From Alice to Zen and Everyone in Between (Exceptional Reading & Language Arts Titles for Intermediate) PDF
Preview From Alice to Zen and Everyone in Between (Exceptional Reading & Language Arts Titles for Intermediate)
Alice would rather play soccer than go to the mall. Zen would rather read fashion magazines than play soccer. At first, Alice doesn’t mind that she isn’t just like Haley and Yvette, the reigning princesses of her new middle school. Then she realizes that being different can set you apart... ...and being friends with a boy like Zen can set you way apart. Why does being yourself have to be so complicated? t CAROLRHODA BOOKS MINNEAPOLIS • NEW YORK Copyright ©2008 by Elizabeth Atkinson Front cover photograph copyright ©2008 Todd Strand/Independent Picture Service All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review. Carolrhoda Books A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. 241 First Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A. Website address: www.lernerbooks.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Atkinson, Elizabeth. From Alice to Zen and everyone in between : a novel / by Elizabeth Atkinson. p. cm. Summary: Upon moving from Boston to the suburbs, eleven-year-old tomboy Alice meets Zen, a very strange neighbor who is determined to help her become popular when they both begin middle school, although he himself is a loner. ISBN-13: 978–0–8225–7271–8 (hardcover : alk. paper) [1. Popularity—Fiction. 2. Middle schools—Fiction. 3. Neighbors— Fiction. 4. Eccentrics and eccentricities—Fiction. 5. Moving, Household— Fiction. 6. Family life—Massachusetts—Fiction. 7. Massachusetts— Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.A86373Fro 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2007009659 Manufactured in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 – BP – 13 12 11 10 09 08 eISBN-13: 978-0-7613-3982-3 For Nate and Madeline THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Chapter One “Breakfast, Alice Bunt!” My father, Jim Bunt, called me from the kitchen of our brand-new, 3,500-square-foot white colonial house. It was our first morning waking up in the suburbs. “Breakfast, Sophie Bunt!” Now he was calling my mother, who had to make the 7:30 train into Boston. She was the vice president of marketing at the largest book publisher in New England. “Breakfast, Einstein and Yaz Bunt!” Those two were my dog and cat. Einstein was sup- posedly the smartest pug puppy his breeder had ever sold. And my tabby cat was named after my all-time fave baseball player, Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski. All four of us rushed down the wide stairs into the foyer through the long living room past the cathedral dining room and into the kitchen with its seven-foot 7 From Alice to Zen windows looking out over the half-acre lawn. Wow, our new house was enormous! You have to understand, for the past eleven years of my life—my whole life—we had lived in a small apart- ment in Boston. There was my teeny bedroom, one tiny bathroom, Mom and Pop’s little bedroom, and one large everything room. That was it. We did all our liv- ing in that large everything room: cooked, ate, played, talked, worked, and watched TV. “Smells delicious, dear,” remarked my mother as she sat at the head of the kitchen table. “How are the new appliances?” “Work like a charm!” Pop, beaming. Einstein and Yaz were happily gobbling up their morning chow. “Ooh, Pop, my fave!” I exclaimed. “Rocket waffles.” My dad was an expert at making waffles. His secret ingredient was powdered sugar. Once, when I was very young, he cut the waffles into the shape of a rocket to get me to try them. He’s been doing it ever since. Mom checked her watch, then slipped on her suit 8
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