Starring Jules (third grade debut) Read online

“Like a sitcom,” I say.

  Then we eat all kinds of desserts and act out the whole wax museum, taking turns pretending to be Charlotte without glasses until we practically fall down laughing.

  Finally, everyone is gone and we close up BLOOM and head home. We walk by a newsstand and Big Henry grabs my coat and screams my name. “Jules!” he yells at the top of his lungs again.

  “What?!” I yell back. The new kindergarten Big Henry is VERY demanding.

  But when I turn around he’s holding up a magazine, and Emma Saxony, the teenage megastar, is on the cover, and peeking out from a small box in the corner is a picture of me, Jules Bloom — Bloom, Jules — and it says: The Next Big Thing? I stare at it and my mouth hangs open.

  I hear my mom and dad and I definitely hear Grandma Gilda.

  “Eddie,” she says. “They got it just right, except for one thing.”

  “What?” I say.

  “There shouldn’t be a question mark on that picture,” she says. “That editor should be fired.”

  “What about me?” Big Henry asks.

  I put my arm around my little brother. “You’re already a big thing, Henry,” I say.

  “See that?” my dad says. “No script necessary.” I smile.

  Then we walk past a man blasting some rap music from a boom box and Big Henry just starts break-dancing, right there on the street. I get embarrassed for exactly one second before I shrug my shoulders and join him.

  A whole lot of people helped Jules make it all the way to her third grade debut. Starting with Jill Grinberg, whose support of Jules from day one was the best gift any writer could ask for. And Jenne Abramowitz for being Jules’s best after-school tutor and her constant cheerleader — with tremendous support from the one and only Abby McAden.

  To my incredible family — from my husband and kiddos all the way up to their aunts and uncles and crazy-supportive grandparents!

  Jules was brought to life in pen and ink and gouache by the marvelous Anne Keenan Higgins and her stylish imagination — many thanks, Anne!

  And then there are these friends — the rooting kind of friends who last well beyond third grade and those who — okay, maybe I didn’t know in third grade, but it sure feels like it. Without you — Rhonda Seidman, Denise Goldman, Alisa Schindler, Randi Goodman, Amy Flisser, Kim Lichtenstein, Lindsey Allen, Stacey Kaufman, Stephanie Bhagat, Marion Rosenbaum, Leigh Richards, Laura McMillan, and Diana Berrent — procrastinating would be a lot less fun!

  A special thank-you to the inspired third-grade teachers at Manorhaven Elementary School — because of Dr. Brevig, Mr. O’Brien, and Ms. Haut, I got to experience the Wax Museum from the inside out. Your creativity and dedication is remarkable — what a lucky bunch of kids!

  To the real Ms. Kim, kindergarten teacher extraordinaire, and the real Mrs. Noone — you really do light up the place, and we all know how you light up our kids and their reading eyes. Thank you!

  As always, many thanks to The Dolphin Bookshop and especially Vivian Moy.

  Finally, to my kids’ friends, who make me laugh and think really hard, thank you most of all.

  BETH AIN was raised in Allentown, PA, but fell in love with New York City first as a little girl after hot pretzels from a corner stand warmed her up on a cold winter day, and again later, right after she knocked the mirror off of a city bus with her U-Haul the day she moved in. The driver quickly forgave her and she quickly decided it was the greatest city on earth. She did eventually head for the hills of Port Washington, Long Island, where small-town life has no shortage of inspiration, and where she can see the Empire State Building on her morning run — making it pretty easy to imagine what Jules is up to over there.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Ain, Beth Levine, author.

  Starring Jules (third grade debut) / Beth Ain ; illustrated by Anne Keenan Higgins. pages cm. — (Starring Jules ; 4)

  Summary: Jules is starting third grade, but her new teacher seems a little strange, she has to choose and research a famous person for the class wax museum project, and rehearsals for the sitcom she is in are harder than ever — especially since the TV show is about to air.

  ISBN 978-0-545-44358-6

  1. Child actors — Juvenile fiction. 2. Situation comedies (Television programs) — Juvenile fiction. 3. Elementary schools — Juvenile fiction. 4. Families — New York (State) — New York — Juvenile fiction. 5. New York (N.Y.) — Juvenile fiction. [1. Actors and actresses — Fiction. 2. Television programs — Production and direction — Fiction. 3. Schools — Fiction. 4. Family life — Fiction. 5. New York (N.Y.) — Fiction.] I. Higgins, Anne Keenan, illustrator. II. Title. III. Title: Third grade debut.

  PZ7.A277Sv 2014

  813.6 — dc23

  2013040179

  Text copyright © 2014 by Beth Ain

  Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

  SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First printing, September 2014

  COVER ART BY ANNE KEENAN HIGGINS

  AUTHOR PHOTO BY DIANA BERRENT PHOTOGRAPHY

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-66291-8

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.