Keena Ford and the Secret Journal Mix-Up Read Free Page A

did not need to bring our big reading books to the carpet. She said that instead of reading more fables, we were going to read something different. After we all went to the carpet, Ms. Campbell held up a book that said BIPPO AND PECKY on the front cover. There was a drawing of a big gray hippo and a little gray bird with a red beak and a yellow circle around its eye. Ms. Campbell told us to guess what the book was about. I raised my hand high, but Ms. Campbell called on a girl named Shay. “I think Pecky is the bird, and Bippo is the hippo, because Bippo rhymes with hippo,” Shay said.
    I stretched my hand VERY high so that Ms. Campbell would know I still wanted to say something. She said, “Yes, Keena?”
    â€œI think Bippo is the bird and Pecky is the hippo,” I said. “That is more funny than if Bippo is the hippo.” Some other people nodded and I heard someone say yes, that would be more funny. Somebody else shouted that no, it would be better for Bippo to be the hippo. Then a girl named Addy said she thought the hippo was going to eat the bird.

    I don’t think Ms. Campbell was happy that all those kids forgot to Raise Their Hands Before Speaking, because she made the quiet signal. The quiet signal is when Ms. Campbell puts one hand in the air and one finger over her lips, and then she makes her eyebrows go very close together so that she gets a wrinkle in the middle of her forehead. Ms. Campbell is not a very old lady, but she can make her face wrinkle in lots of different ways to show if she is happy or mad.
    When Ms. Campbell made the quiet signal, the rest of us stopped talking and made the signal too. Then Ms. Campbell started reading the story. And we found out that Bippo is the hippo and Pecky is the bird. I was disappointed, but I decided I would try to love the story anyway, and you know what? I did! It was funny. Bippo and Pecky played tricks on a bad zoo guy who was trying to get Bippo sent away.
    After Ms. Campbell finished reading the book, she told us she had a special announcement. She said that she read the story to us because someone very important from the story was coming to visit our class on Friday!
    â€œI think it’s Bippo!” Addy shouted.
    â€œBippo’s not REAL. It’s probably a different hippo,” Linny said to Addy. I started getting excited. I had never seen a hippo in real life except for in this game called Hungry Hungry Hippos where you make a plastic hippo’s mouth bang up and down so that marbles fly everywhere.
    Ms. Campbell made the quiet signal again, then she said that the author of the book was going to visit the second grade on Friday. The author is the guy who wrote the book, and his name is Bob Morgan. Ms. Campbell said we would do some special activities to get ready for Bob Morgan’s visit, like thinking up questions to ask him and writing about friendship and stuff like that. People started raising their hands like crazy to say questions they had for Bob Morgan, but Ms. Campbell said it was time for a bathroom break.
    I was in front of Tiffany in the line. I used to always try to be in the back of the line, but I don’t worry about that kind of stuff anymore because I’m too grown-up for that now. Also I made a famous man fall down some stairs the last time I tried to be in the back of the line. So when we went in the bathroom, I was supposed to go before Tiffany, but she said I had to let her go first.
    â€œThat’s not fair,” my friend Linny said. “Keena was in front of you.” I looked at Linny. Then I looked at Tiffany. Linny was being a good friend. I didn’t want to make her mad by having Tiffany tell her that I wrote mean stuff about her. So I just said, “It’s okay, Tiffany can go first. I don’t have to go that bad.”
    After the bathroom, it was writing time. I wasn’t sure what to tell Ms. Campbell about my journal. I wanted to say, “HELP, TIFFANY STOLE