Carter Avery's Tricky Fourth-grade Year - Softcover

Buyea, Rob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593376218 ISBN 13: 9780593376218

Verlag: Random House Inc, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

From the author of the beloved MR. TERUPT series comes a story with surprising truths about a student no teacher would wish for, and a teacher no student would want to be stuck with.

No teacher has ever liked Carter Avery. So he doesn’t expect that Ms. Olivia Krane will be any different. In fact, he heard the rumor that the new teacher—nicknamed Owl-livia, or the Owl, for short—can twist her head all the way round to catch any kid who’s up to no good. And since Carter has a hard time sitting still and not blurting stuff out, he’s sure he’s in for rough times being sent to the principal’s office. Making things worse: annoying know-it-all Missy Gerber is in his class!

But the Owl knows just how to handle Carter’s energy, showing his classmates another side of him. Everything’s looking up until Carter finds out that some people would like to see Ms. Krane replaced. The news spurs him on a secret mission to save his teacher. Then a disruption, heated words with Missy, and trouble outside of school test Carter’s plan, heart, and courage, as he navigates an especially tricky school year.

With a stellar cast of characters, young and old, Rob Buyea pens another authentic story of life in and out of middle school, an experience not soon forgotten.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

ROB BUYEA is a former teacher and the author of the MR. TERUPT and PERFECT SCORE series, as well as two stand-alone novels: What Comes Next, and The Daredevils.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1


Meet Your Teacher Day


We had this big thing at Bates Elementary called Meet Your Teacher Day. It happened at the end of the year, with everyone gathered outside on the blacktop behind the school. I had my fingers crossed, hoping not to see Ms. Krane, ’cause if she really was pregnant, then she wouldn’t be teaching come September and I could stop worrying. I don’t think a pregnant lady can teach fourth grade.

I should’ve crossed my toes too. She was there--and she sure didn’t look like she had a baby on the way. Stupid rumor. I bet Missy Gerber started it. I kicked the ground. Then I quick double crossed all my fingers on both hands ’cause I needed all the luck I could get so that I didn’t get stuck with Ms. Krane.

Every class from kindergarten all the way to fifth grade had a designated area where we sat and hung out while the teachers huddled in the middle--all except for Ms. Krane. She stood by herself, kinda like me whenever we had to choose partners for anything. Me and Ms. Krane weren’t the same, though. No way.

Ms. Krane stood by herself ’cause she was mean. She was the meanest and nastiest teacher to ever step foot in a classroom. She was pretty old, I think like thirty-five or forty. She taught somewhere else before coming to Bates last month. Everyone said she got fired from her old school for being so mean.

She’d been hiding in the library ever since getting here, working as Ms. Beecher’s assistant. Ms. Krane was rarely spotted, but now she was coming out of hiding ’cause next year she was getting her own classroom--and I wanted no part of it. No one did, ’cause not only was she mean, she was scary-looking. And that was the truth.

Ms. Krane had this giant reddish-purple mark that covered the left side of her face, all the way from her chin up past her eye. She reminded me of a raccoon, except her first name was Olivia and all the kids called her Owl-ivia--or the Owl, for short--’cause she could twist her head all the way around like an owl, which meant you could never do anything sneaky behind her back and get away with it. If you tried, she’d see you and then you were a goner.

I was sitting by myself at my lunch table when I overheard Kyle Pattie telling his buddies what happened after he tried shoving a book back on the shelf in the library where it didn’t belong--which was Ms. Beecher’s big no-no, but everyone did it.

“ ‘That’s not how we do things here,’ a voice behind me whispered all creepy. I could feel her hot breath on the back of my neck!” Kyle exclaimed. “I spun around and there she was, looming over me. I swear, she came out of nowhere, and when I looked up at her face, she made her purple eye narrow. Then she pulled my book out of the wrong spot and said, ‘I’ll take care of it this time--but not the next.’ And she made that sound like a warning,” Kyle finished.

His wasn’t the only story I heard. There were others. If Ms. Krane could make the library scary, her classroom was gonna be the worst. I crossed my fingers super tight.

Here’s how this meet-your-teacher thing worked: Starting with first grade, each teacher stepped forward and read off the student names on their new roster. When your name was called, you got up and went and stood in line with your new teacher. Then you walked to your next year’s classroom with your next year’s class and spent the last half hour of the day meeting your new teacher and classmates. The kindergarten teachers stayed behind with the fifth graders on the blacktop ’cause the preschoolers weren’t here yet and the fifth graders were moving on to the middle school. So fourth grade was second to last--and that stunk ’cause I wasn’t very good at waiting.

When it was finally our turn, Ms. Krane was the first teacher to step forward, and all of third grade got real quiet. I held my breath and crossed my arms and legs and eyes. I had to do everything I could for extra good luck.

I wasn’t supposed to have to wait long to find out if I was doomed or not, but then the Owl started with the end of the alphabet first. By the time she got to the As, my face had gone from red to blue. But breathing too early would’ve been bad luck, like breathing when you drive by a graveyard. You should never do that.

Little twinkly stars began popping up in front of me. I got wobbly--but I didn’t breathe. And then Ms. Krane read the final name on her list.

“Carter Avery,” she hooted.

The kids in Ms. Krane’s line groaned and the ones still sitting near me on the blacktop sighed.

Normally I moved real fast. I was real good at running everywhere. The harder thing was sitting still. But I felt light-headed and dizzy.

“Carter Avery,” the Owl hooted again.

It wasn’t odd for teachers to call my name more than once, but I’d heard her the first time. I just needed a second to get air.

“Get in line, Carter,” Missy Gerber whined from her spot behind Ms. Krane.

With the Owl and Missy Gerber, I was getting a double dose of awful for fourth grade. “I’m coming!” I yelled. “And you’re not my boss.”

Controlling my outbursts was one of the things I was supposed to be working on. That and sitting still. I had a lot of improving left to do on both.

“Missy, would you please come to the front of the line,” Ms. Krane said.

I grinned. Now, that was unusual. Normally I was the one teachers called to the front. Missy glared at me and I stuck my tongue way out at her. That’s what she got for being a bossy pants.

I grabbed my bag and got in line. The kids ahead of me grumbled and complained, but I was used to hearing that stuff whenever I got stuck in a group.

So anyway, there we were, the teacher no kid wanted and the kid no teacher wanted. What a start.


2


Scarface


Ms. Krane puffed her chest and stood perfectly straight. Then she turned and marched us to her room. We walked single file and didn’t make a peep ’cause like I said, an owl can twist its head all the way around.

The fourth-grade classrooms were upstairs. They were the only ones there. You heard about them sometimes, but you never got to see them until you made it. Kinda like the Owl. I’d heard about her, but I’d never really seen her up close.

All that changed when she stopped outside our new room and spun around to stare at us. Ms. Krane was a taller, skinnier version of an owl with long hair. She wore these black pointy glasses that didn’t hide her purple scar, but they did give her scary triangle eyes, just like the great horned owl. She sized us up and got ready to give us our orders, but my words jumped out first.

“What happened to your face?” I blurted. Told you self-control was one of the things I was supposed to be working on. I was trying. Really. But I just couldn’t hold that in any longer.

Kids snickered. Missy Gerber gasped. “Carter!” she shrieked. “Ms. Krane, Carter doesn’t have a filter on his mouth. He’s sorry.”

“I appreciate your concern, Missy, but Carter can ask if he wants. I imagine he isn’t the only one wondering. He just happens to be the brave soul to speak it out loud.”

Ms. Krane zeroed her eyes back on me. “My face is covered by a birthmark called a port-wine stain,” she explained.

“I thought it was a scar,” I said, all confused. “That’s what I heard.”

...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Random House Inc
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593376218
• ISBN 13: 9780593376218
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland