I’m Julianne Moore. This is my new book, Freckleface Strawberry, Best Friends Forever. It’s the third book in the Freckleface Strawberry series and I’m going to read a little bit of it.
“Once Freckleface Strawberry had a best friend. They were very much alike. That’s why they were friends. They were both unusual sizes, too big, too little. They both had nicknames at school. My name is Helen, but they call me Freckleface Strawberry because of my hair and all these freckles.
“Oh. My name is Windy Pants because of the wind in my
nevermind. They both have families. I have a mom and a dad and a sister and a brother. I have two moms and a little brother and a dog. They both loved to read.”
You’ll notice one
Freckleface Strawberry is reading Girls Rock Out and Windy Pants Patrick is reading Rockets.
“They both like lunch, only not in the cafeteria. ‘I’ll have a hotdog please.’ ‘I’ll have a falafel.’ They both love to play and they both love trips to the museum. Freckleface likes the dinosaur and Windy Pants likes art. They stuck up for each other. They were best friends forever all the time. Hey, watch out for my friend, she’s little. Make way for the big guy. He needs some room. Until one day, who is that girl? Why do you play with her? She’s a girl and girls can’t play with us.
“ ‘Aw. She’s alright. She’s just not good at sports, but she can play other things.’ ‘Exactly. Why would you want to play other things?’ Windy Pants Patrick did not think the boy was right, but he didn’t play with Freckleface Strawberry at recess. So Freckleface Strawberry watched Windy Pants play ball with the boys. She played jungle gym monkeys with the rest of the girls. ‘Boys stink. I don’t know why you play with Patrick. You know why they call him Windy Pants, don’t you? Besides, he only loves to play ball.’ ‘That’s not true. He loves to read and eat lunch and we both have nicknames.’
“But Freckleface did not wait for Windy Pants after school that day. The next day Windy Pants played with the boys and Freckleface played with the girls. ‘It’s not so bad. There are girls who like lunch and like to read. Besides Windy and I are too different.’ ‘This is so much better. I don’t have to bend down to talk to a short person. I don’t have to play scary monster ever again. Those other kids are right.’ And so they did all the regular stuff that kids do.
“Freckleface Strawberry kept going to the museum. She’s looking at art like Windy Pants likes. Windy Pants Patrick kept reading books and he’s reading Girls Rock Out. ‘This book is so good. It’s about this girl who’s really funny and talks kind of crazy.’ And they both kept eating lunch. ‘What’s the matter, honey? Why aren’t you eating?’ But it wasn’t the same. Until one day Freckleface Strawberry was on the playground looking for a game of ball. She couldn’t find any kids. Just one big kid playing monster.
“ ‘Hey, kid. Wanna play some ball?’ ‘No thanks. I’m pretending to be a monster.’ ‘I have an idea. We could be monsters playing ball.’ ‘Ball-playing monsters? I would play that all day. Do you want to have lunch?’
“And that’s when they realized it didn’t matter how different they were because they were a lot alike too. They both liked lunch. They both liked reading. They both had hair. They both had feet. They both had eyes and skin and teeth, but mostly they both liked each other, which is why they were best friends forever.”
The end.
