4 Ch4-Shakespeare Was a Dumbhead

Chapter 4 Shakespeare Was a Dumbhead When I got to school the next day, there was a big NATIONAL POETRY MONTH tote board on the front lawn. It said the kids of Ella Mentry School wrote two hundred poems already! I didn't get it. I mean, I could see writ- ing lots of poems if we were going to get

a chocolate party or a video games night or something cool. But to have a poet visit our school? No thanks. After we pledged the allegiance, Miss Daisy said our homework for April was to write one poem every day. Ms. Coco was going to publish a

National Poetry Month book with some of our best poems in it. Isn't that exciting? Miss Daisy asked. Yes! yelled all the girls. No! yelled all the boys. Just the thought of writing something every day made me wrinkle up my nose like I smelled something bad. What's the matter, A.J.? asked Miss Daisy. I hate poetry, I said. Hate' is not a nice word, Miss Daisy said. You shouldn't say that. Then I strongly dislike poetry, I said. I despise poetry. I detest it. I loathe it. I That's enough, A.J., said Miss Daisy.

Just then, a poem popped into my brain: I hate poetry. Poetry is dumb. It's hard to write poems When you're chewing gum. Genius poems like that come into my brain all the time. I can't stop them! I guess that's why I'm in the gifted and talented program. I was going to think up another verse, but it was time for me and Andrea to go see Ms. Coco again. Arlo, did you know that camels have

three eyelids? Andrea said as we walked to the G and T room. And cats see six times better than humans at night. And all clams start out as males, but some of them become females later. Ugh. She must have finished the letter C in her encyclopedia. Any dumbhead knows that stuff, I said. When we got to Ms. Coco's room, she was crying again. Nobody had even read her a poem. I figured Ms. Coco's dog must have died or something. What's wrong? asked Andrea. When I woke up this morning, I saw the most beautiful sunrise, Ms. Coco

said. I don't know what came over me. It just made me want to cry. Man, that lady will cry over anything She's worse than Emily. What's so sad about a sunrise? I asked. Wouldn't a beautiful sunrise make you cry, A.J.? Ms. Coco asked. No, I said. A sunrise could make me cry, said Andrea, who always agrees with everything grown-ups say. I might cry if I woke up and the sun didn't rise, I said. Then the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. Ms. Coco started singing!