ZAPATO POWER CAN’T SOLVE EVERY THING…
Freddie sees a first-grader, Amy, being bullied on the school playground, so he uses his Zapato Power to make the mean boys stop! But when Freddie tries to check on Amy later, he can’t find her anywhere at school—not even when he uses his super powers!
Freddie’s super hearing, super bounce, and super speed aren’t helping him with his own school troubles either. When he starts failing math, he must find another way to solve his problems.
The eighth book in the award-winning Zapato Power series is full of friends—old and new—and more mysteries!
Albert Whitman & Co.
100 Years of Good Books
www.albertwhitman.com
Printed in the United States of America
Jacket art copyright © 2019 by Albert Whitman & Company
Don’t miss the first seven Zapato Power books!
Freddie Ramos Takes Off
Freddie Ramos Springs into Action
Freddie Ramos Zooms to the Rescue
Freddie Ramos Makes a Splash
Freddie Ramos Stomps the Snow
Freddie Ramos Rules New York
Freddie Ramos Hears It All
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.
Text copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline Jules
Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Albert Whitman & Company Illustrations by Miguel Benítez
First published in the United States of America in 2019 by Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN 978-0-8075-9539-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8075-9556-5 (ebook)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
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For more information about Albert Whitman & Company, visit our website at www.albertwhitman.com.
100 years of Albert Whitman & Company Celebrate with us in 2019!
To everyone who has ever felt a little bit “different”—JJ
Contents
1. Messed Up Morning
2. Pink Lunch Bag
3. Too Much Rain
4. Grown-Ups!
5. Playground Ghost
6. Amy Is Fast!
7. Where Is Amy?
8. Sliding to the Rescue
1. Messed Up Morning
Mom made oatmeal with raisins.
“A treat, Freddie!” she said. “Un desayuno caliente.”
Mom was so proud of herself for making a hot breakfast, I didn’t have the heart to say I liked crunchy cereal with milk better. Oatmeal is too mushy to wake me up in the morning.
“Mmmm,” Mom said as she lifted her spoon. “I should do this more often.”
Mom had cooked because she wanted me to pass my math test. She was sure that a hot breakfast would help me count without my fingers. Mom must have gotten that idea from my teacher, Mrs. Blaine. Last week, they had a meeting about my math grades. Ever since, Mom’s been changing things like breakfast and bedtime because good food and sleep are supposed to make kids think better at school.
“WHEET! WHEET!” My guinea pig, Claude the Second, started squealing. Hearing us talk about oatmeal must have made him hungry.
“Do we have carrots?” I asked Mom. “Claude the Second needs a treat too.”
“Sí. But hurry. You don’t want to be late. Hoy no.”
Getting dressed wasn’t as easy as feeding my guinea pig. I couldn’t remember what I wore for my last math test. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to wear it again. I pulled a green shirt from the very back of my drawer. Was green lucky like a four-leaf clover? It was worth a try. I decided to wear green socks too.
Then I went to the front door to pick up my sneakers. That’s the best part of every morning. My purple zapatos are special. With my superpowered purple sneakers, I can run ninety miles an hour. I can jump really high. I can hear things from far away. They give me everything I need to be a superhero. And when they weren’t on the mat by the door, my heart stopped.
Where were my purple zapatos? They weren’t by the sofa or under the kitchen table either. I rushed back to my room to search. I couldn’t go to school until I found them. Even Mom would agree. It was too cold outside to wear flip-flops, and I didn’t have anything else for my feet.
“Freddie?” Mom asked from my doorway. “Where are you?”
“Under the bed,” I called back. “Looking for my sneakers.”
“I cleaned them!” Mom said. “¡Mira! No more mud!”
I didn’t know muddy shoes were bad for your brain. Maybe that was something else Mrs. Blaine had told Mom.
“Gracias.” I put my shoes on and raced out the door before Mom could find any other ways to help me.
Outside, I put on my silver goggles and touched my wristband. That turned on my super speed for zooming down the steps to Starwood Elementary.
At the school playground, I did some extra laps to calm down for my test.
The third time around, I saw some kids teasing a girl by the swings. She was wearing pink sunglasses.
One of the boys shouted at her. “Let us see your eyes!”
“NO!” she shouted back. “My eyes are none of your business!”
The bullies looked short, like first graders. But there were five of them and one of me. I didn’t like those numbers. Luckily, I had three superpowers. One Freddie and three superpowers equaled four on the fingers of my left hand. That made it five to four. Those numbers were better.
BOING! BOING! BOING!
I touched my wristband to turn on my super bounce and landed right in the middle of the bullies.
2. Pink Lunch Bag
My Zapato Power covered me in a cloud of invisible smoke. The mean kids didn’t see me until I was standing right in front of them. They were so shocked, they scattered like ants. ¡Fue genial!
The girl with the sunglasses ran away too. That didn’t make me feel as great. She was in such a hurry, she dropped her pink lunch bag. Now I had to find her to give it back. Superheroes have to finish their jobs.
When I got inside, I saw all the first graders sitting down, lined up against the wall, waiting for the bell to ring. It should have been easy to find one girl wearing pink sunglasses. Except it wasn’t. Sunglasses are for outdoors, not indoors.
Everything had happened so fast, I never got a good look at the girl on the playground. Now I was stuck in the first-grade hall, holding a pink lunch bag with glittery princesses all over it.
“Hey, Freddie!” Gio, my next-door neighbor, waved at me. He was a first grader. Maybe he could help.
I showed Gio the lunch bag.
“It belongs to Amy,” Gio told me.
Sometimes asking questions is better than running around.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
He pointed. “Look at the name.”
Gio was right. It said “Amy” in big blue letters, right above the princesses. Now we were getting somewhere.
“Do you know Amy?”
“She’s new.” Gio shrugged. “And she doesn’t talk to me.”
“Just you?” I asked. That didn’t seem right. Most people liked Gio.
“She doesn’t talk to anybody.” Gio looked over the line of first graders. “See the girl at the very end?”
I sure did. She was hugging her knees and had her head down.
“Is that Amy?”
Gio nodded. I walked down the hall with the pink lunch bag, just as the first bell rang. E
verybody got up, including Amy. But she kept her eyes on the floor.
“I found your lunch,” I said to the top of her head.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, taking the bag without ever looking up.
She hurried into Room 12 with Gio and a bunch of other first graders while I stood there wondering. Why wouldn’t Amy look at me?
The second bell rang. Ugh! Now I was going to be late to class.
Using my superpowers meant being in the hallway a lot. I was always fast, and my Zapato Power smoke covered me until I slowed down. But today the principal, Mrs. Connor, just happened to be there when I stopped running. ¡Qué mala suerte!
“Freddie?” Mrs. Connor asked. “Why aren’t you in your classroom?”
“I’m sorry.” I looked up at Mrs. Connor with my saddest eyes.
“That’s what you said yesterday, Freddie.” Mrs. Connor sighed.
She took me by the arm to Mrs. Blaine’s desk.
“I found Freddie in the hallway,” Mrs. Connor said. “Keep an eye on him.”
My teacher thanked Mrs. Connor and handed me the math test. Everyone else in my class had their pencils on their paper, already working. This wasn’t good. I needed more time, not less.
Mrs. Blaine put a hand on my shoulder. “Take a deep breath, Freddie. Just sit down and do your best.”
How could I do that? A math test was not like counting bullies on the playground. My paper had 386 + 207. I couldn’t count that on my fingers if I had all day!
“Time’s up!” Mrs. Blaine walked down the aisles, collecting the tests. I had only one thing right on my paper for sure. It was my name.
3. Too Much Rain
I went to lunch in a grumpy mood. My friends noticed.
“¿Qué pasa?” Maria asked. “You never frown, Freddie.”
“Are you sad because of indoor recess?” Jason looked out the window at the pouring rain.
I didn’t tell my friends about my math grade. It was another secret in my life, like my super zapatos. Secrets aren’t easy. Sometimes Maria seemed suspicious when I disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Geraldo had noticed the flashing buttons on the purple wristband I wear to control my superpowers. And once, Jason saw me in my silver goggles. He told me I looked like a crime fighter—just what I want to be.
“Cheer up, Freddie.” Jason said. “We’ll have fun anyway.”
After we ate, we went back to the classroom to play with the stuff in Mrs. Blaine’s blue crates. Geraldo and Jason were excited because Mrs. Blaine had a new game. It was a money game. I’d never played it before. That’s why I didn’t say no when Maria asked me to be the banker. Big mistake.
“Freddie!” Geraldo complained. “You gave me the wrong change.”
Being the banker meant subtracting and adding in my head. I couldn’t do it fast, and I couldn’t do it right. For the first time ever, I was glad to see recess end.
“Don’t feel bad, Freddie,” Jason said as we picked up the game. “You tried your best.”
Everybody knows Jason as the kid who cried over broken pencils. All of a sudden, I wondered if that was fair. Jason hadn’t cried in school since last year.
“Thanks,” I told him. “You’re a good friend.”
The rain was still coming down at the end of the day. I didn’t have an umbrella, so I tied the hood on my sweatshirt. I put on my silver goggles too.
I headed for the stairs between Starwood Elementary and Starwood Park Apartments.
At the bottom, I saw a girl with a pink umbrella, carrying a pink lunch bag. Amy! Would she talk to me about the bullies? Maybe I could help.
OOPS!
Stopping short after going ninety miles an hour is a lot easier when the pavement is dry, not slippery from rain. Instead of just catching up with Amy, I slid into her.
“Sorry!” I said.
She wasn’t hurt, only wet and angry.
“You did that on purpose!”Amy said.
I picked up her dripping umbrella. It didn’t make Amy forgive me.
“Why won’t people leave me alone?” She stamped her foot in a puddle.
I looked at her face under the umbrella. She was wearing sunglasses in the pouring rain. Why?
It was a question I should have kept to myself. As soon as I asked it, Amy had one for me.
“Why are you wearing goggles?” She pointed at my face.
The answer had two parts. My silver goggles protected my eyes when I ran at super speed. They also made me feel like a hero. I couldn’t tell Amy either part. No one knew about my superpowered sneakers except Mr. Vaslov, my friend who’d invented them.
When I didn’t answer, Amy turned her pink umbrella around and ran away.
“Wait!” I called through the rain.
But she was gone in a flash, and my head was getting soaked. Maybe Mr. Vaslov knew Amy and could tell me more about her. He knew everybody at Starwood Park. Besides being the best inventor in the world, Mr. Vaslov was the man who took care of the buildings. On a rainy day like this, he was probably in his toolshed.
I knocked on Mr. Vaslov’s door. Before I could say anything, he had a question.
“Freddie, what are you doing out in the rain?”
4. Grown-Ups!
For some reason, grown-ups like kids to be dry, not wet. Mr. Vaslov spent way too much time wiping my head with a paper towel.
“You’re dripping everywhere,” he said.
Mr. Vaslov’s paper towel was strong like the TV commercials say, but it wasn’t too soft. I was glad when he felt I was dry enough for talking.
“Yes, I know Amy Escobar. Her family just moved here from Chicago.”
“She’s not very friendly,” I said.
“Why do you say that?” Mr. Vaslov picked up a tiny screwdriver and leaned over his worktable. He liked to talk and work at the same time.
“She won’t look at people,” I said.
“Maybe she’s shy,” Mr. Vaslov suggested.
Shy meant being scared. What was Amy scared of? I asked Mr. Vaslov if he knew.
“Does it matter?” Mr. Vaslov answered. “You can still be nice to her.”
I watched Mr. Vaslov unscrew a metal box and take measurements with a tiny ruler. One day, I wanted to be an inventor, just like Mr. Vaslov. I dreamed of making a backpack with a jet engine or a time travel machine. At least until I saw him write numbers on a pad of paper.
“Do you need math to make inventions?” I asked.
“Math helps,” Mr. Vaslov answered. “Scientists use it all the time.”
“Then I’m in BIG trouble!”
Mr. Vaslov put down his screwdriver. “What’s wrong, Freddie?”
“Too many things need math!” My voice was loud. Mr. Vaslov blinked.
“I can’t play board games. I can’t make a time machine! And now my report card is going to get even worse!”
“Why is that?” Mr. Vaslov asked quietly.
I tried to explain in a softer voice. “Right now, my report card has four main parts. I get B’s or better in everything except math. But if science needs math, too, then soon I will have two bad grades—half of my report card!”
“Mmm,” Mr. Vaslov said. “How do you know it’s half?”
“Because half of four is two,” I said.
“Are you sure?” Mr. Vaslov asked.
I counted on my fingers. Yes, I was sure.
Mr. Vaslov had another question for me. “Have you talked to anyone at school about this?”
“Way too much!” I complained. “Mrs. Blaine called in a special teacher to give me a long test. It was really hard.”
Mr. Vaslov patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Freddie. Other kids have trouble in math. They get extra practice, and things work out.”
Extra practice? That didn’t sound fun.
Mr. Vaslov checked his watch. “Better go home, Freddie. Your mom must be wondering where you are.”
“No.” I sighed. “Mom is wondering how I did on my math test.”
“Be brave, Freddie.” Mr. Vaslov opened the door to the toolshed for me.
It was still raining. Too bad. It was the one time I wanted to go slow, but if I did, I’d get drenched.
Just like I thought, Mom was at the door, waiting for me.
“Freddie! ¡Tengo buenas noticias!” She clapped her hands. “Mrs. Blaine called!”
When a teacher calls, it’s bad news, not good news. Mom was confused.
“She has a great idea for you,” Mom explained. “Extra math practice!”
That’s what Mr. Vaslov said. Now I had three grown-ups who wanted me to do the same thing. Why did they think it would help?
Mom continued. “Mrs. Blaine says that some students need more time to understand math. She has helped me set up after-school lessons for you with Mr. Newton in Room 12.”
Room 12? That was Amy and Gio’s classroom in the first-grade hall. What would Geraldo and Maria say? They complained when I made mistakes as banker in the money game. Would they tease me for having to go back to first-grade math?
5. Playground Ghost
The rain was over the next morning. My math problems weren’t. Amy’s problems weren’t over either. The same kids were teasing her by the swings on the playground. This time, they had pulled off her sunglasses.
“Give them back!” she screamed.
A taller boy was waving the sunglasses over Amy’s head. She jumped to grab them. When that didn’t work, she covered her eyes and ran off.
The boys laughed. Too mean! They shouldn’t get away with that.
I swiped the glasses right out of the taller boy’s hand. He didn’t see anything except a puff of smoke.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Does the playground have a ghost?”
Freddie Ramos Adds It All Up Page 1