Einstein the Class Hamster Saves the Library (Einstein the Class Hamster Series) Read online

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  Text copyright © 2015 by Janet Tashjian

  Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Jake Tashjian

  All rights reserved.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Tashjian, Janet.

  Einstein the class hamster saves the library / Janet Tashjian ; illustrated by Jake

  Tashjian.—First edition.

  pages cm

  Summary: When Principal Decker closes Boerring Elementary School’s library due

  to severe budget cuts, Einstein and his friends in Ms. Moreno’s class

  try to reopen it by planning fund-raisers, including shooting a video

  that stars Einstein and Marlon the turtle.

  eISBN 978-1-62779-767-2

  [1. Hamsters—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Humorous stories.] I. Title.

  PZ7.T211135Ejm 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014045668

  First Edition—2015

  Printed in the United States of America by R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company,

  Harrisonburg, Virginia

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  To oUr fAvOrItE pEoPlE

  iN tHe wOrLd—

  lIbRaRiAnS

  AlSo bY JaNeT aNd JaKe TaShJiAn

  The Einstein the Class Hamster Series:

  Einstein the Class Hamster

  Einstein the Class Hamster and the Very Real Game Show

  The My Life Series:

  My Life as a Book

  My Life as a Stuntboy

  My Life as a Cartoonist

  My Life as a Joke

  My Life as a Gamer

  “The most precious things in life are not

  those you get for money.”

  —ALBERT EINSTEIN

  “I know money can’t bring happiness—

  but sometimes money is what you need!”

  —EINSTEIN THE CLASS HAMSTER

  CHAPTER ONE

  ACrIsIs

  “Welcome to another episode of

  AnSwEr

  ThAt

  QuEsTiOn!

  Today our contestant is Bonnie

  Thompson!”

  Einstein pointed to Bonnie, quietly

  writing at her desk.

  “I’m not sure she knows she’s on

  your show today,” Marlon said.

  “Maybe if I command her to hear

  me, she’ll come over.” Einstein closed

  his eyes and concentrated on getting

  Bonnie to stand up. You want to be

  on my game show. You can’t wait to

  hear the latest Tasty Tidbit.

  But Bonnie continued to work.

  “That went well,” Marlon said.

  Einstein persisted. “She’s getting

  up! She’s coming over!

  “She’s sharpening her pencil,”

  Marlon said.

  Einstein ignored him. “The topic of

  today’s first round is CLOUDS. I hope

  all you contestants brought your

  umbrellas!”

  Einstein watched sadly as Bonnie

  sharpened her pencil and returned to

  her seat.

  “Looks

  like it’s

  raining on

  YOU,”

  Marlon

  said.

  Show business had its ups and

  downs—didn’t Marlon know that? And

  as far as “up” was concerned, nothing

  made Einstein happier than seeing his

  friend Ned, who was the only one of

  his classmates who could actually

  hear him.

  “I just overheard Principal Decker

  talking to Ms. Moreno,” Ned said. “I’m

  not sure what they were talking

  about, but it sounded like bad news.”

  Einstein threw himself into the pile

  of shredded paper in the corner of

  his tank. First Bonnie, now this?

  Ms. Moreno addressed the class.

  “Everyone in their seats. I have an

  announcement to make.”

  Einstein buried himself deeper in his

  paper cave.

  “Psssst!” Marlon called from his

  tank. “Maybe the bad news is that

  they’re getting rid of Twinkles—

  maybe it’s actually GOOD news.”

  Twinkles the Python was the

  scourge of Boerring Elementary. He

  was Principal Decker’s favorite, but

  he spent every waking minute trying

  to eat the other class pets.

  Einstein scurried out from his

  hiding place to hear what Ms. Moreno

  had to say.

  “Our school’s in a financial crisis,”

  she said. “And Principal Decker has to

  make some serious budget cuts.”

  Einstein crossed his fingers and

  toes. Please say you’re getting rid of

  Twinkles!

  “As of today,” Ms. Moreno

  continued, “our school library will be

  closed.”

  “NOOOOOOOOO!” Einstein

  shouted.

  Closing the library? Einstein

  couldn’t imagine anything worse.

  Rain, snow, sleet, and hail are all forms

  of precipitation that fall from clouds.

  Clouds are formed by tiny drops of water,

  sometimes millions of pounds of them.

  The main types of clouds are cumulus

  (puffy, like cotton), cirrus (wispy and thin,

  high in the sky), and stratus (flat, like

  layered sheets).

  Fog is a kind of

  stratus cloud,

  appearing very low

  to the ground.

  SHOULD I?

  CHAPTER TWO

  A WoRd AbOuT

  LiBrArIeS

  Einstein jumped onto his hamster

  wheel and started to run.

  HOW COULD THEY

  CLOSE THE

  LIBRARY?

  It was the

  HEART of the

  school!

  He ran faster and faster as images

  filled his head:

  • Following his parents through the

  tunnels of the school until he came

  to a room full of books—like a

  thousand Christmases rolled into one.

  • Lying on the rug, spending hours

  enjoying the illustrations in a

  favorite picture book.

  • Burying his head

  inside the latest

  volume, inhaling

  that new-book

  smell.

  Einstein had to see if this horrible

  news was true. He snuck out of his

  tank and down the hall. He scurried

  into the hole in the wall behind the

  water fountain and entered the

  complex system of tunnels his

 
ancestors had dug years before.

  After several minutes, he arrived in

  the reference section of the library

  (his favorite part).

  Ms. Remington, the librarian, was

  packing up her desk with Principal

  Decker.

  It IS true, Einstein thought. Ms.

  Remington—please don’t go!

  Principal Decker looked almost as

  depressed as Ms. Remington did.

  “We’re going to reopen

  this library as soon as

  possible,” the principal said.

  “It’s my highest

  priority.”

  Ms. Remington carefully wrapped

  the photographs of her students at

  Storytime. Everyone looks so happy

  in those pictures, Einstein thought.

  Everyone loves stories.

  “My hands are tied,” Principal

  Decker continued. “I wish there was

  something I could do.”

  As Einstein looked at how beautiful

  Ms. Remington had made the library

  over the years, he thought he might

  cry. The construction-paper flowers,

  the beanbag chairs, the books in

  colorful bins all neatly labeled—Ms.

  Remington had put so much effort

  into this school.

  Principal Decker led Ms. Remington

  to the library door, then took out a

  large padlock. “There’s a whole

  procedure we have to follow when a

  library closes,” he told her. “Hopefully

  we can reopen soon.”

  From his hiding place, Einstein

  watched the principal padlock the

  door. He couldn’t remember ever

  feeling so sad.

  The oldest federal cultural institution

  in the United States is the Library of

  Congress. It was established by President

  John Adams in 1800. It’s the largest

  library in the world, with 838 miles of

  bookshelves.

  Americans visit libraries three times

  more often than they go to the movies!

  CHAPTER THREE

  We NeEd A

  PlAn

  When the rest of the class went to

  recess, Ned tried to calm Einstein

  down. “Get off that wheel—you’ll

  waste away to nothing.”

  But Einstein

  continued to run.

  “We’ve GOT to

  save the library!”

  he panted.

  “I’m sure if we put

  our heads together, we can come up

  with something,” Ned said.

  “Ahh, here comes the traitor now.”

  Einstein gestured to Principal Decker,

  who was wearing Twinkles like a scarf.

  “With your precious books gone,

  maybe you’ll have time for some

  other activities,” Twinkles hissed. “Like

  playing hide-and-SQUEAK—I mean

  SEEK—with your friends.”

  “Go away,” Einstein said. “You’re

  making things worse.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need a

  hug?” Twinkles continued. “It might

  cheer you up.”

  “Get lost,” Marlon said. “No one

  wants to be squeezed and eaten

  today, thank you very much.”

  Ned ducked behind the shelf

  and gestured for the class pets to

  be quiet.

  “I don’t want to close the library

  either, but money doesn’t grow on

  trees,” Principal Decker told Ms.

  Moreno.

  Einstein rolled his eyes.

  “Thanks for the botany

  lesson, Principal Decker.”

  “You know what they

  say,” Ms. Moreno

  added. “‘A room

  without books is like a

  body without a soul.’”

  “That’s a quote from

  Cicero,” Einstein whispered to Marlon.

  Ms. Moreno smiled. “The library is

  the soul of our school, Principal

  Decker. We need to find a

  solution.”

  “Ms. Moreno, we’re

  behind you one

  hundred percent,”

  Einstein shouted.

  Ned waited until the others left

  before coming out from his hiding

  place. “We’re going to do this,” he

  told Einstein. “We’re going to save

  the library.”

  Einstein wanted to believe him.

  After recess, all the students

  wanted to talk about were ways to

  save the library.

  “We can have a bake sale,” Bonnie

  told Ms. Moreno. “You can make your

  famous turducken cupcakes.”

  Ms. Moreno beamed. “My cupcakes

  ARE delicious. But I’m

  afraid this is

  going to take

  more than a

  bake sale.”

  “How about a

  skateboarding

  competition?”

  Ricky asked. “We

  can race around

  town and take

  donations.”

  “We can have a carnival in the

  parking lot,” Ned suggested. “With a

  Ferris wheel, games,

  and cotton candy!”

  Ms. Moreno

  added all the

  suggestions to

  the board. Inside

  his tank,

  Einstein made

  his own list.

  “How about if we chain ourselves

  to the radiators?”

  “This school doesn’t have radiators,”

  Marlon said.

  “Or go on a starvation diet?”

  “You wouldn’t last a day without

  food.”

  “Why don’t we go to tonight’s town

  meeting,” Ned suggested, “and tell

  everyone why they can’t close the

  library.”

  “That’s an excellent idea,” Ms.

  Moreno said. “Why, I bet—” But

  before she could finish her sentence,

  Ms. Moreno was fast asleep on her

  feet.

  Ned tiptoed back to his seat, not

  wanting to wake her up.

  Ms. Moreno’s students were used

  to her frequent napping. Their

  teacher had the bad habit of staying

  up all night to watch infomercials,

  with the disastrous consequence of

  falling asleep several times during the

  day. But she was so happy and

  knowledgeable when awake that her

  students always covered for her with

  Principal Decker (who was usually too

  busy with Twinkles to notice).

  “What do you say?” Ned whispered

  to his classmates. “Should we try and

  get the Town Board to change their

  minds?”

  YES!

  “Yes!” the others whispered back.

  Einstein knew his classmates would

  need lots of research to back up their

  arguments. Luckily for them, he was

  a research whiz.

  Cotton candy has only two ingredients:

  colored sugar and air. It was originally

  called “Fairy Floss” and introduced to the

  masses at the 1904 World’s Fair, which

  also popularized hot dogs, hamburgers,

  Dr Pepper, waffle cones, and iced tea.

  Unlike those treats, cotton candy is made

&
nbsp; of more than 50 percent air. The sugary

  sweet was invented by

  a candy maker—

  and a dentist!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  WhEn OnLy A

  LiBrArY WiLl Do

  Nothing made Einstein happier

  than doing research. Finding new

  facts was what he lived for, and

  now he had a chance to really help

  his class. He looked up statistics for

  hours; he scoured town records; he

  even studied the archive of dusty

  manuscripts Ms. Remington kept

  locked away with the town’s

  historical documents.

  In looking for information to save

  the library, Einstein came across lots

  of GREAT facts that he was excited

  to use on AnSwEr . . . ThAt . . .

  QuEsTiOn.

  He couldn’t believe all the new

  Tasty Tidbits he found:

  • The boardwalk in Atlantic City,

    New Jersey, is the longest and

  oldest boardwalk in the world.

  • A ten-gallon hat does NOT hold ten

  gallons. (It doesn’t even hold one.)

  • An adult dragonfly lives only a few

  months.

  • A giraffe’s tongue is so long it can

  clean its own ears with it.

  • One type of hummingbird weighs

  less than a penny.

  There was no doubt about it. Even