Judy Moody Saves the World! Read Free Page A

never even heard of it? What if we don’t even know what it looks like?” said Judy.
    “That’s the fun of it,” said Mr. Todd. “Find out. Go to the library and look at books and magazines. Or search the Web at the computer lab. And this Thursday, we’ll be taking a class field trip to the museum, which should have information on all of your adopted animals.”
    “Big museum or little museum?” asked Frank.
    “Little,” said Mr. Todd. The class groaned.
    The big museum meant the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Or the one with all the planes. The little museum meant the science museum down the street. It had toy trains, plastic dinosaurs, and one-hundred-year-old pictures of Virginia stuff.
    “The best exhibit there is cobwebs,” Rocky said.
    When Thursday came, Judy wore her tiger-striped pajama pants to school in honor of the tiger beetle. At the museum, Mr. Todd introduced the class to the museum lady. “This is Ms. Stickley, and she’s going to tell us about endangered species in Virginia.”
    Ms. Stickley looked like a stick bug. Even her socks were brown.
    “Call me Stephanie,” said Ms. Stick Bug.
    “Class,” said Mr. Todd. “I expect you to give Stephanie your best third-grade listening ears.” Frank pretended to take off his ears and hand them to her. Judy cracked up.
    Ms. Stephanie Stick Bug took them on a tour of
Where the Wild Things Aren’t
. She showed them a real live Shenandoah salamander, a Virginia fringed mountain snail that looked extremely sluggy, and a stuffed flying squirrel glued to a board.
    “A flying squirrel! Is his name Rocky, like in
Rocky and Bullwinkle
?” asked Frank.
    “Yes,” said Ms. Stick Bug. “As a matter of fact it is.”
    “His name is Rocky, too!” said Frank, pointing at Rocky. “Hey, Rocky, you’re a squirrel!”
    “And you’re Bullwinkle!” said Rocky. “You’re a moose! Ha!”

    Judy was dying to ask Ms. Stick Bug a question. She raised her hand, holding it as straight as a shortnose sturgeon. At last, Stephanie called on her.
    “Do you have any northeast beach tiger beetles?” asked Judy.
    “No, I’m sorry we don’t,” said Stephanie. “Those
are
endangered in Virginia and that would be a good specimen for our collection.”
    What kind of endangered species museum did not have any northeast beach tiger beetles?
    “Do you have any cave isopods?” asked Jessica Smartypants Finch.
    “What’s an ice-o-pod?” asked Rocky.
    “An isopod is a crustacean like a sow bug,” answered Stephanie. “Think of it like a pill bug, or a wood louse. You’ll find those in Arachnid Hall.”
    “Ick! A louse is lice!” said Rocky.
    Judy still couldn’t see why they didn’t have any northeast beach tiger beetles. After all, they had a bunch of creepy crustaceans, licey isopods, and pillbuggy pests.
    Judy raised her hand again. She wanted to sound as smart as Jessica Finch.
    “Excuse me,” she said. “Do you have any two-toed sloths here? Tropical treehoppers? Nocturnal aye-ayes?”
    “We don’t have a rain forest exhibit,” said Ms. Stick Bug. “But it’s a great idea. Maybe someday.”
    The whole class got to touch an orange-foot pimpleback pearlymussel shell and hear a story about a Dismal Swamp shrew.
    “Everything in this whole place is endangered,” said Frank.
    “My grade in Science is endangered, too,” said Judy.

The very next morning, Judy started her own search for a real live northeast beach tiger beetle. Before school, she grabbed a peanut butter jar from the recycling bin and ran out into the backyard. She tapped on tree bark. She crawled through itchy grass. She peered down into the dirt.
    “Here, beetle, beetle,” called Judy. “Don’t be endangered.”

    She did not find one single beetle. All she found was an acorn hat, a slug, and a not-recycled candy wrapper.
    “Judy!” called her Dad. “What are you doing out there in your pajamas?”
    “Looking for a northeast beach tiger beetle,” said Judy. “They’re