Excerpts

"I want everyone to enjoy a big piece of my Monday-morning surprise," Mrs. Kelly told the fourth-graders as she put plates on each of their desks. "It's monkey bread! And it's delicious." George Brown had never seen anything like this. It did not look delicious. It looked lumpy and brown. "Is this bread made from monkeys?" George asked nervously. Everyone in the class started laughing. "No," Mrs. Kelly assured him. "It's made from flour, cinnamon, and sugar. Many people bake monkey bread, but this is my grandmother's special recipe." "Why is it called monkey bread?" George asked. "I don't really know," Mrs. Kelly admitted. "But some people say monkey bread got its name because it resembles the bark of the monkey puzzle tree." "What's a monkey puzzle?" Max asked. "Is that like a jigsaw puzzle?" Mrs. Kelly walked over to her computer and posted a picture on the smart board. "This is a monkey puzzle tree," Mrs. Kelly said, pointing to the picture of a tall evergreen tree with grayish-brown bark. George looked at the picture. The tree didn't look very much like the brown lump on the plate in front of him. "Monkey bread's delicious, dude," said George's friend Alex. "Try it." George wasn't sure. But Alex had never lied to him. So George picked off a piece and took a bite. "Mmmm . . . ," George said. "That is good." "Told ya," Alex replied. He took a big bite of his monkey bread. "This has raisins in it," Sage said. "I've never had monkey bread with raisins before." "That's how my grandmother made it in the bakery she ran," Mrs. Kelly explained. "Wow, I wish my grandmother ran a bakery," George said. "Then I could get free cookies and cakes all the time." "I did," Mrs. Kelly said. "I was very lucky. Growing up, many of my relatives were in the food business. Like my great-uncle Edgar. He ran an ostrich farm. So I got free ostrich eggs. Those eggs were huge. You could make an omelet that would feed three people with . . ." George wanted to pay attention to what his teacher was saying. He really did. But he couldn't. He was too focused on what his belly was saying. Bing-bong. Ping-pong. George's tummy was making all kinds of noises. It was full of bubbles. Not just any kind of bubbles. Strong, crazy bubbles. The kind of bubbles that slam-danced against his stomach and boomeranged off his bladder. Bubbles that could cause a lot of trouble if they burst out of him. George had to keep himself from burping. Because if the burp got loose, there was no telling what horrible thing it would make him do. After all, the burp had gotten him in trouble plenty of times before. It all started when George and his family had moved to Beaver Brook. George's dad was in the army, and his family moved around a lot. So George knew that first days at school could be pretty rotten. But this first day was the rottenest. In his old school, George had been the class clown. But George had promised himself that things were going to be different at Edith B. Sugarman Elementary School. No more pranks. No more goofing on teachers when their backs were turned. Unfortunately, no one at George's new school even noticed the non-funny new kid. They acted like he was invisible. That night, George's parents took him out to Ernie's Ice Cream Emporium. While they were sitting outside and George was finishing his root beer float, a shooting star flashed across the sky. So George made a wish. I want to make kids laugh--but not get into trouble. Unfortunately, the star was gone before George could finish the wish. So only half came true--the first half. Excerpted from A Royal Pain in the Burp #15 by Nancy Krulik All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.