Read Online The Secret Book Club by Ann M. Martin - Free Book Online Page A

causing Daisy Dear to let out a bark of alarm, the hackles rising on her back.
    â€œRuby, calm down,” said Flora. “Look what you made Daisy do.”
    â€œThe phone made her do that,” replied Ruby.
    â€œIt did not. She doesn’t bark every time the phone rings.”
    Ruby turned her back on Flora. “Hello?” she said into the receiver.
    Flora rolled her eyes and tried to remember if, when she was ten, a ringing telephone had inspired such commotion.
    â€œReally?” Ruby was saying. “Oh, goody! We’ll be right there. Thanks, Min. Bye!” Ruby clicked off thephone and turned to her sister. “They’re here! I mean, they’re at the store. Our next book club packages! I told Min we’d go get them.”
    Min Read was testing the waters with her granddaughters. “Giving them their independence,” Flora had heard her tell Mr. Pennington one evening. To that end, she now allowed the girls to be on their own every now and then, and Ruby was especially grateful. Flora, who actually enjoyed spending time at Needle and Thread, wasn’t grateful so much as she was pleased to be deemed responsible enough to take charge of Ruby (an arrangement of which Ruby was unaware).
    â€œCome on!” exclaimed Ruby. “Let’s go!”
    â€œAren’t you forgetting something?” asked Flora.
    Ruby glanced around the living room. King Comma was asleep on a chair. Daisy Dear was now sitting placidly on another chair. Both had eaten breakfast, and Ruby had recently walked Daisy.
    â€œNo,” said Ruby.
    Flora regarded her silently.
    â€œWhat?” cried Ruby.
    â€œDon’t you think we should call Olivia and Nikki and tell them about the packages, too?”
    â€œOh. Yeah.”
    Half an hour later, the four girls met at Needle and Thread, Nikki flushed from her long bicycle ride.
    â€œThis is so exciting!” said Nikki as the girls filed into the store.
    â€œYes. It’s very exciting,” said Olivia distantly.
    Flora studied Olivia for a moment but said nothing. Tanya’s party had taken place two days earlier, and Flora had seen little of Olivia since the planting of the vegetable garden.
    Ruby took the packages from the counter and carried them to Nikki, Olivia, and Flora, who were sitting on the couches at the front of the store. Olivia, Ruby noted, was sitting by herself; Nikki and Flora were seated together on the other couch. Ruby considered the situation, then decided that unless all three girls were to sit on the same couch, someone had to sit alone. Still … why was it Olivia? Ruby flopped herself down next to Olivia, sorted through the envelopes, and handed Olivia’s to her first.
    When each girl was holding her package, Flora said, “Okay, one, two, three … go!”
    In a flash, the packages were ripped open. Flora looked at the paperback book she had withdrawn. “ Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry ,” she said softly.
    â€œBy Mildred D. Taylor. I like the cover,” said Nikki, studying it.
    What Flora noticed first when she looked at the cover were the colors — oranges and browns, the colors of sunshine and earth.
    â€œI almost didn’t see the face,” said Ruby suddenly, noticing the somber face of a young girl. “It blends right into the background.”
    â€œNot the background,” said Flora. “The world, I think. The girl is immersed in her world. That’s Cassie, by the way. And Cassie and the earth and the air — they’re all connected, all part of one another. You’ll understand when you read the book.”
    â€œYou’ve already read it?” asked Olivia, sounding wounded.
    Flora shrugged. “Last year. It’s one of the best books ever. I’ll be happy to read it again. And you guys are going to love it.”
    â€œI like that we can talk about the cover even though we haven’t read the book yet,” mused Ruby.
    Flora