Harry is still worried, though. They’re supposed to have books. And it’s totally almost Halloween.
DAY 37. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30
“The best thing in the world happened!” cries Abigail when Harry gets to school.
“What best thing?” asks Harry.
She grins the biggest grin. Then she pulls a Fluff Monster Party book out of her backpack. It has pictures of all four monsters on the cover. “Look!”
“Woo-hoo!” shouts Harry. He does his happy dance. “Now I don’t have to be Beekle.” Just in case he couldn’t be a Fluff Monster, Mommy helped him choose a book with an easy costume. Beekle is an imaginary-friend character who looks like a round white ghost, so Harry could just wear a pillowcase with eyes cut in it.
But he really didn’t feel like being Beekle.
“And I don’t have to be Sophie and her squash,” says Abigail. “Even though we already bought a squash for me to carry.”
Diamond and Mason are excited, too. Mason didn’t even have a parade costume. “I was just going to be like, a regular kid and find a book with a regular kid on the cover,” he says.
“I was going to be Z Is for Moose,” Diamond tells them, “but all I got was antlers. Not a whole moose suit or anything.”
All day, whenever they are together, they say, “FLUFF MONSTERS.”
In line to go to library, they whisper, “FLUFF MONSTERS.”
When the story is over, they whisper, “FLUFF MONSTERS.”
Kimani is happy for them. She is all set with Harry Potter. Mia is going to be Harry’s owl, Hedwig, so their costumes will go together.
Wyatt makes a sour face at Harry during lunch. “Fluff Monsters are for babies,” he says. “If you all want to be baby things for the parade, go right ahead. I’ll be Spider-Man.”
Harry wants to say he likes Spider-Man, too, and what’s wrong with Fluff Monsters? But he doesn’t get a chance. Abigail, Diamond, and Mason just shout at Wyatt: “FLUFF MONSTERS! FLUFF MONSTERS! FLUFF MONSTERS!”
And Harry joins in.
Wyatt leaves the table.
DAY 38. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31
It is Halloween and the day of the Storybook Parade.
Harry’s Gar-Gar costume is hot and itchy, but he looks amazing. Abigail carries Fluff Monster Party in her red-and-orange arms. Harry, Diamond, and Mason walk alongside her.
If they are able to get off work, parents come to watch. So do caregivers. Harry’s mom is there, taking pictures on her phone. She promises to send a photo to Daddy.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel is dressed as a pig. She carries a toy pug dog, plus the book Pug Meets Pig.
Everyone walks up the block, across the street, past the place where you get fried chicken, past the place where you get lo mein noodles, past the bodega. The shop and restaurant owners come out and wave. Some of them even clap.
The kids cross the street again and go down a block of town houses and apartment buildings, around the corner and past D’Angelo’s bakery, the toy shop with the robot in the window, the dollar store, the pizza place, and the other bodega.
Harry links arms with Diamond. They wave at the people watching. “Fluff Monsters!” calls one lady. “Excellent fluff.”
DAY 39. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1
Harry is super tired. He stayed up way too late trick-or-treating last night with his friends and then eating take-out pizza.
Everyone else is tired, too. Abigail goes under Goat Table. Kimani falls asleep during math. Diamond falls asleep during story time. Mason looks weak and sick.
“When we got home, my dad said, ‘How many pieces of candy did you eat?’ ” Mason explains. “And I told him four. So he let me have four more. But really I ate eighteen or thirty or maybe more than that.”
“You lied to your dad?” says Harry.
“It popped out,” says Mason. “I couldn’t think straight ’cause of all the candy I owned. But he figured out the truth when I puked all over the bathroom floor. My parents put me in the shower while they bleach-cleaned.”
“Ew.”
“Yeah,” says Mason. “And even worse, my dad took my bag of candy away. He put it on top of the fridge.”
“That’s so mean,” says Harry.
“Yeah, my dad’s a Halloween meanie,” says Mason. “But I get to have my bag back after dinner tonight.”
DAY 40. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2
Every Friday, Harry’s class has gym. Ms. Tanaka, the gym teacher, is very strong and loud. She doesn’t yell, exactly, but her voice is sharp. Still, Harry likes gym. First they do animal warm-ups. They skitter like crabs and then tromp like bears. They hop like bunnies and skip like deer. Ms. Tanaka calls out the animals, faster and faster.
Today they learn a new game: Sharks and Minnows. There is a team of sharks and a team of minnows.
Harry is a minnow.
The idea is that the minnows run from one wall of the gym to the other while the sharks try to catch them. Once a minnow gets caught, it becomes a shark. There are more and more sharks until finally, there is only one minnow left.
Harry runs high-speed. The sharks catch Diamond first. Then Robbie and Kimani. Then Wyatt and some other kids.
Harry runs high-speed again, but now there are more sharks, so it is harder.
Wyatt tags him.
“Why are you always trying to get me?” says Harry as the sharks go back to their starting place. He didn’t want to turn into a shark. He wanted to be the speediest minnow.
“ ’Cause you’re too slow and I’m so fast,” says Wyatt, shrugging. “Let’s eat up Mason, ’kay?”
“I’m not eating up my best friend,” says Harry.
“It’s a game, doof.”
Ms. Tanaka blows her whistle and the sharks are supposed to chase again.
“Ahhhh!” Harry complains. He was a minnow like, a minute ago, and now he’s supposed to eat the minnows? It feels wrong.
“Wyatt knows what he’s talking about,” says Diamond before she runs off. “I’ve been a shark for a long time now. Just pretend you’re a great white, gobble up the minnows, and that’s that. No biggie.”
Then Mason zips by. “Try to eat me!” he yells.
So Harry does. He chases Mason—zoom!—across the gym.
DAY 41. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Tomorrow is Election Day. No school. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel reads the students a book about a girl named Grace who wants to be president. She writes election on the Sparkly Word Wall.
“It’s important to vote. That way, you get a say about what goes on in the world,” says the teacher. “And here in first grade, we are going to have an election, too. A pretend one. A silly one. Okay?”
“Okay!” the kids shout.
“Let’s pretend we are going to elect a class president. Everybody will get to vote. And the candidates are…Fluff Monsters.”
“Real Fluff Monsters?” asks Abigail.
“Well,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel, “they’re puppets. I’m going to do their voices.”
She pulls out a puppet of Dumpler, the red-and-orange Fluff Monster. “I want to be president,” she says in her Dumpler voice. “I collect gold and jewels and seashells.”
Then she brings out a puppet Gorf, the green fluff monster. “I want to be president,” she makes Gorf say. “I like honey, sugar, and everything sweet.”
The Dumpler puppet is back. “Tell us about how you will be a good president,” says the teacher, using her regular voice.
Then she does her Dumpler voice. “I will help you with math because I am very good at counting. I can count way over one hundred. Also, I will share my seashells with you.”
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel changes to the Gorf puppet. “Tell us about how you will be a good president,” she says in her real voice.
Then she does her
Gorf voice: “Cupcakes every day. Yum yum yum.”
“Is there anything else important?” asks the teacher.
“Nope! Cupcakes every day. Yum yum yum,” says Gorf.
Now the kids ask questions.
“If you get to be president, will you help when it’s cleanup time?” asks Kimani.
Dumpler says: “I will help, but I have very short arms. Kids will need to do most of the cleanup work.”
Gorf says: “Cupcakes every day. Yum yum yum.”
“If you get to be president, will you be nice to us if we don’t understand a lesson?” asks Abigail.
Dumpler says: “I will be nice. I will try to help you understand.”
Gorf says: “Cupcakes every day. Yum yum yum.”
Then Ms. Peek-Schnitzel puts the puppets away. She gives each kid an index card. “Write Gorf if you want Gorf to be our president. Write Dumpler if you want Dumpler.”
Harry votes for Dumpler. Everyone turns in their cards. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel counts the votes.
Gorf wins.
Some kids cheer. They like Gorf because she is so funny. But Harry is a bit sad. So is Abigail. They are both fans of Dumpler.
DAY 42. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7
Harry went to vote with Mommy yesterday. She voted at the YMCA where they sometimes play basketball on weekends, but it looked different. It was set up with booths and tables. There was a line and they had to wait. Afterward, Mommy let Harry have her i voted sticker to put on his coat.
Today, lots of kids have stickers on their jackets, just like Harry. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel admires them. “I like to see people voting, because voting is one of the ways we can be change makers in our world,” she says.
They are talking about voting at morning meeting when Diamond raises her hand. “My mom ran for city council, but she didn’t win,” she says.
Harry doesn’t know what city council is, but it sounds important. “Is she sad?” he asks.
“She cried,” says Diamond. “Then I cried because she cried. Then it was my bedtime.”
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel listens as more kids talk about what they did on Election Day, but Harry is thinking about Diamond’s mom. He has been to Diamond’s apartment. They even went out to dinner at Yummy Taco, both their families together.
When kids finish with their math sheets, they are allowed to draw until it’s time for reading. Harry gets paper and folds it in half to make a card. He draws a chocolate cake on the cover, using brown crayon, and pink for candles. He isn’t sure what to write inside. Sorry you lost, he finally writes. He isn’t sure he spelled it right, but he printed very neatly.
He pushes the card over to Diamond. “This is for your mom.”
“She only likes vanilla cake,” Diamond says, crumpling it up and shoving it in her backpack.
Harry feels himself flush. Why is Diamond so mean sometimes? She didn’t even say the card was nice. She crumpled it!
Grrr. He feels like slamming his hands on the table, but he knows he shouldn’t. What can he do?
“D and M,” he finally says.
“What?” Diamond has been talking to Kimani as they transition to reading time.
Never mind. Harry doesn’t want to explain. He picks a book and practices sounding out words, speaking softly to himself.
Silent E makes cub into cube.
It makes fin into fine.
He is going to remember that and not think about Diamond at all.
DAY 43. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8
This week’s sight words are first, again, because, and only.
Everyone has to write sentences using the words to make a story. They don’t have to worry about spelling, except for the sight words. Harry writes:
Then he turns his paper over so Diamond won’t see it.
When writing time is over, Diamond shows him her paper.
“My mom loved your card,” she says. “She told me to say thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Diamond smiles.
“I still think you’re nice,” says Harry.
“Okay, good,” says Diamond. “I think you’re nice, too.”
DAY 44. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9
During math, the students get to go to the gymnasium. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel has them line up in a row. Then they each take one hundred steps.
How surprising! They end up in different places. “Some people have longer strides,” she explains. “One hundred is different for me than for you.”
Abigail doesn’t line up or step. She sits in a corner of the gym and puts her hands over her eyes.
Harry goes and sits by her. “Hi,” he whispers.
“Mm,” says Abigail.
“Watch me, okay?”
Abigail takes a hand off one eye.
Harry walks on tiptoe. He does it super funny.
Tippy-toe, tippy-toe! One hundred teeny tiny steps. “Come on, Abigail!” he calls when he is finished. “I bet you can’t take steps as small as me.”
“Eyekendoo.” Abigail answers so softly, Harry has to run back to hear her.
“What did you say?”
“I said, I can too.”
Harry holds out his hand and Abigail takes it. He pulls her to standing.
Together they take the teeniest, tiniest tippy-toe steps, all the way to one hundred. Abigail’s are even tinier than Harry’s, but he doesn’t mind.
Next they take one hundred giant steps.
And one hundred ballet leaps.
And one hundred T. rex leaps. Everyone joins in.
When they go back to class, Abigail is smiling.
Maybe I can be a stepping expert, thinks Harry. Or an Abigail expert.
But stepping isn’t really something that needs experts. And Harry doesn’t know if Abigail really lives with six dogs, so he’s definitely not an Abigail expert yet.
He will have to keep working.
DAY 45. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13
There was no school on Monday. Harry spent the morning at Mason’s, while Mommy was at work. Then Evaline picked him up, and Abigail came over to play. It was the first time she had been to Harry’s apartment. She wanted to know the names of every single one of his stuffed animals. Evaline helped them bake chocolate chip cookies and Charlotte played Crazy Eights with them.
Today, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel writes the word gratitude on the Sparkly Word Wall. “Thanksgiving is coming up,” she says. “At the Graham School, we study the history of that holiday in third and fourth grade. It is a complicated history to learn about, so in first grade, we mostly think about gratitude. That means feeling grateful and giving thanks.”
Harry raises his hand. “Thank you very much, you’re welcome, please, and nice to meet you,” he says. “Those are magic words my mom taught me.”
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel smiles. “I like those words,” she says, and writes you’re welcome on the Sparkly Word Wall, too. “There is much to be thankful for,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel, “but first, let’s remember: not everyone sees Thanksgiving as a time for thanks. The holiday has to do with the arrival of Europeans to this land long ago. It was terrible in lots of ways for the Wampanoag, the Indigenous People who already lived in the Northeast, where the pilgrims landed. Many died and lost much of the land their people had always lived on. There is still sadness about that. Let’s reflect.”
They sit in silence for a moment. Harry looks at his hands. He didn’t know there was a sad history to Thanksgiving.
“Thank you for thinking about that history with me,” says the teacher. “Now, on a brighter note, what do you feel gratitude for?”
Diamond says ice cream.
Mason says Pebble.
Kimani says yarn.
“Why yarn?” asks the teacher.
“It makes me happy,” says Kimani. “I c
an make things. And it comes in so many colors.”
Wyatt says his grandma.
Abigail says she is grateful for Harry because he cheers her up when she is having a tough day.
Harry was going to say he feels grateful for Fluff Monsters, but he remembers Abigail, and the teeny tiny steps they did, and the playdate, and the Fluff Monster book from the library. “I am grateful for Abigail, too,” he says.
DAY 46. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14
Harry never should have said he was grateful for Abigail. Now, at lunchtime, Wyatt goes:
Abigail and Harry
Sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-
I-N-G.
“Nuh-uh, Wyatt,” says Abigail quietly.
But Wyatt says it again.
Diamond steps in, louder. “Leave them alone. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Harry just eats his cold dumplings and says nothing. He doesn’t want to get Wyatt mad in case Wyatt starts talking about pulling down pants.
Wyatt says the rhyme again.
“Stop it!” yells Diamond. “You’re bothering them. And it’s not even a good poem.”
But Wyatt keeps going.
Abigail climbs under the cafeteria table.
Harry wants to make Wyatt stop, but no words will come out of his mouth.
DAY 47. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15
When Harry says hi to Abigail, Wyatt makes a kissy face.
When Harry hands Abigail a pencil, kissy face.
He even chants, quietly, during reading.
Abigail and Harry
Sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-
I-N-G!
First comes love,
Then comes marriage,
Then comes Harry with a baby carriage!
“Wyatt,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “I am at the end of my patience with that rhyme. Would you please keep your opinions to yourself?”
Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School Page 5