Ms. Coco Is Loco! Read Online Free Page B

will sleep upside down in trees,
    and elephants are the only creatures
    that have four knees.
    Clams start out as boys
    and become girls later,
    but crocodiles don’t become alligators!
    For dinner an aardvark
    will eat a termite,
    and cats can see better
    than humans at night.
    A hummingbird is the smallest bird
    and the only one that can fly backward.
    Did you know a camel has three eyelids,
    and mosquitoes don’t prefer to bite kids?
    A beaver can hold its breath for five minutes,
    and mackerels lay eggs
    almost without limits.
    You can hear a lion roar five miles away.
    Most ants are dead by their sixtieth day.
    A poor little owl can’t move its eye,
    and if it eats chocolate, a parrot will die.
    Did you know a walrus can get sunburned?
    These are a few of the things that I learned.
    You won’t see a dog or a cat
    with a beard,
    but animals, if you ask me,
    are weird.

    Ms. Coco read my poem, and she started laughing and crying at the same time and saying what a genius I was. Then she said she had to go show my poem to Mr. Klutz right away and ran out of the room.
    Well, Andrea’s face went all red like a fire engine.
    â€œThat’s not fair!” she yelled. “You stole all the facts I worked so hard to learn from my encyclopedia! I could have written that poem!”
    â€œSo why didn’t you?” I asked. “You snooze, you lose. Hey, that rhymes!”
    â€œI’m way more gifted and talented than you, Arlo,” Andrea complained. “I read the whole encyclopedia! You hate to read! Youhate poetry! You hate everything to do with learning! But Ms. Coco still likes you better than me. It’s not fair!”
    Ha-ha-ha! It was the greatest day of my life.

11
King of the School
    I was feeling great when I walked into the school store the next morning. I was bopping along with the iPod I bought on eBay with all the money I earned selling poems.
    It was the last day of April. I sold so many poems that I had more money than I could spend.
    â€œPencils for everyone!” I announced. “I’m buying!”
    Most of the kids in my class were in the store. I showed the guys my iPod.
    â€œThat’s cool!” said Neil the nude kid.
    â€œI’m glad you like it,” I said. “After all, you paid for it.”
    â€œWhere did you get that , Arlo?” asked Andrea. “You always say you don’t have any money.”
    â€œNone of your beeswax,” I told her.
    The bell rang and it was time to go to class. The girls went running off, and all the boys gathered around me.
    â€œI need one more poem, A.J.,” Michael said.

    â€œMe too,” said Ryan.
    â€œOne at a time, guys,” I said as I pulled some poems out of my notebook. “There are plenty to go around.”
    I gave them all poems and they gave me their lunch money. My pockets were so stuffed with coins that it was hard to walk! Man, I was gonna miss NationalPoetry Month.
    â€œWell, we did it!” Miss Daisy said as she collected our poems. “The students at Ella Mentry School wrote a thousand poems! This afternoon we’re going to have an assembly with a real live poet! Isn’t that exciting?”
    â€œYes!” yelled all the girls.
    â€œNo!” yelled all the boys.
    All morning I wasn’t thinking about the assembly, or math, or social studies. I was thinking about what I would buy next with the money I earned selling poems. Maybe I’d get a new skateboard or some cool posters for my room.
    It was hard to enjoy my lunch in thevomitorium that afternoon. Ryan and Michael and the other guys were staring at my food the whole time. I felt a little bad taking their lunch money, so I gave them some of my cookies.
    â€œLine up in single file,” Miss Daisy said when we got back from lunch. We walked to the all-purpose room for the assembly. Andrea and her annoyingfriends sat in the row behind me.

    After the whole school had arrived, Mr. Klutz got