Read Online How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes Are Untied by Jess Keating - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jess Keating
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as possible from all that stuff. Life at school depended on it.
chapter 6
âAll porcupines float in water.â
âAnimal Wisdom
How could they even find this out? Is someone out there dunking porcupines in water?
âMooommm!â I yelled into the kitchen. âCan I use some of the charcoal pencils in your office?â
âCHARCOAL IN THE OFFICE!â Darwin echoed me. He was out of his cage, playing with some pen caps on my desk.
Bella and I hadnât gotten very far in class on our art projects. We were too busy goofing off and checking everyone elseâs projects, so when I got back from the zoo (and showered the smell of crocs and hippos out of my hair), I decided to bury myself with paper and charcoal.
Mom yelled back, âYes, hun! Make sure you put them back where you found them! And no smudges or shavings everywhere! Clean up after!â
To be honest, I had no idea how to show my true self in an art project.
I pulled out the question sheet from class after getting some paper and charcoal set up on my desk.
Project Prompts: Who Do You Think You Are?
1. In order to know who you are now, it might help to remember who youâve been in the past. Think about your childhood. Does any memory bubble up in your mind? Tell me about it:
I thought about that for a moment. Then, I started scribbling in tiny letters. I knew exactly which memory Iâd pick:
When I was four or five, I brought Mom to school for show-and-tell in kindergarten. Iâd watched other people bring in their pets or photos from exotic trips where they fed parrots or monkeys, but Mom was cooler than any of those because she was my MOM, and she got to work with cool animals all day. Her safari hat and zoo uniform looked really good on her, and she brought in an iguana so everyone could learn about him. Everybody in class loved her, and I decided then that I wanted to be like her when I grew up.
I smiled at the memory. But my stomach twisted as I kept writing. It was like I was back in that tiny classroom, smelling the plastic chairs and cubbyholes.
I was so excited when she brought out the iguana that I wanted to help her, so she let me stand up beside her and talk to our class about him.
The pen shook in my hand. I hadnât thought about that day in years.
Only I couldnât remember what I wanted to say. All the facts about iguanas that I was so proud to know got scrambled up in my head. I wanted to turn back time, so that Iâd never stood up with her in the first place. So I could just sit and watch my mom like everyone else. Thatâs when it happened. Standing there in front of all those eyes, I couldnât tell Iâd had an accident until it was too late. Mom noticed right away and tried to pass it off as the iguanaâs fault, but Iâm pretty sure everyone knew. I sure did.
I scribbled out my paragraph with one angry slash. This wasnât helping at all. All it did was remind me how disappointed and embarrassed Iâd been. That was the first time I knew that what Mom did was something special. The first time I realized that no matter how hard I tried, Iâd never be as brave as her. I mean, sure. Mom said that it was totally normal for little kids and that Iâd probably just had a lot to drink and had been nervous, butâ¦
Angry at the memory, I grabbed some of the charcoal. How can memories come back so vividly like no time has passed at all? Ms. Fenton always says that your art will mean most to you if you feel some emotion while youâre making it. I tried to think about my favorite animals, ones that Iâve always loved from the zoo. Wolves for their howls, chimpanzees for their cute, pink ears, jellyfish for their long, scary tentacles. Sea horses, moose, grizzly bears, and parrots. And crocodiles. Iâve always loved their dark, beady eyes. Like they knew something I didnât. I drew them all with charcoal on individual sheets of paper as Darwin
chapter 6
âAll porcupines float in water.â
âAnimal Wisdom
How could they even find this out? Is someone out there dunking porcupines in water?
âMooommm!â I yelled into the kitchen. âCan I use some of the charcoal pencils in your office?â
âCHARCOAL IN THE OFFICE!â Darwin echoed me. He was out of his cage, playing with some pen caps on my desk.
Bella and I hadnât gotten very far in class on our art projects. We were too busy goofing off and checking everyone elseâs projects, so when I got back from the zoo (and showered the smell of crocs and hippos out of my hair), I decided to bury myself with paper and charcoal.
Mom yelled back, âYes, hun! Make sure you put them back where you found them! And no smudges or shavings everywhere! Clean up after!â
To be honest, I had no idea how to show my true self in an art project.
I pulled out the question sheet from class after getting some paper and charcoal set up on my desk.
Project Prompts: Who Do You Think You Are?
1. In order to know who you are now, it might help to remember who youâve been in the past. Think about your childhood. Does any memory bubble up in your mind? Tell me about it:
I thought about that for a moment. Then, I started scribbling in tiny letters. I knew exactly which memory Iâd pick:
When I was four or five, I brought Mom to school for show-and-tell in kindergarten. Iâd watched other people bring in their pets or photos from exotic trips where they fed parrots or monkeys, but Mom was cooler than any of those because she was my MOM, and she got to work with cool animals all day. Her safari hat and zoo uniform looked really good on her, and she brought in an iguana so everyone could learn about him. Everybody in class loved her, and I decided then that I wanted to be like her when I grew up.
I smiled at the memory. But my stomach twisted as I kept writing. It was like I was back in that tiny classroom, smelling the plastic chairs and cubbyholes.
I was so excited when she brought out the iguana that I wanted to help her, so she let me stand up beside her and talk to our class about him.
The pen shook in my hand. I hadnât thought about that day in years.
Only I couldnât remember what I wanted to say. All the facts about iguanas that I was so proud to know got scrambled up in my head. I wanted to turn back time, so that Iâd never stood up with her in the first place. So I could just sit and watch my mom like everyone else. Thatâs when it happened. Standing there in front of all those eyes, I couldnât tell Iâd had an accident until it was too late. Mom noticed right away and tried to pass it off as the iguanaâs fault, but Iâm pretty sure everyone knew. I sure did.
I scribbled out my paragraph with one angry slash. This wasnât helping at all. All it did was remind me how disappointed and embarrassed Iâd been. That was the first time I knew that what Mom did was something special. The first time I realized that no matter how hard I tried, Iâd never be as brave as her. I mean, sure. Mom said that it was totally normal for little kids and that Iâd probably just had a lot to drink and had been nervous, butâ¦
Angry at the memory, I grabbed some of the charcoal. How can memories come back so vividly like no time has passed at all? Ms. Fenton always says that your art will mean most to you if you feel some emotion while youâre making it. I tried to think about my favorite animals, ones that Iâve always loved from the zoo. Wolves for their howls, chimpanzees for their cute, pink ears, jellyfish for their long, scary tentacles. Sea horses, moose, grizzly bears, and parrots. And crocodiles. Iâve always loved their dark, beady eyes. Like they knew something I didnât. I drew them all with charcoal on individual sheets of paper as Darwin
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