Andy Shane and the Queen of Egypt Read online




  Chapter 1

  I Am the Queen

  Chapter 2

  Pineapple Pyramids

  Chapter 3

  Walk Like an Egyptian

  Chapter 4

  A Team

  Andy Shane parked his bike and shifted the weight in his backpack. “Let’s meet by the tree when the clock says three,” he said.

  “I will ride my bike, or we will have to hike,” said Granny Webb.

  Granny and Andy had been talking in rhymes all morning. It was hard to stop once you got started.

  “Oh, wait!” said Granny.

  “Don’t be late,” said Andy, waving good-bye.

  “No, really,” called Granny Webb. “I have something for you.”

  Andy turned back to see what Granny was pulling from her pocket. Whatever it was appeared to be on the end of a long gold chain.

  “Oooh,” said Andy, moving closer. It was a dark green bug frozen in clear plastic. “A beetle!”

  “A scarab beetle!” said Granny.

  “Is this Egyptian?” asked Andy.

  Andy knew that the scarab beetle was important to the people of ancient Egypt.

  “I think so,” said Granny Webb, handing it to Andy. “I knew you were thinking about African countries last night, and a memory of it popped into my head while I was heading off to bed!”

  Andy laughed at Granny’s rhyme. “Thanks,” he said, and he headed into school.

  “What do you think of my new sandals, Andy Shane?” asked Dolores Starbuckle as they sat down at their desks.

  “Cool,” said Andy.

  “I made them myself with milk cartons and glitter,” said Dolores.

  Andy noticed that Dolores Starbuckle was particularly fancy this morning.

  “I hope each of you has chosen an African country,” said Ms. Janice. “We need to get ready for the school Culture Fair.”

  Dolores Starbuckle sat up as tall as she could.

  “Polly,” said Ms. Janice with her pen in the air, ready to write, “what country would you like to learn about?”

  “Kenya,” said Polly. “My uncle went to Kenya.”

  Kenya was a large country with deserts and rain forests. Andy had almost chosen Kenya.

  “Ahmed?” asked Ms. Janice.

  “The Gambia.”

  Ms. Janice told the class that The Gambia was a small farming country. Andy thought he might like to be a farmer one day.

  “Andy Shane?”

  Andy touched his pocket. “Egypt,” he said softly.

  “I’m sorry, Andy,” said Ms. Janice. “I didn’t hear you.”

  “I think he said Ethiopia,” said Dolores. She was always trying to be helpful.

  “Is that right, Andy?” asked Ms. Janice.

  Andy shook his head.

  “Do you mean Nigeria, Andy Shane?” said Dolores. “I think you mean Ni-geeeeee-ria.”

  “Egypt,” Andy said more loudly.

  “But you can’t choose Egypt,” said Dolores, springing out of her seat. “I’m wearing my white Egyptian clothes and my gold jewelry. I even made sandals. I am the QUEEN of Egypt.”

  The class laughed.

  Andy slumped down on his desk. Why did Dolores Starbuckle always insist on getting what she wanted?

  But he couldn’t argue with her — not in front of the whole class!

  Andy knew everyone was waiting for his answer. He wished he could disappear altogether.

  “We’ll work this out later,” said Ms. Janice. She finished calling on the children. Then she told the class to line up for a visit to the library, where they could begin their research. “Andy Shane,” she said, “you’re line leader.”

  Dolores stood in front of Andy. “Andy Shane, you know I loooove Egypt!” she said. “I even have a model of a sphinx!”

  “What’s a sphinx?” asked Polly.

  “A statue. Mine has a lion’s body with a bird’s head,” said Dolores.

  “Weird,” said Polly.

  “But I have this,” said Andy. He pulled out the beetle.

  “Oooh,” said Dolores, admiring the necklace. She sighed a long, deep sigh. Then her face brightened. “Can we work together, Andy Shane?”

  Andy didn’t know what to say. He liked to take his time with ideas, see how they felt. And right now, he did not feel like giving Dolores her way. “I’ll think about it,” he said.

  That night, like every Tuesday night when her father and mother went to choir practice, Dolores ate dinner with Andy Shane and Granny Webb.

  Andy was on the kitchen floor coloring a picture of a sphinx when Dolores arrived.

  “I wish I could draw like you,” said Dolores.

  Andy looked up to say thanks, but Dolores was already busy tying on her favorite Granny Webb apron — the one with the big pockets. She hopped up on the stool near the counter.

  Granny Webb was emptying chunks of pineapple from a can into a bowl.

  “I’ll do that, Granny Webb,” said Dolores. “I like to be helpful.”

  Granny Webb smiled and handed Dolores the can.

  “Wow!” said Dolores. “I never noticed that before.”

  Andy wanted to say, “Noticed what?” But Dolores went right on talking.

  “May I serve the pineapple pizza tonight? Please?” asked Dolores.

  “Well, it’s Andy’s turn to set the table, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind some help. Isn’t that right, Andy?”

  “Sure,” said Andy.

  After Granny took the pizza from the oven and let it cool, Dolores carefully arranged slices on each plate. Then she stood back and admired her work.

  “My, my, my,” said Granny Webb.

  Andy came over to see what the fuss was about. “What is this?” he asked.

  “Why, Andy,” said Granny, “it’s pineapple pizza. One of your favorites.”

  “But how come the pineapple is all piled up on the side of the plate?” asked Andy.

  “Don’t you see?” said Dolores. “The pineapple chunks are little bricks. I made you a pineapple pyramid!”

  “But how come the pizza has bald spots?” said Andy, pointing to his plate. “The pizza and the pineapple are supposed to be together!”

  “Think about it, Andy Shane,” said Dolores. “The most popular booths at the Culture Fair always have food samples. If we work together on the project, I can make lots and lots of pineapple pyramids! We’ll be a huge hit!”

  “Oh, brother,” said Andy.

  Andy knew that Dolores was looking at him while he ate, hoping he’d cave in and say they could work together. But the only thing that caved in that night was his pineapple pyramid.

  When Andy walked into his classroom the next day, he noticed two things. Number one, Ms. Janice’s big yellow bag with orange flowers on it was not beside her desk. And number two, in the center of Ms. Janice’s desk was a giant stack of paper. This could mean only one thing.

  Andy Shane looked at Dolores.

  Dolores Starbuckle nodded.

  They were having a substitute teacher.

  Sure enough, a tall man came into the room, explained that Ms. Janice was not feeling well, and handed out work sheets.

  Andy finished all the math problems on the page. Then he began drawing pictures of baseballs and baseball bats all around the edge of his paper. According to Andy Shane, today was the best day of the year. It was the first day of T-ball!

  Dolores cleared her throat.

  Andy looked up to see what she was doing.

  She was writing their names in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

  Andy pretended he didn’t see.

  The tall man handed out a second set of work sheets, and then a third. When Dolore
s had finished her third paper, she asked the substitute teacher if they could make get-well cards for Ms. Janice.

  “A wonderful suggestion!” said the substitute.

  Andy Shane reached into his desk to find his crayons. He pulled out his action figure of Giraffe Man.

  “Hey!” he cried. His Giraffe Man was wrapped up in toilet paper.

  “Doesn’t he make a great mummy?” asked Dolores.

  “Ugh!” said Andy. After he finished his card, he would draw a sign for his desk that read No Trespassing.

  That evening, Andy’s coach asked Andy to play right field. In T-ball, you have to have a strong arm to play right field.

  Andy Shane looked at the bleachers to locate Granny Webb. Sitting next to Granny was Dolores Starbuckle. Andy Shane couldn’t help noticing that she was still wearing her fancy Egyptian clothes.

  Both teams had batters that had no trouble hitting the ball off the tee. By the final inning, the score was tied. A girl known as Slugger was up next. Andy adjusted his cap and backed up. He would be ready.

  Suddenly, music blared from the stands. Dolores was standing on the top bleacher. Only she wasn’t just standing. She was dancing. She was dancing to a song called “Walk Like an Egyptian.”

  Andy knew that Dolores loved this song. She loved showing others how she could walk like an Egyptian along with the music. She strutted and turned, strutted and turned.

  People in the stands applauded.

  But Slugger wasn’t watching Dolores. She got into position, pulled back the bat, and popped that ball into right field.

  “Catch it, Andy!” yelled Granny Webb.

  But Andy didn’t catch it. He was too busy watching Dolores. So were the other kids in the outfield.

  The ball rolled past Andy and hit the back fence.

  Slugger scored a home run, and her team won the game.

  Andy Shane would not even look at Dolores when he came off the field.

  At that moment, she was not the queen of anything.

  That night Andy couldn’t get to sleep. First, he couldn’t believe he had missed the ball and lost the game.

  Second, he knew that tomorrow he had to stand up and tell the class his plans for the Culture Fair. Whenever Andy had to speak to the whole class, he felt as if his throat took a dive and hid somewhere deep in his stomach.

  “Here’s a ‘sorry’ note,” said Dolores as Andy walked through the classroom door. It was in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

  “Do you want me to read it to you?” asked Dolores.

  “No,” Andy said. He didn’t even try to read it. He just stuffed it into his pocket.

  Later, when the class was painting an enormous map of the continent of Africa, Dolores handed Andy the paintbrush with the blue handle. Everyone in Ms. Janice’s class knew that the brush with the blue handle was the biggest and the best of all.

  “No, thanks,” said Andy. He didn’t even look at Dolores when he spoke.

  When the painting was finished, Ms. Janice asked each student to come to the front of the room and give a report on his or her Culture Day plans.

  Peter went first. He showed the class pictures of masks from Mali. “I’m going to make a mask,” he said.

  Polly showed the class a mobile she was working on. Hanging from the mobile were pictures of the desert, the forest, the seashore, and a big city. All of these places were in Kenya.

  “Andy, show us what you’ve done,” said Ms. Janice.

  Andy walked to the front of the room. He began to speak but realized he had nothing in his hands. Peter had shown something. Polly had shown something. What should he do?

  “I want —” Andy paused. “I want . . .”

  “Your mummy!” said Dolores.

  Everyone laughed.

  Dolores reached into Andy’s desk and took out Giraffe Man. She handed him to Andy.

  “Oooh,” the students said.

  Andy Shane held the mummy action figure but still looked as if he didn’t know what to say.

  Dolores waved her hands from the back of the room to get his attention.

  She made her hands go around her neck, like a necklace.

  “I have a necklace,” said Andy, “that has a scarab beetle on it. People in ancient Egypt believed that the scarab-beetle god pushed the sun across the sky. And . . .”

  “Yes, Andy?” said Ms. Janice.

  Dolores made her hands and face look like the sphinx that Andy had drawn at home.

  “Oh, I made a picture of a sphinx,” said Andy.

  “You should see Andy’s picture, Ms. Janice,” said Dolores. “It came out really well!”

  Andy could feel his face getting warmer, but he was happy. He took a big breath and sat down.

  “Thank you, Andy,” said Ms. Janice. “Dolores, why don’t you come up and tell us about the country you’ve chosen.”

  Dolores walked to the front of the room.

  She pointed to the map the children had painted and said, “I’ve chosen the teeny tiny country of Togo, which is —”

  “No!” shouted Andy.

  All eyes turned to him.

  “Andy?” said Ms. Janice.

  Andy stood up. “Dolores and I are going to work together — on Egypt.”

  “Really?” asked Dolores.

  Andy nodded.

  “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Andy Shane!”

  For a minute, Andy was afraid Dolores was going to hug him. Or she was going to strut back and forth doing her Egyptian dance. Instead, she simply wiggled her toes in her Egyptian sandals and smiled.

  “Wonderful,” said Ms. Janice.

  Andy smiled back. There was no doubt about it. He and Dolores Starbuckle, the Queen of Egypt, would make a great team.

  Jennifer Richard Jacobson is the author of all six Andy Shane adventures and the middle-grade novels Small as an Elephant and Paper Things. About Andy Shane and the Queen of Egypt, she says, “Andy Shane likes to mull things over, to see how a decision feels over time. Dolores Starbuckle, on the other hand, is passionate about her goals and knows that persistence pays off. I admire both of these qualities and love writing about this friendship that allows each of them to grow.” Jennifer Richard Jacobson lives in Maine.

  Abby Carter is the illustrator of many books for young readers, including Full House: An Invitation to Fractions by Dayle Ann Dodds. She says, “I always look forward to illustrating Andy Shane and Dolores Starbuckle. I love their contrasting personalities. They are so much fun to bring to life.” Abby Carter lives in Connecticut.

  Text copyright © 2008 by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

  Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Abby Carter

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  First electronic edition 2016

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Jacobson, Jennifer, date.

  Andy Shane and the Queen of Egypt / Jennifer Jacobson ; illustrated by Abby Carter.

  — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Andy Shane selects Egypt as the topic of his first-ever Culture Fair project, but the very bossy Dolores Starbuckle declares that she is the Queen of Egypt and does not give him a moment’s peace until he agrees to let her work with him.

  ISBN 978-0-7636-3211-3 (hardcover)

  [1. Cooperativeness — Fiction. 2. Schools — Fiction. 3. Bossiness — Fiction. 4. Behavior — Fiction.] I. Carter, Abby, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.J1529Amd 2008

  [E] — dc22 2007032003

  The illustrations in this book were done in black pencil and black watercolor wash.

  Candlewick Press

  99 Dover Street

  Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

  visit us at www.candlewick.com

 


 

  Jennifer Richard Jacobson, Andy Shane and the Queen of Egypt

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