The Badger on the Wrong Page
Chapter 1A Striped Face
Frady drew a badger with a striped face on the first page of her animal booklet.
Morah had put instructions on the board. Each girl would make three pages: one about an animal's home, one about its food, and one about an interesting feature.
Beside the instructions were three sample drawings. A squirrel sat in a tree, a rabbit stood beside grass, and a badger peered over a rock.
Frady liked the badger best. She drew it carefully, then copied the little rock.
Only afterward did she read the first-page instruction again.
Chapter 2A Home That Was Not a Rock
The first page needed an animal's home.
Frady knew the rock was not the badger's home. It was only something in the picture.
She rubbed out the rock and drew a larger one. That was no better.
Across the table, Henna was writing about a rabbit's home.
"We have to start with the squirrel," Frady whispered.
Henna looked at the board. "Do we?"
"It is the first picture."
Henna raised her hand to ask Morah about her own sentence. Frady kept drawing.
Chapter 3Three Different Animals
On the second page, Frady drew the rabbit from the board.
On the third, she began the squirrel, because it was the only sample left.
Now her booklet had one badger, one rabbit, and half a squirrel.
She still did not know what to write under them.
Perhaps everybody else understood the instructions already. Asking would show that she had started without knowing.
Frady turned back to the first page and pressed the eraser against the badger's nose.
The nose became pale. The question did not become clearer.
Chapter 4Before Another Erasing
Morah stopped beside her table.
"Tell me about your animal."
"Which one?" Frady asked.
Morah looked at the pages.
Frady took a breath. "Are the sample animals the ones we have to do, in that order?"
"No. Those are examples of different kinds of information. You choose one animal for all three pages."
Frady stared at her rabbit.
"I thought they were the order."
"I can see how the pictures led you to that. Let us read each instruction together."
Chapter 5A Place for the Badger
Frady chose the badger. She still liked its striped face, even with the pale nose.
Morah showed her the class animal book so she could check where badgers live and what they eat, instead of guessing from the little drawing.
"This face belongs on the feature page," Frady said.
"Yes. You can move that page to the back."
She had not ruined the whole booklet. The carefully drawn animal already had a useful place.
The rabbit and squirrel pictures could stay in her drawing folder for another day.
Chapter 6The Words Underneath
Frady used the class book with Morah's help. She wrote a short sentence for each page, then checked that the sentence answered that page's instruction.
Henna leaned over to see the striped face.
"I like the nose."
"It used to be darker."
"It looks as if the badger has been sniffing something dusty."
Frady laughed and added a small dark line where it was needed.
This time she knew why she was making the change. She was not drawing another rock and hoping the question would go away.
Chapter 7The Booklet Table
Frady set her booklet on the table. Her first badger drawing was on the last page, where it belonged now.
Putting the instructions away, she noticed another word she was unsure about.
She asked Morah before guessing.
"Does this mean the cover, or the first inside page?"
