Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 Days Read Free

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    “Is it the Crayon Lady?” somebody asked.
    “Is that the visitor?” asked Bradley, pointing to Amy Namey. “She’s just a kid. From Ms. Valentine’s class.”

    “Class, I’d like you to meet Amy Namey,” said Mr. Todd. Some kids giggled when he said her name.
    Judy practically jumped out of her seat. “I already know her!” said Judy. “And we have three connections. One, her name rhymes, just like Judy Moody. Two, she likes Nellie Bly, Daredevil Reporter, the way I like Elizabeth Blackwell, First Woman Doctor. Three, she collects ABC gum.”
    “Thank you, Judy. I was about to say that some of you may know Amy from the other third-grade class, 3V, Ms. Valentine’s room.”
    “She lives on my street,” Alison S. told Mr. Todd.
    “I noticed your colorful glasses before,” said Jessica Finch.
    “Were you on our field trip to the emergency room?” asked Samantha.
    “Why are you always wearing that blue checked skirt?” asked Rocky.
    “Why do you have that plastic bread bag full of stuff?” asked Frank.
    “Let’s give Amy a chance,” said Mr. Todd. “She’s here to tell us about Nellie Bly, the daredevil reporter who went all the way around the world in seventy-two days.”
    “Did anybody ever see the movie Around the World in Eighty Days?” Amy asked. Only a few hands went up.
    “Nellie Bly was a woman reporter,” Amy continued. “She wrote stuff for newspapers. She read this book about Mr. Fogg. He was a made-up person who went around the world in eighty days. Nellie thought it would be cool for a real person to try to beat his record. So her newspaper sent her around the world. Another reporter found out and tried to beat her. But Nellie won the race. She went around the world in seventy-two days, six hours, eleven minutes, and fourteen seconds.”
    Amy Namey looked over at Mr. Todd.
    “You’re doing great!” said Mr. Todd.
    “Someday I want to be a reporter and travel around the world like Nellie Bly,” said Amy.
    “Why don’t you tell us how Nellie Bly got ready for her trip?” said Mr. Todd.
    “She only had three days to get ready to go around the whole entire world. And she could only take one small bag, the size of a loaf of bread.” Amy held up her loaf-of-bread bag.
    “Just think, class,” said Mr. Todd. “What if you had to go all the way around the world and you could only take what fits in this bag? What are some of the things you would take? Jessica?”
    “A camera.”
    “Judy?”
    “A Grouchy pencil.”
    “Bradley?”
    “Clean underwear.” Everybody cracked up.
    “Jessica again?”
    “My stuffed pig named Snuffles.”
    “Frank?”
    “A hamburger. And my pillow.”
    “Your pillow’s bigger than a loaf of bread,” said Bradley.
    “Rocky?”
    “I’d fill that whole bag with money!”

    “Amy, would you like to show us what’s in your bag?”
    “These are some things Nellie Bly had in her bag. Soap. Needle and thread. Pajamas. Slippers.”
    “No pillow?” asked Frank.
    “Underwear,” said Amy.
    “Told ya!” said Bradley.
    “Ink and pens and pencils.”
    “I called it!” said Judy.
    “Three hats, a cup, a raincoat —”
    “No way!” everybody exclaimed. Amy unfolded a tiny pouch, and it turned into a raincoat.
    “Whoa!” Everybody oohed and aahed.
    “And . . . her lucky thumb ring.”
    Holy macaroni! thought Judy. Lucky thumb ring! A lucky thumb ring was almost as good as a mood ring.
    “What about money?” asked Rocky.
    “She tied it in a little bag around her neck.”
    “What about clothes and stuff?” asked Jessica Finch.
    “She only wore one dress. It was blue plaid, like this skirt.” Amy Namey pointed to the skirt she was wearing.
    “What’s the stick for?” somebody asked. “Why’d she take a stick?”
    “When she got to a country called Yemen, she had to brush her teeth with a stick.”
    “I can’t believe there’s a country called Yeah Man!” said Frank.
    “And she saw camels and people riding