Seth and Samona

Excerpt

I remember the first thing I thought, the day I met Samona Gemini. She was standing behind Mrs. Gray, our third-grade teacher, with her short hair cornrowed tight to her scalp and making one horrible face after another while Mrs. Gray introduced her to the class. That wasn't the worst part either. Right there in front of the entire third-grade class of Atticus Elementary, she was wearing a pair of underpants so red that you could see them through her white skirt. Everybody was giggling but all I could do was stare with shock. Right then and there I thought, "That Samona Gemini is one crazy girl and I plan to stay away from her." I remember it so well 'cause I've been saying the same thing for two years now, and though I try to stay away from girls as much as possible, that particular one has managed to make me her accomplice in trouble time and time again. Like last summer when she talked me into helping sell this all-natural homemade shampoo door-to-door 'cause it was gonna make us a million bucks but she forgot to tell everyone, including me, that the special ingredient in it was horse manure. The few people who used it were stinking for days after, and me and Samona had to hide out before they stopped looking for us. Or the time our class went on a field trip to the zoo and she said she knew a shortcut to the concession stands and landed us right in the middle of Monkey Paradise with the chimpanzees. We weren't allowed to go on field trips for the rest of the year.



    

An Excerpt from Seth and Samona



I remember the first thing I thought, the day I met Samona Gemini.  She was
standing behind Mrs. Gray, our third-grade teacher, with her short hair
cornrowed tight to her scalp and making one horrible face after another while
Mrs. Gray introduced her to the class.  That wasn't the worst part either.
Right there in front of the entire third-grade class of Atticus Elementary, she
was wearing a pair of underpants so red that you could see them through her
white skirt.  Everybody was giggling but all I could do was stare with shock.
Right then and there I thought, "That Samona Gemini is one crazy girl and I
plan to stay away from her."  I remember it so well `cause I've been saying the
same thing for two years now, and though I try to stay away from girls as much
as possible, that particular one has managed to make me her accomplice in
trouble time after time again.

Excerpted from Seth and Samona by Joanne Hyppolite; illustrated by Colin Bootman. . Excerpted by permission of Yearling, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.