Read Online EllRay Jakes Is Not a Chicken by Sally Warner - Free Book Online

asks, sounding suspicious.
    â€œYou stay in line,” Dad tells Jared, Mom, and me. “I’ll take Alfie and go find a Minnie hat.”
    â€œNo, Warren,” Mom says. “We’ll all go with you. We have to stick together, or someone’s going to get lost.”
    But it’s Disneyland , I want to tell them as we get ready to lose our very good place in line. How bad could it be if a very-mature-for-his-age kid, like me, got lost? I could live here forever!
    â€œI have an idea, Louise,” Dad says. “I think EllRay and Jared can be on their own for a while, if they promise to stick together. We could try it for an hour, maybe, and see how it goes.”
    We get to be alone? In Disneyland? I can hardly believe what I am hearing!
    Even Jared is looking excited.
    â€œI don’t know,” Mom says, looking worried.
    â€œYou could lend EllRay your cell phone,” Dad suggests gently. “He’ll call me on my cell every fifteen minutes to check in.”
    I’d call every minute if he asked me to!
    Jared and I both hold our breath.
    â€œWell, okay,” Mom finally agrees as Alfie starts to tug her away from the line. “Here’s my phone, EllRay. Don’t lose it .”
    Mom’s cell phone is yellow, sparkly, and very girly, which is embarrassing, but I slip it into my deepest pocket and swap excited, happy glances with Jared, my temporary friend.
    â€œWe’ll meet here in exactly one hour,” Dad says, tapping his watch.
    â€œOkay,” I tell him.
    â€œOkay,” Jared mumbles happily.
    And we’re off!

    Being at Disneyland with Jared wasn’t so bad, I think sleepily on the way home. In fact, I don’t want to exaggerate or anything, but it was really, really fun.
    There were no wedgies, no playing keep-away, no knuckle-grinding, no nothing.
    And even though something bad will probably happen again next week, especially when the grown-ups hear about the fight at Eustace B. Pennypacker Memorial Park, a fight that to Jared and me is old news, things are okay for now.
    And that’s good enough for me!

WHAT HAPPENS TO ELLRAY IN HIS NEXT
ADVENTURE? TURN THE PAGE TO
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    Ellray Jakes
is a Rock Star!

MY CRYSTAL—CLEAR IDEA
    On Monday night before bed, as my mom is giving Alfie her usual three-towel bath, I wander into Dad’s home office to look around—because I kind of miss him.
    Also, I usually don’t get to go in there unless I’m in trouble.
    Even though almost anyone would think that being a geology professor is boring, my dad’s office is pretty cool. The wall opposite his desk is completely covered with wood shelves that are so narrow an apple would feel fat sitting there. All my dad’s favorite small rock specimens are on these shelves, and each one is carefully labeled. The rocks are from all over the world—Asia, South America, North America—and he collected each specimen himself.
    My dad has been everywhere .
    My favorite shelves are the ones nearest the window, because those hold the crystals. Dad put the crystals there so that sunlight will shine on them first thing in the morning. He says it’s a nice way to start the day.
    Crystals grow on or in rocks, and they are like diamonds, only better—because they’re much bigger, and they come in so many different colors: blue, green, red, orange, and yellow. Even the gray and brown crystals are awesome, not to mention the clear ones that are like ice that never melts.
    And crystals look like somebody carved them, only they grew that way! Nature was the carver.
    But my dad was the guy who collected them, and he has a story for each one.
    My dad’s rock specimens are like his life scrapbook, practically.
    I just wish some of the kids in my class could see them. Maybe then they’d stop bragging about their dads’ ATVs, and their money, and their solid gold jewelry, and how everything’s a contest that