Gooney Bird on the Map Read Free Page A

always liked to point out Antarctica). Once, Keiko had gone to this map with the pointer and shown the class Yokohama, the city in Japan that had at one time been her grandparents' home.
    They all knew how to find Italy, which was easy because it was shaped like a boot. And they had found Australia on the map when they had been talking about koala bears and kangaroos not long before.
    They could also find all of those things on the round globe that sat on top of the bookcase, near the hamster cage. But the pulleddown map was easier for the class to see. Now the children sat at their desks and looked carefully when Mrs. Pidgeon aimed the tip of the pointer at a faint line across the center of the map. As she moved it slowly back and forth, they could see that the line went all the way across, even through the blue of the oceans.
    "Equator!" called out Barry Tuckerman.
    "Correct, Whiz Kid!" said Mrs. Pidgeon.
    "It goes through Africa!" Ben pointed out.
    "And South America!" Tricia said loudly.
    "How come the USA doesn't get any piece of equator?" Tyrone grumbled. "No fair."
    "Well, the United States has a lot of other good things," Mrs. Pidgeon pointed out.
    "Yeah, it has Disney World!" Beanie said happily.
    "You'll have to wear dumb mouse ears," Malcolm said, but Beanie only grinned.
    "And it has Sugarbush, Vermont!" added Ben.
    "You'll freeze," Malcolm told him. "You'll get frostbite and your toes will turn black." But Ben just laughed.
    "It has Hawaii!" Barry Tuckerman shouted. "Fiftieth state in the United States! Capital: Honolulu! Wait'll you see pictures of me surfing!"
    "A shark will probably eat you," Malcolm said gloomily. "Or at least bite a leg off."
    "Goodness, Malcolm, what's wrong? Why are you so gloomy? Aren't you looking forward to vacation?" asked Mrs. Pidgeon.
    "No. We can't go anyplace because of the babies. Hey, I have an easy math problem. What if there are six people in a family, and three of them disappear?"
    Everyone groaned. The baby triplets at Malcolm's house did make life difficult for his family.
    "Maybe you could go to the park," Keiko suggested. "I know your mom has that huge stroller."
    "In February?" Malcolm asked. "The park in
February?
"
    "Well, maybe not," Keiko acknowledged.
    "Announcement!" said Gooney Bird loudly. She stood up. Everyone listened.
    "We all feel sorry for Malcolm because of those babies. But William Henry Harrison and his wife had ten children," Gooney Bird told the class in a serious voice. "That's spelled T-E-N.
Ten.
Moment of silence."

    The room was very still. Malcolm's expression brightened a little. The announcement had made him feel a little better.
    Mrs. Pidgeon let the world map go and it rolled itself up with a snap. Next she pulled down the map of the United States.
    "Well," she said, "I just wanted to point out how far different places are from the equator and why some are colder than others. You see that there are other lines across the map? Those are the latitude lines. Let's find Vermont, where Ben is going skiing on vacation."
    "Snowboarding," Ben corrected her.
    "It's up here, in the northeast United States." She pointed. Then she leaned forward and looked carefully. "The equator is zero degrees and Vermont is about forty-four degrees north of the equator.
    "Now let's find Hawaii, where Barry will be swimming."
    "Surfing!" said Barry loudly.
    Mrs. Pidgeon sighed. "Anyway, it's way over here to the west. See, beyond California, out in the Pacific Ocean?" She pointed and looked closely again. "Looks as if Hawaii is about eighteen degrees above the equator. Which is farther from zero, class: forty-four or eighteen?"
    "Forty-four," everyone agreed.
    "My dad is forty-four," Malcolm announced.
    "My mom is thirty-four," said Tricia.
    "My mom is—" Felicia Ann began.
    "Class?" said Mrs. Pidgeon. "You're right that forty-four is much farther from zero than eighteen. I wonder how much farther! I have a feeling we might have a math problem here. We need to do some