Anna Mei, Escape Artist E-Book

Carol A. Grund

• Herausgeber: anna ruggieri
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

In the third book of the series, Anna Mei has settled into her new town and she's found a great group of friends: Danny, Sandra, and Luis. The only hitch is that Danny's acting weird and she can't figure out what's bothering him. But while she pushes to find out what his problem is, Anna Mei does a pretty good job at trying to escape from her own. Anna Mei soon discovers what real life and friendship are all about. Ages 8-12.

Leseprobe

Anna MeiEscape Artist

By Carol A. Grund

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grund, Carol A.

  Anna Mei, escape artist / by Carol A. Grund.

       p. cm.

  Sequel to: Anna Mei, cartoon girl.

  Summary: Anna Mei and her friend Danny have some difficult times overthe summer when Anna Mei senses that Danny is hiding something fromher.  ISBN 0-8198-0794-X (pbk.) [1. Summer--Fiction. 2. Friendship--Fiction. 3. Family life--Michigan--Fiction. 4. Secrets--Fiction. 5. Chinese Americans--Fiction. 6. Michigan--Fiction.] I. Title.  PZ7.G9328Anr 2011  [Fic]--dc22                                                         2010038172

Many manufacturers and sellers distinguish their products through the use of trademarks. Any trademarked designations that appear in this book are used in good faith but are not authorized by, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

Cover art by Wayne AlfanoDesign by Mary Joseph Peterson, FSP

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

“P” and PAULINE are registered trademarks of the Daughters of St. Paul.

Copyright © 2011, Carol A. Grund

Published by Pauline Books & Media, 50 Saint Pauls Avenue, Boston, MA 02130-3491. www.pauline.org

Printed in the U.S.A.

AMEA VSAUSAPEOILL2-11J10-10157 0794-x

Pauline Books & Media is the publishing house of the Daughters of St. Paul, an international congregation of women religious serving the Church with the communications media.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9                                                                     14 13 12 11

This book is dedicatedto all the real-life“Anna Mei”s and “Danny”s,struggling to cope with the everydaychallenges of growing up.

My wish for you is that you learn to listento your own voice, and trust that there issomething wonderful out there waiting for you!

Special love and thanks toKatelyn, Johanna, Melanie, Kristina, and Ana—the bright and beautiful girls in my lifewho helped inspire the Anna Mei stories.

Contents

Chapter OneBest Yearbook Ever

Chapter TwoWhat’s Wrong with This Picture?

Chapter ThreeA Changing Room

Chapter FourMissing

Chapter FiveOrganizing Summer

Chapter SixMaybe Next Time

Chapter Seven“My Very Best Cousin”

Chapter EightFireworks

Chapter NineNot So Easy to Fix

Chapter TenA Perfect Plan

Chapter ElevenThe Birthday Rule

Chapter TwelveWhat About Me?

Chapter ThirteenThe Caine Family Circus

Chapter FourteenStepping Up

Chapter FifteenGoing Nowhere

Chapter SixteenPoolside

Chapter SeventeenFree Amber

Chapter EighteenKidnapped

Chapter NineteenClearing the Air

Chapter TwentyThoughtlessness

Chapter Twenty-OneAt the Front Door

Chapter Twenty-TwoTurned Away

Chapter Twenty-ThreeTelling the Truth

Chapter Twenty-FourBlown Apart

Chapter Twenty-FiveA Big Eraser

Chapter Twenty-SixNot So Simple

Chapter Twenty-SevenThings Get Messy

Chapter Twenty-EightPeace and Quiet

Chapter Twenty-NineSomebody’s Strength

Chapter ThirtyA Package Deal

Chapter Thirty-OneA Familiar Ring

Chapter One

Best Yearbook Ever

For possibly the first time in her life, Anna Mei Anderson was glad her last name started with an A.

A box filled with Elmwood Elementary School yearbooks had just been delivered to Room 117, and Ms. Wagner was planning to hand them out in alphabetical order. Anna Mei could hardly sit still—it would be the first time she’d seen one finished.

“But before I start,” Ms. Wagner announced, “I want to recognize those of you who were on the yearbook staff—Michael, Elizabeth, Anna Mei, and Danny. Mr. Vogel told me how much he appreciated all of your hard work and leadership.”

Anna Mei glanced over at the desk next to hers and found Danny—as usual—with his sketchbook open and a pencil in his hand.

“Pay attention,” she whispered to him. “Ms. Wagner thinks you did something right for a change!”

He lifted his eyebrow in an innocent who-me? kind of way but kept right on drawing.

Ms. Wagner pulled a yearbook from the box and called out the first name on her homeroom list: “Anna Mei.” She smiled as Anna Mei walked to the front of the room, a smile that reached all the way to her warm, blue eyes. “I’m so glad you joined our class this year,” she said. “It’s been a true pleasure getting to know you.”

Anna Mei felt a rush of gratitude toward her homeroom teacher, one of the first people she’d met at Elmwood last fall. She’d been pretty terrified back then, standing in front of all those kids she didn’t know. Ms. Wagner had been kind to her from the beginning.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the yearbook and returning the smile. “I hope you’ll sign it for me.”

“I’d be happy to,” Ms. Wagner agreed. “Be sure to bring it to the graduation party.”

Before sliding into her seat, Anna Mei couldn’t resist leaning over to see what Danny was working on. Unbelievable. In just those few minutes he’d managed to sketch two cartoon characters—a girl with straight, dark hair that just reached her shoulders, and a boy with freckles and a big grin. Both appeared to be hovering in the air, capes billowing out behind them. Their arms were raised in a gesture of victory. Under the picture Danny had scrawled the words, Yearbook Superheroes.

Anna Mei had to look away quickly to keep from laughing out loud.

When she’d first come to Elmwood, she hated being the new kid. And she especially hated Danny Gallagher’s sketches of her. She was sure that he was picking on her for some reason.

Eventually she figured out that Danny was really just a friendly guy who loves cartoons, food, and corny jokes, not necessarily in that order. Now she couldn’t imagine school without him. In fact, she was the one who convinced him to join the yearbook staff with her, and now his playful sketches of life at Elmwood Elementary danced along the margins of almost every page. She and Danny may not be superheroes, exactly, but they sure made a pretty good team.

The new yearbook turned out to be the hot topic all day long, especially at lunch.

As usual, Anna Mei and Danny were sitting with Zandra Caine and Luis Hernandez. Danny once joked that their table would fit right in at the United Nations. During their heritage projects last fall, Zandra had talked about her African ancestors, while Luis’s presentation was about Mexico. Anna Mei, who’d been adopted by the Andersons as a baby, was born in China.

“Then there’s me,” Danny said, grinning, “the token Irishman.”

Now Zandra was trying to flip through the yearbook with one hand while holding a sandwich in the other. “Really, I think it’s the best one we’ve ever had,” she said. “You guys did a great job.”

Danny was already devouring the school lunch he’d bought—fish sticks with mac and cheese. “You’re just saying that so we’ll keep letting you sit with us,” he said. “Which will definitely work, by the way. You may stay.”

Zandra laughed. “That’s so generous of you, Danny,” she said, “considering we only have two days left in the whole year.”

“Maybe he’s already planning to rule the seventh grade lunch table, too,” Luis suggested.

“Seventh grade!” Danny moaned. “Mind if I enjoy the summer a little bit before I have to think about that?”

“I know I’m going to,” Zandra said. “And I’m really excited that you’re coming to volleyball camp this year, Anna Mei. It’s going to be a blast!”

“I can’t wait,” Anna Mei agreed. “I have so many ideas about what to do this summer that I decided to make a list.”

“Only you would try to organize summer,” Danny told her with a big sigh, peeling the top off his container of applesauce.

But before Anna Mei could come up with a good comeback, Zandra suddenly stopped turning pages and said, “Hey, look at this!”

The three others crowded in closer to see.

Zandra was pointing at part of a collage with the title “Fall Follies” at the top. The picture was pretty small and a little blurry, but it was still easy to recognize the four girls standing in the gym, all dressed as cowgirls: Zoey, Rachel, Amber, and—

“Anna Mei!” Danny yelled.

Chapter Two

What’s Wrong with This Picture?

For a moment it seemed as if all the other noise in the cafeteria had stopped, so that everyone could concentrate on staring at them.

“Wow, Danny—dial it down a notch, will you?” Luis said, running a hand through his thick, dark hair and looking nervously around the room.

“Sorry,” Danny said, lowering his voice to human level again. “It’s just that I can’t believe you let them put that picture in there, Anna Mei.”

She swallowed hard, trying to push down the queasy feeling that had started creeping up from her stomach. Let them put it in? She hadn’t worked on that page. And she’d never seen that picture before in her life.

Zoey, Rachel, and Amber had been her first friends at Elmwood. Well, okay, maybe not exactly her friends, but they had at least made an effort by inviting her to join their club. At first, Anna Mei had been grateful—and relieved. Being in the Ponytail Club had meant she had someone to sit with at lunch, someone to talk to between classes.

Of course, it had also meant pretending to be just like them—girls who loved horses, thought school was boring, and believed kids like Danny belonged on another planet. At first Anna Mei thought that lying and pretending were worth it. Any friends were better than none at all, right?

But the whole situation had spiraled out of control pretty fast. One day she was Anna Mei, newly transplanted from Boston and a little unsure of how this new school thing was going to work out, and the next she was someone she barely recognized.

It turned out that the new personality she’d tried on didn’t fit any better than the oversized cowboy boots she was wearing in that yearbook picture. She’d borrowed them from Amber to wear to the Follies. But clomping around in them that night had been a real low point, which she’d managed to make even worse by hurting the feelings of the one person who had wanted to be her friend all along—Danny Gallagher.

Luckily, he had stuck around anyway. And he turned out to be the one who helped her find her way back to the real Anna Mei. She’d never imagined that the answer to a prayer could be a red-headed, frecklefaced, cartoon-loving boy—but that’s how things had worked out.

Now she looked across the cafeteria to the table where Zoey sat, her long ponytail trailing down her back as she paged through her own yearbook. Amber sat beside her, and Rachel across from them. The seat across from Rachel, the one where Anna Mei used to sit, was empty. Anna Mei could just imagine the conversation—probably something about how lame the yearbook was and how Danny’s drawings had ruined the whole thing.

She took a deep breath. The queasy feeling had gone back where it came from.

“Give me a break,” she said, then reached out and snapped the yearbook shut. “I was new here, remember?”

Zandra stood up and put her arm around Anna Mei’s shoulders. “We know,” she said. “That was a long time ago.”

“Yeah, don’t sweat it, Cartoon Girl,” Danny said. Anna Mei hadn’t liked that nickname at first, but it didn’t bother her anymore. Besides, her name really did sound like anime, those Japanese cartoons he was so crazy about. “It took a little time for me to grow on you, that’s all.”

The other three looked at each other, grinning. “Just like mold!” they all said at the same time.

When the dismissal bell rang at three o’clock, Anna Mei took her time zipping up her backpack, waiting while the other kids streamed out the door. They’d spent the last few days helping Ms. Wagner clean the room. Now with all the shelves and bulletin boards empty, and the science equipment packed away, Room 117 looked like it had already left for summer vacation. Seeing it like that made Anna Mei realize that even though she hadn’t been here very long, her days at Elmwood Elementary were really coming to an end.

“Feeling nostalgic already?” Danny asked from the doorway, where he stood waiting for her. “Maybe Ms. Wagner will let you come back and clean test tubes once in a while.”

She sighed. “I guess I’m a little sensitive, but it feels like I just changed schools, and now I have to do it all over again.”

“At least we’re all going to Westside together,” he told her.

“That’s true,” she agreed, as they headed down the hall toward the front doors. “And the party on Friday will be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to finally meet your parents and Connor. Are you guys doing anything special first?”