Write On! Read Free

fourth grade.
    “I could make up a guy who tells jokes that are so funny, all the wars in the world stop because the soldiers are laughing too hard to fight,” George said.
    “How about a story about a mom who has a hundred kids, and they start their own country?” Emma W. suggested.
    “Sounds like your house,” Mandy Banks teased.
    “We only have five kids,” Emma W. reminded her with a laugh.
    Everyone in class 4A was excited about the tall-tales project. They couldn’t wait to get started!

Chapter 4
    “Katie! Wait up!” Suzanne shouted as she spotted Katie leaving the school later that day.
    Katie stopped and turned around. “Hey, Suzanne!” she called. “What’s up?”
    Suzanne raced up to Katie. “My mom said we could borrow her digital camera—if we took the pictures at my house,” she said, taking a deep breath.
    Katie had no idea what Suzanne was talking about. “Huh?”
    “You know. The pictures ,” Suzanne said. “For our fashion website.”
    “You mean our fashion and animal-rights website,” Katie corrected her.
    Suzanne put her hands on her hips. “Whatever,” Suzanne said. “Anyway, why don’t we work at my house today?”
    “I can’t,” Katie told her. “I have homework to do.”
    “So do I,” Suzanne said. She made a face. “ Math . I’m in no hurry to get started.”
    “Well, I am,” Katie said. “Mr. G. wants us to write a tall tale. I have to work on it. It’s due on Thursday.”
    “Thursday?” Suzanne asked. “That’s not until the day after tomorrow.”
    “But I have to come up with a character and a story and . . .”
    “That won’t take you long,” Suzanne assured her. “You can do it tomorrow after your cooking class.”
    “I don’t know, Suzanne . . .” Katie began.
    Suzanne looked at her. “My mom said we could try making some of your vegetarian recipes in our kitchen,” she said. “Then we could take pictures of the food for the website. Just think of all the animals you could save if people ate vegetables.”

    Katie thought about that. It was an important thing for her to do. “Okay,” she said finally.
    The girls began to walk in the direction of Suzanne’s house. But before they could get very far, Katie stopped again. “Wait a minute,” she said suddenly. “I still have to read Only Orangutans Hang from Trees . If I don’t start today, I’ll never finish by Friday.”
    “You don’t have to,” Suzanne told her.
    “What do you mean? Of course I have to,” Katie replied. “Nellie Farrow is coming on Friday.”
    “So what?” Suzanne said. “She’ll never know if you read her book or not. We’ll just sit in the back of the room and be very quiet.”
    “But . . .”
    “Oh, come on, Katie,” Suzanne pleaded. “More people will check out our website than will ever read Nellie’s book. A website is more fun than a book any day.”
    Katie didn’t know if that was true. She loved reading books. And lots of other kids she knew did, too.
    Still, working on the website would be a lot more fun than doing homework. “Okay,” she said finally. “Let’s go to your house. I have a great recipe for vegetarian lasagna.”
    “Mmm . . . that sounds good. We’ll definitely do that,” Suzanne agreed. “After I model my outfits, of course.”
    Katie sighed. “Of course.”

    The next morning everyone in class 4A was buzzing about their tall tales. They all seemed to be having a great time writing stories about superhuman characters that did really hysterical things.
    Everyone but Katie , that is. She hadn’t even started her story yet. Not that she hadn’t tried. It was just that when she got home from Suzanne’s house, she had been really tired. Not one idea had popped into her head.

    So, when the other kids were all discussing their homework assignments, Katie just sat on her beanbag quietly. She couldn’t even talk about the website she and Suzanne were planning. So far, all they’d done was take pictures of Suzanne wearing