Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit
Read Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit Online
Authors: Paula Danziger
AMBER BROWN IS IN HOT WATER.
“Can I do extra credit?”
She shakes her head. “In this case, you may not. Extra credit’s reserved for people who have tried their best and need an extra boost, or for people who are already doing their best and want to do more. YOU are not in either of those categories.”
She closes her marking book. “You have a chance to bring up your grade. Just make sure you turn in all of your missing work.”
I take the list of missing assignments that she hands me.
She continues. “Tomorrow, the class will be given a major project. Do well on it. I can’t emphasize this highly enough. It will help bring up your grade for the marking period and will show me that you’re serious about doing well.”
I nod.
I, Amber Brown, may not be serious about a lot of things, but I am serious about this.
Read all the Amber Brown books!
Amber Brown Goes Fourth
Amber Brown Is Feeling Blue
Amber Brown Is Green with Envy
Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon
Amber Brown Is Tickled Pink
Amber Brown Sees Red
Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit
Forever Amber Brown
I, Amber Brown
You Can’t Eat Your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown
Paula Danziger
AMBER BROWN
WANTS EXTRA CREDIT
Illustrated by Tony Ross
PUFFIN BOOKS
An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Acknowledgments
To everyone at the American School of
London—especially some of the most
terrific fourth graders ever (1994-95)
To Bruce Coville—for listening
To the Evans family—Gill, Greg, Dan, and Isobel
PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in the United States of America by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 1996
Published by Puffin Books, a member of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2008
Copyright © Paula Danziger, 1996
Illustrations copyright © Tony Ross, 1996
All rights reserved
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS EDITION AS FOLLOWS
:
Danziger, Paula, 1944-2004
Amber Brown wants extra credit / by Paula Danziger.
p. cm.
Summary: Unhappy over her parents’ divorce and her mother’s boyfriend Max, nine-year-old Amber finds her schoolwork suffering.
Puffin Books ISBN: 978-1-101-66063-8
[1. Divorce—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction.]
I. Ross, Tony, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.D2394At 1996
[Fic]—dc20 95-586 CIP AC
Puffin Books ISBN 978-0-14-241049-3
Book design by Donna Mark.
Lettering by David Gatti.
Text set in Bembo.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
To Ben Danziger
Your book, with love from Aunt
Table of Contents
One
AMBERINO CERTIFICATES
I, Amber Brown, being of sound mind and no money (I spent it all on a book, a computer game, and some junk food), do hereby give my mother five Amberino Certificates for her birthday.
Amberino Certificates allow The Mother (Sarah Thompson) to ask her beloved only child (Amber Brown) to grant her five wishes . . . . Just remember, these have to be wishes that I can actually do . . . . not stuff
like move the Empire State Building or eat spinach or find the cure for dandruff (not that you have it or anything). Just remember, I’m just a nine-year-old kid, so make the wishes doable . . . but then you always do!!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND LOVE FROM
Two
I, Amber Brown, am being held captive by a madwoman.
That madwoman is my mother, and she’s very mad at me for having a messy room.
She’s also very mad at me because my teacher, Mrs. Holt, sent home a note saying that I’m “not working up to the best of [my] ability.”
My mother is very, very mad at me because of the note. Actually what she said is that what she’s very angry about is the reason for the note . . . . me not doing my schoolwork the way I should.
Now I’m supposed to be a perfect little student.
And she’s using one of the Amberino Certificates to make me clean up my room.
She says that I can’t leave my room until it’s “neat as a pin.”
How can a room be neat as a pin? Does a pin have a bed in it—a dresser, curtains, a person living in it?
The words “neat as a pin” are the second-silliest thing I’ve ever heard.
The first-silliest thing is expecting me to have a neat room.
I wish I never gave her those Amberino Certificates for her birthday.
Doesn’t she know that if my room is neat, I can’t find anything?
It makes me nervous if everything is too organized.
She never used to mind that my room wasn’t neat.
She never used the Amberinos to make me clean it up.
The telephone rings.
I rush out to answer it.
My mother gets to it first, picks it up, and listens.
Then she says, “Brandi, I’m sorry, Amber can’t come to the phone. . . . .”
“I’m at the phone . . . . I don’t have to come to the phone.” I pull on my mother’s sleeve.
My mother points her finger at my room. “Back, Amber . . . . I’m serious. You have to clean your room before you do anything else.”