Avery jerked her head up from her book and looked around. So Nick let out a high, squeaky, blackbird “peep!” Avery’s nose was curved-kind of like the beak of a hawk. The next day during silent reading, Nick glanced at his teacher, and he noticed that Mrs. Because of the way sound travels, the hunter birds can’t tell where the high-pitched chirp is coming from. One night he learned on a TV show that red-wing blackbirds give this high-pitched chirp when a hawk or some other danger comes near. Lincoln Elementary needed a good jolt once in a while, and Nick was just the guy to deliver it.Ībout a year later, Nick made the great blackbird discovery. Suddenly.īut that didn’t stop Nick from trying to liven things up. The third-grade trip to the South Seas ended. The principal followed the trail of sand, and when she arrived, Miss Deaver was teaching the hula to some kids near the front of the room, and a tall, thin, shirtless boy with chestnut hair was just spiking a Nerf volleyball over a net made from six T-shirts tied together. Miss Deaver was surprised again at just how creative her students could be.īut the sand got tracked out into the hallway, where Manny the custodian did not think it was creative at all. And when Miss Deaver left the room for a minute, Nick spread about ten cups of fine white sand all over the classroom floor. All the kids changed into shorts and T-shirts with no shoes. The day after that Nick turned the classroom thermostat up to about ninety degrees with a little screwdriver he had brought from home.

Miss Deaver clapped her hands and said, “It’s so colorful!” The next day all the girls wore paper flowers in their hair and all the boys wore sunglasses and beach hats. Miss Deaver had only been a teacher for about six months, and she was delighted. What kid in New Hampshire isn’t ready for a little summer in February? So first he got everyone to make small palm trees out of green and brown construction paper and tape them onto the corners of each desk.

One time in third grade Nick decided to turn Miss Deaver’s room into a tropical island. One thing’s for sure: Nick Allen had plenty of ideas, and he knew what to do with them. Nick deserved a list all his own, and everyone knew it.

IF YOU ASKED the kids and the teachers at Lincoln Elementary School to make three lists-all the really bad kids, all the really smart kids, and all the really good kids-Nick Allen would not be on any of them.

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