Chapter 1: The Bumpy Road
By Steve Brezenoff
I’m James Shoo, but everyone calls me Gum. One Friday morning my friends Cat, Edward, Sam, and I sat on the school bus, heading toward yet another field trip. This time we were off to the River City Natural History Museum in downtown River City.
Egg—that’s what we call Edward—loved to take photos. The roads downtown, though, were too bumpy to shoot. “I can’t even steady my camera enough to take a picture out the window,” he complained.
At a red light Anton Gutman strolled down the aisle. He should have been in his seat, but he’s a rule breaker. “Trying to take a photo of that billboard?” he asked smugly. The four of us looked out Egg’s window. High on the nearest building was a big sign with a person’s sleeping face lying on a pillow. In big blue letters the sign read, “Gutman Pillows—for the Best Night’s Sleep.”
“Yup,” Anton said. He grinned like a wolf. “That’s my mom’s new business. The Gutmans keep getting more famous.”
“Wow,” said Cat. “Are the pillows really comfy?” Cat’s the only one of the four of us who tries to be nice to Anton. I suppose that’s because she’s such a nice person in general.
“Of course they are,” Anton snapped. “Do you think my mom’s sign would lie?”
Cat smiled and shook her head.
The River City Natural History Museum looks like a castle made of brown stones. We’d all been there lots of times. River City kids visit the museum on field trips almost every year. When I was a little kid, the dinosaurs were cool. But now? It’s boring.
“Wow,” said a kid behind me as we got off the bus. “What an amazing building!”
I was surprised that the building was new to someone.
___
Adapted from The Dinosaur that Disappeared, by Steve Brezenoff, ©️ by Capstone. Reprinted with permission.
Scroll Down
Questions
Who is telling this story?
Cat, Edward, and Sam
James Shoo, better known as Gum
Anton and the famous wolf
A narrator who is not in the story