07 The Mighty Fourth-Grader

The Mighty Fourth-Grader Judy was quizzing the Bookworms about Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing when the doorbell rang. Dingdong-ding-dong-ding-dong. "Sheesh!" said Judy. "You'd think it was Girl Scout cookie time or something." "Who else could it be?" asked Stink. "There's only one Bookworm missing," said Sophie. "Jessica A. Finch!" said Judy. She dropped her book and ran downstairs to answer the door. It was not Jessica Finch. It was Amy Namey. Amy Namey, Ace Reporter, rushed through the front door. She had her clipboard under her arm and a pencil behind her ear. "News flash," said Amy. "I ran all the way over here to give you the big news in person." Judy tried to think of really big news. She imagined

these headlines: HURRICANE CAUSES BIG BAD BLACKOUT SWARM OF BEES FINDS FROG NECK LAKE BIGFOOT SIGHTING ON CROAKER ROAD Judy dashed upstairs with Amy. "Listen up, everybody. Amy has big fat news." "Mr. Todd said I could be the reporter for the Book Quiz Blowout. I'm going to write about it for our school paper. I went to Braintree Academy to get a big scoop on the Bloodsucking Fake-Mustache Defenders. Guess what I found out!" "They all wear fake mustaches?" asked Sophie. "They're really vampires?" asked Frank. "And they vant to suck the Bookvorm brains right out of our heads?" asked Judy in her best vampire voice.

"No, no, no. Nothing like that... I found out... the other team has..." "Has the pukes?" asked Stink. "Has mustaches for real?" Frank asked. "Has supersonic speed-readers?" asked Judy. "The other team has a... fourth-grader!" said Amy in an almost-whisper. Sophie's mouth dropped open. Stink's eyes got as big as silver-dollar pancakes. The room went dead quiet. So quiet you could have heard a page turn. "Her name is Mighty Fantaskey," said Amy. Gulp! "Her name is Mighty?" asked Judy. "What kind of a name is that?" asked Sophie. "Sounds like a mighty fantastic name to me," said Frank.

"Sounds like a superhero name!" said Stink. "She could be a superhero!" "Or she could be a fourth-grade nothing," said Judy, holding up her book. "I didn't meet her," said Amy. "But the other kids on her team say she eats books for breakfast. That

means she's a brainiac." "Stink's a brainiac, too," said Sophie. "His superhero name could be Encyclopedia Stink." "And don't forget Judy's been to college," said Frank. "Sort of," said Judy. "Mighty Fantaskey knows how to speed-read," said Amy. "They say she can read a whole page as fast as you can turn it." "That's impossible," said Frank. "No, it's not," said Stink. "Judy can speed-read. She showed me." "Not really," said Judy. She hated to admit it. Amy went on. "They say she reads fifth-grade books, like Harry Potter Book Five. She didn't just

carry it around to look cool." "No lie?" asked Judy. Amy nodded. "That's almost nine hundred pages!" wailed Judy. "No fair," said Stink. "Fourth grade is against the rules." "That's right," said Sophie. "Fourth-graders are supposed to be on teams with fifth-graders." "Not exactly," said Amy. "The rule is that you just have to be seven to nine years old to be on the younger team. She's nine." "Nine!" said Judy. "That's one whole birthday candle more than me." "And two whole grades more than us!" said Sophie. Amy looked at her notes. "She was homeschooled till this year." "Aagh!" said Frank. "That means she's way super smart. She probably read every book in the whole entire library twice." "Whoa," said Judy. "That's gifted." "That's not all," said Amy. "She moved here from Royal Oak, Virginia. In Royal Oak, Virginia, Mighty Fantaskey was on a Book Quiz team called the