Immediately Amy hit her team’s buzzer. She felt everyone looking at her again. But she didn’t care! Without waiting for the host to ask her, Amy called out the answer.
“It’s a pride!” she said. “A pride of lions.”
The host smiled at her. “That is correct . . . and we have a winner! Team number two, The Critter Club Girls! Congratulations!”
The audience clapped louder than ever. Amy looked at her friends. They were shrieking with delight! Then they were around her, hugging her from all sides.
Amy laughed and cheered—for her team and for herself.
What Do You Call a Little Chicken?
The next day after school, Ms. Sullivan baked a cake to celebrate. On her back patio, the girls sat around the table. Ms. Sullivan cut the cake and passed out slices.
“I can’t believe we won!” Ellie exclaimed.
“And beat a team of third graders!” Marion added.
“Well, I am extremely proud of all of you,” Ms. Sullivan said. “It was a big challenge—in lots of ways.” She gave Amy a wink.
Amy smiled. “It was even kind of . . . fun!” she admitted. She was so glad she hadn’t quit. She wasn’t sure she’d ever love being onstage. But she knew she could do it.
Later, a pickup truck drove up the gravel driveway. “Oh!” said Ms. Sullivan. “It’s Mr. Taylor. He’s here to pick up the chickens.”
They went out front to meet him. Then they showed him to the chicken coop.
“Wow, what a coop!” Mr. Taylor said, admiring their work.
The girls explained that the neighbors had built it. “But we painted it!” Liz said proudly.
“Well,” said Mr. Taylor, “I should have you girls come paint my chicken coop!”
He leaned down and peeked inside. Then he looked up at the girls. “Well, well, well,” he said. “Do you hear that?”
The girls peeked into the coop too. Amy could hear a faint peep, peep, peep. She looked more closely at the nesting boxes. All three hens were sitting on a clutch of eggs. And there was one tiny chick in each box! They looked like they had just hatched!
“They’re soooooo cute,” Ellie cooed.
“You know,” Mr. Taylor said, “it usually takes twenty-one days for chicken eggs to hatch.”
Amy did some quick math. Twenty-one days was three weeks. And the chickens had come to The Critter Club almost exactly three weeks ago. That meant they had laid the eggs as soon as they’d arrived!
Wow, Amy thought. A lot has happened in the last three weeks! Some of it in the Quiz Bowl. And some of it in the chicken coop!
If you like the Critter Club, you’ll also enjoy
The Adventures of Sophie Mouse!
Buzz, buzz, buzzzzzzz. Outside the Mouse family’s cottage, a bumblebee zipped from flower to flower.
Sitting at her easel in the sunshine, Sophie Mouse put down her paintbrush. Her eyes followed the bee. Oh, to be able to fly, she thought. I could see every inch of Silverlake Forest—maybe even to the other side of Forget-Me-Not Lake! I wonder how fast a bee flies when he really gets going. What would it be like to fly to the schoolhouse for the first day of school tomorrow? What would—
“Sophie? Sophie!” Her father’s voice called out, snapping her out of her daydream. He was in the doorway of their cottage, which was nestled in between the roots of an oak tree. “Are you done with your chores?” George Mouse asked. “When you are, you can go see Mom at the bakery. She’s making nutmeg popovers today!”
Sophie’s little nose twitched. She was sure she could already smell the sweet scent. Nutmeg popovers were one of her mother’s specialties. At her bakery in Pine Needle Grove, Lily Mouse surely would have started making the batter at dawn, before Sophie was even awake.
Sophie hated to stop painting. It was the first spring day warm enough to paint outside! But she had a little sweeping to do if she wanted to go to the bakery.
Sophie hurried inside and found the willow-twig broom. She had already swept the three small bedrooms upstairs. Just the main floor was left: under the toadstool table and birch-branch stools, and around the spun-silk couch. Sophie swept all the corners of the kitchen. Then she swept the pile of leaf bits and dust right out the front door.
“Dad! I’m finished!” she called. “I’m going by Hattie’s house on the way to the bakery!”
Callie Barkley loves animals. As a young girl, she dreamed of getting a cat or dog of her own until she discovered she was allergic to most of them. It was around this time that she realized the world was full of all kinds of critters that could use some love. She now lives with her husband and two kids in Connecticut. They share their home with exactly ten fish and a very active ant farm.
Tracy Bishop has loved drawing since she was a little girl in Japan. She spends her time illustrating books, reading, and collecting pens. She lives with her husband, son, and hairy dog, named Harry, in San Jose, California.
Little Simon
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
LITTLE SIMON
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 • www.SimonandSchuster.com • First Little Simon hardcover edition December 2015 • Copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. • All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected]. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. Designed by Laura Roode. Jacket illustrations by Marsha Riti. The text of this book was set in ITC Stone Informal Std.
Jacket design by Laura Roode
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Barkley, Callie. | Bishop, Tracy, illustrator. Title: Amy is a little bit chicken / by Callie Barkley ; illustrated by Tracy Bishop. Description: First Little Simon paperback edition. | New York : Little Simon, 2015. | Series: The Critter Club ; #13 | Summary: “Amy has never liked being in the spotlight. When all her friends decide to form a team for the Santa Vista Quiz Bowl, Amy’s not so sure. She knows she can answer the quiz questions . . . but can she do it in front of hundreds of people? Meanwhile, The Critter Club is caring for some chickens that need a home. As the Quiz Bowl approaches, Amy herself starts feeling just a little bit chicken!” Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2015023879| ISBN 9781481451741 (paperback) | ISBN 9781481451758 (hc) | ISBN 9781481451765 (ebook) Subjects: | CYAC: School contests—Fiction. | Anxiety—Fiction. | Friendship—
Fiction. | Chickens—Fiction. | Clubs—Fiction. | Animal shelters—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Readers / Chapter Books. | JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship. Classification: LCC PZ7.B250585 An 2015 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015023879
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