Gooney Bird and All Her Charms Read Online Free Page B

ball-and-socket hip joints allowed his legs to bend at the hips so that he could sit with ease on the cushion. Then Ben bent one leg at the knee joint so that Napoleon’s foot rested on the ground. Gently Tricia and Chelsea lifted his other leg, bent the knee, and rested his ankle across the opposite leg.
    â€œThat’s exactly how Mr. Leroy sits in that chair,” Mrs. Clancy said. “When I let him sit there,” she added. “When he doesn’t have a cup of coffee.”
    Napoleon’s spine leaned against the back of the chair, and each arm, bent at the elbow joint, rested on a wooden chair arm.
    â€œLook, Mrs. Pidgeon!” Malcolm stroked the long bone of Napoleon’s upper right arm. “Do you find this
humerus?
”
    Mrs. Pidgeon groaned at the joke. She had explained to the children that the human arm had this one oddly named bone. “Yes, very
humerus
, Malcolm,” she said with a laugh.
    â€œWe need to show him using his brain,” Gooney Bird said. “So he should be reading something
really hard
.”
    â€œHow about this?” the librarian asked. “It couldn’t be more appropriate. Mr. Furillo just returned it. He loves history, but he said this was pretty tough going.” She went to her desk, held up a book, and read the title aloud. “
The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
.”
    â€œHe wouldn’t be reading about
himself!
” Malcolm said loudly. “That’s dumb!”
    â€œBut, Malcolm,” Mrs. Pidgeon said, “if there were a book in this library called
Malcolm: The Difficult Life of an Eight-Year-Old Boy with Triplets at Home
, don’t you think you would read it?”
    â€œYeah, I guess,” Malcolm admitted.
    â€œWell, duh!” said Chelsea.
    â€œI always look up
Laysan albatross
when I come across a book about seabirds,” Gooney Bird said, “because you know what their
other
name is!”
    â€œGooney bird!” the second-graders all said, laughing.
    â€œI think we should let Napoleon read about himself,” Mrs. Pidgeon said. She took the thick book from Mrs. Clancy and looked at it. “Even though it is six hundred and four pages long!”
    Mrs. Pidgeon placed the book, open, on the skeleton’s lap. Beanie and Tricia carefully arranged Napoleon’s hands on the book.
    â€œLook,” said Beanie placing Napoleon’s thumb and forefinger around a page, “he’s just turning from page three forty-seven to three forty-eight.”
    â€œIt’s going to take him forever to finish that book!” Tyrone said.
    â€œMaybe he’s a really fast reader, like me!” Keiko suggested.
    â€œHe’d better be,” Gooney Bird said, “because he only gets a few days in the library. Then we have to move him to his next spot.”
    â€œWhat’s his next spot?” her classmates asked.
    â€œDepends what body part we study next. That’s up to Mrs. Pidgeon.”
    â€œWe still have work to do here, class,” Mrs. Pidgeon said. “We have to dress Napoleon in his brain-using outfit. Gooney Bird? You first.”
    Gooney Bird reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of glasses. Gooney Bird kept many pairs of glasses in her cubby. She bought them at yard sales. She didn’t
need
glasses—her vision was perfect, she said, 20/20—but she liked to wear them occasionally. She felt that they made her look interesting, intellectual, and sophisticated.
    The ones she had chosen for Napoleon’s stay in the library were large and round, with dark frames. Carefully she placed them over his eye sockets. “Too bad he doesn’t have ears or a nose,” she said. “That would help.” But she managed to adjust the glasses on the skull, and when she took her hands away, they balanced there.
    â€œMalcolm?” Gooney Bird said. “You’re next. That will help.”
    Malcolm came forward and held up his furry green