Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat
By Gary Paulsen
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
It seemed like a normal school day, until a horrible storm forced the very cautious school administration to make everyone hole up in a safe place. Six students find themselves stuck in a tiny, questionably smelly space—a school bathroom—with a stuffed cat for entertainment. Hijinks ensue and the unexpected happens. They enter as strangers…and leave as friends.
Get to know the story even better with a special script that accompanies the novel, so any six kids can get together with their friends and perform the story anywhere they’d like.
Gary Paulsen
Gary Paulsen (1939–2021) wrote more than two hundred books for children and adults, including the father-son comedy How to Train Your Dad, and the survival adventure Northwind. Three of his novels—Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room—were Newbery Honor books. In 1997, he received the ALA’s Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature. His books have sold over 35 million copies around the world.
Read more from Gary Paulsen
Dogsong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Northwind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Woodsong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tracker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers: Reflections on Being Raised by a Pack of Sled Dogs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Train Your Dad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dancing Carl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat
Related ebooks
This Side of Wild: Mutts, Mares, and Laughing Dinosaurs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Car Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sentries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fishbone's Song Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDancing Carl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zack and the Turkey Attack! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Danger Guys and the Golden Lizard Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rifle Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Julie of the Wolves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wilder Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dog's Way Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankie and Amelia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Underneath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Double Life of Danny Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zeus, Dog of Chaos Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sheep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Punished! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Side of the Mountain - Literature Kit Gr. 5-6 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stone Fox Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishtree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bearstone Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An Elephant in the Garden: Inspired by a True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dog Like Daisy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sable Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything for a Dog Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Balto: The Untold Story of Alaska's Famous Iditarod Sled Dog Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Monkeys: For Kids – Amazing Animal Books for Young Readers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Children's Social Themes For You
The Witch of Blackbird Pond: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Egg Presents: The Great Eggscape!: An Easter And Springtime Book For Kids Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bridge to Terabithia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Keeper of the Lost Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Number the Stars: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Graveyard Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Horse and His Boy: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amari and the Night Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unlocked Book 8.5 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Battle: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shiloh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuart Little Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of My Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invisible Things Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silver Chair: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The One and Only Bob Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The School for Good and Evil: Now a Netflix Originals Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crossover: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exile Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Winnie the Pooh: The Classic Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah, Plain and Tall: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ban This Book: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pete the Kitty Goes to the Doctor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Clackity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishtree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Velveteen Rabbit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat
10 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat - Gary Paulsen
This book is dedicated in memory of
George Nicholson.
He fought for my books.
And I am forever grateful.
Scene One:
Don’t step in the blood.
I was cramming tissue up both of my nostrils to stem the flow of my most recent nosebleed when a kid tried to sneak in the second-floor restroom at RJ Glavine Middle School without being noticed. Weird since it was a small space, full of mirrors, and I was Right There. The sink area of any bathroom is a hard place to pretend to be invisible.
And we were going to be stuck together for a while. Because this school is insanely paranoid whenever there’s the tiniest threat of a storm. A couple minutes ago, I’d heard the overly cautious announcement warning everyone still on school property after school hours to huddle up and hunker down so the district couldn’t get sued in case anything bad happened. That’s not exactly what they said, but that’s what I heard.
Attention! A severe weather alert is likely to be issued for the surrounding areas. In the interest of erring on the side of caution and adhering to the guidelines of our prudent insurance liability policy, we strongly recommend that any faculty, staff, and students remaining in the school building immediately seek shelter in the nearest interior room. I repeat: Due to the slight possibility of potentially sudden onset heavy rain, please move immediately to a safe location, away from windows, and remain there until the all-clear sounds. Thank you.
Good thing I was already in one of the safest rooms in the building, dealing with what can only be described as rivers of blood coursing down my philtrum. That’s the midline groove in the upper lip that runs from the top of the lip to the nose. I know that word because the one on my face is frequently bloody, so it seemed only right to learn its proper name. I’m a very impressive bleeder. And today, I’d left a small trail of blood in the second-floor bathroom at RJ Glavine Middle School and freaked out the new kid, also taking shelter from the—take my word on this—nonthreatening baby storm that was going to miss us by a mile.
What?
The kid practically climbed the walls trying to dodge the blood after I pointed it out.
You were about to walk right though the splatter. It’s not nearly enough to be a puddle, but it’s more than a sprinkle.
I adjusted the tissues I’d jammed up my bloody nose, hoping this kid thought bloody noses made a person seem a little mad, bad, and dangerous to know. I usually aim for being thought of as The Funny One because I’m, you know, inherently amusing. Plus, I overcompensate with humor to distract from the fact that I’m not really a people person.
Lately, though, I’ve been starting to feel my sarcastic take on things has been misunderstood and underappreciated. I thought it might be an interesting experiment to develop a new reputation for myself that didn’t rely so much on levity. I’d have to try it out with a preliminary test subject, of course, and the new kid would be the perfect person to start with. Maybe I could also spin the dorky bloody-nose thing into something mysterious with someone who didn’t know me.
If, of course, I could get the kid to look at me. I glanced from my own reflection to the other one in the mirror. Or at least I tried to. There was zero eye contact. Which was impressive in a pathologically shy kind of way because we were in a restroom with about four mirrors. Our faces were everywhere and yet we still weren’t looking at each other.
Oh, right, um—
The kid was completely flustered trying to put together a sentence and avoid the Hansel and Gretel–like trail of blood-not-bread I had left in my wake. Oops, me and my bloody philtrum were inciting fear rather than awe; scaring, rather than impressing, the kid. Better take it down a notch, lighten the moment with a joke or two, help make this new kid feel more at ease with me before both of us had stress-induced bloody noses and the room looked like a gory crime scene. I was forced back to being my typical quick-witted and entertaining self before ever really trying on cool as a new image.
It didn’t come from a fistfight or, you know, a spontaneous aortic rupture.
I paused for the chuckle that didn’t come. This school has zero tolerance for violence. Not to mention unsupervised cardiac bleeds.
Another pause for the laugh. Another moment of comedic death by silence.
That’s . . . good?
Geez, my comic timing wasn’t even appreciated by a kid who was, I should point out, carrying around a backpack with a cat poking out of it. My sense of humor is quickly becoming wasted around here. No one in this entire building gets my kind of funny anymore. I might have to transfer, try to find a middle school that’s a better fit for someone with the gift of the wisecrack like me.
What happened?
The kid was peering at my bloody tissue with the same revulsion one might reasonably direct toward a person just returned from a serial murder spree or breaking down game after a particularly successful hunting trip.
Bloody nose. A real gusher this time. What can I say? It’s an imperfect world and I have a deviated septum.
And