Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Planet Girl Read Free

you’re worried that you’re not being yourself. That’s usually the tricky part. Too much worrying, and not enough relaxing.”
    I thought about what she said. Maybe she was right. I had a history of trying to be the funniest, wackiest kid all the time. Maybe I tried a little too hard. Maybe Erica liked Timmy because he was just a typical kid. And Pete didn’t try to be obnoxious all the time—he just was obnoxious all the time. I guess Mareli liked that.
    I sighed.
    â€œOkay, fine. I guess I’ll check out a few pages.”
    Mrs. Reedy took the book, stamped a due date on it, and handed it back. I stared at it like it was a plate of fried slugs. Then I shoved it way in the bottom of my backpack, where no one could ever find it.
    Not even me.
    Â 
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    A Communication Guide for Boys and Girls
    13
    It is more impressive to whisper wisdom than it is to shout nonsense.
    *   *   *
    Many young people today feel like they must raise their voices to be heard. That is the opposite of the truth. Children of good manners will respond in a more positive fashion to those who speak in a measured tone, who feel no need to shout, because they’re confident in the value of what they’re saying.
    Remember that the importance of what you’re saying is not reflected in the volume of your voice.
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    4
    I read a few pages of the book.
    Then I read a few more.
    Then a few more.
    Before I knew it, I’d read practically ten pages.
    Which, um, is a lot for me.
    Hey, don’t laugh. It’s not like it was the first time I’d ever read a book or anything. I read a book at camp about a guy named Lech Walesa, who led a revolution and became president of Poland. He was cool and had an amazing mustache.
    And I read The Giving Tree when I was about six. I loved that book. It was really, really short. And good! But mostly short.

    This book was different than those two, though. A Communication Guide for Boys and Girls was one of those “how to be a better person” books that grown-ups were always reading. I wasn’t really all that interested in how to be a better person, to be honest with you. I was completely satisfied with the person I was. Except for the girls thing.
    So there I was, in the way, way back of the library, trying to get through the second chapter—Shy Is Not a Dirty Word—when I felt someone breathing over my shoulder. I turned around, and Emory was standing there. Emory was the kid from California who had swooped in and asked Eliza Collins to go out with him, even though the new kid asking out the prettiest girl breaks pretty much every rule in the middle school handbook.
    The last thing I wanted was for him to see me reading a book on how to talk to girls—especially a chapter on shyness.
    I stuffed the book into my backpack.
    â€œWhat are you reading?” Emory asked.
    â€œSome boring book.”
    Emory raised his eyebrows. “I heard you don’t read any books. Ever.”
    â€œI don’t. This is … to win a bet.”
    â€œDude, I don’t care if you read a whole library of books,” he said. “I got other things on my mind.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œNah, I don’t want to bother you with it,” Emory said, even though he was pulling up a chair as he said it.
    â€œIt’s cool.” I was happy to hear about another guy’s problems. It would probably make me feel a little better.
    â€œThis Eliza thing … it’s freaking me out a little bit.”
    â€œHuh? What Eliza thing?”
    Emory sighed a long, stressed-out, it’s-hard-going-out-with-the-pretty-girl sigh. “Well, ever since we became boyfriend and girlfriend, it’s like she’s doing me this big favor,” he explained. “I have to agree with everything she says, I have to laugh at all her jokes even when they’re not that funny, she’s the one who decides when and where