Justine McKeen, Pooper Scooper Read online

  Michael saw John’s T-shirts written on Justine’s bag.

  “Cool,” Michael said. “Our special shirts are ready?”

  “Yes,” she said. “But you don’t get them until you pay for them.”

  Michael found his money. “This is my allowance. It better be worth it.”

  “Yeah,” Safdar said. “And I hope mine is the right size.”

  Justine took their money.

  “Hey, Blatzo,” she called across the room. “Come here.”

  He stormed over. He looked grumpy. “Don’t call me Blatzo in front of everyone.”

  “Sure,” Justine said. “Give me ten bucks, Blatzo. We are ready to start.”

  He grinned. “You’ve got the T-shirts?”

  “Yup,” she said. “Money first, or no shirt.”

  She took Jimmy Blatzo’s money.

  “This is going to be good,” Jimmy Blatzo said. “Justine’s plan rocks. Mr. Ripley made a big mistake when he decided to mess with Justine.”

  Justine opened the bag and handed out the T-shirts.

  Michael held up his. The back of it said The Pooper Scooper Club.

  “What do you think?” Justine asked.

  Michael and Safdar looked at Jimmy Blatzo.

  “Yes,” Jimmy Blatzo said. “You have permission to speak now.”

  “Pooper Scooper?” Michael said. “Justine, you told us the T-shirts were going to be about helping the environment and getting Mrs. Reynolds back into the library.”

  “They are,” Justine said. “As Pooper Scoopers, we’re going to clean up the park. And we’ll sell lots of T-shirts to kids and parents at our school. Look at the front of the shirt.”

  Safdar held up his shirt. He saw the words, Stop the poop at the school board office. We need our librarians.

  There was a big photo too. It was a photo of Mr. Ripley pointing at the dog poop on his shoe. Justine pulled her Pooper Scooper T-shirt over her head. “I have twelve more to sell by the end of the day. Then I can give my Grammy back the money she loaned to me to buy them.”

  “I would like my money back,” Michael said. “I’m not going to be part of something called The Pooper Scooper Club.”

  “Me too. I want my money back,” Safdar said. “I don’t want to belong to the new club unless you change it to Mean and Green. Or Green and Mean.” Safdar raised his arms and flexed his muscles. They were very small muscles. “See? That’s me. Mean and Green.”

  “I like the shirt,” Jimmy Blatzo said. He pulled it on over his other T-shirt. “I suggest that both of you like it too. I suggest that both of you like it right now.”

  “Wow,” Michael said to Jimmy Blatzo. “Now that I see how good it looks on you, I have to admit it is a cool shirt.”

  “Really cool,” Safdar said. He stopped making muscles with his arms.

  “Now that you like the shirts,” Jimmy Blatzo said, “you can wear them for the rest of the day. Each of you make sure to find three friends who will wear one and help us in the park after school.”

  “I think my shirt is too small to wear to class,” Michael said.

  “I don’t,” Jimmy Blatzo said. He made muscles with his arms. Much bigger muscles than Safdar’s.

  “Wow, you’re right again,” Michael said. He pulled the T-shirt on. “Fits perfectly.”

  Jimmy Blatzo coughed and looked at Safdar.

  “Of course,” Safdar said. He pulled on his T-shirt. “Here I am. A Pooper Scooper.”

  “A proud Pooper Scooper,” Blatzo corrected.

  “Yes,” Safdar said. “A proud Pooper Scooper.”

  Jimmy Blatzo looked at Justine. “And you wonder why I like it that people are scared of me.”

  Chapter Seven

  After school, everyone met at Central Park, across from Mr. Ripley’s office. Justine, Jimmy Blatzo, Michael and Safdar wore the shirts with The Pooper Scooper Club written on the back. On the front it said Stop the poop at the school board office. We need our librarians. They had each brought three friends. So there were sixteen kids. Everyone gathered around Justine.

  “I made flyers to let people know why we are here. Mrs. Reynolds helped me do the research,” she said. She held up a stack of flyers printed on recycled paper. “The dogs in our town produce over one thousand pounds of dog poop a day.”

  “Ewww,” someone said.

  “Double ewwww,” someone else answered.

  “I agree,” Justine said. She passed out the flyers.

  “Dog poop is really bad for the environment. Bacteria from dog poop washes into streams and causes up to thirty percent of the pollution. It also makes people and small children sick. Worse, only forty percent of people clean up after their dogs because they think the rain washes it away. If someone stops to ask what we are doing, you can give them one of these flyers.”

  “Why would they ask us what we are doing?” one of the kids at the back asked.

  Justine pointed at the picture on her T-shirt of Mr. Ripley and the dog poop on his shoe. “Don’t you think this picture is going to make them ask questions?”

  Justine put on a pair of rubber gloves. She held a plastic bag.

  “What kind of cleanup work are we doing?” another kid asked.

  Justine took a few steps forward and pointed.

  “Right there. There’s a big one!”

  She leaned over and placed the bag over something brown. It looked like a chocolate bar that had been in the sun too long. Justine was right. It was big.

  “Ewww!” some of the kids said.

  “We are the Pooper Scoopers,” Justine said as she scooped the poop into the bag. “I’ve got plenty of Earth-friendly plastic bags and rubber gloves. You can use them to pick up poop like I just did. If people see us scooping poop, maybe they will make it a habit.”

  “I like helping the environment,” one kid said.

  “But what are we going to do with all the dog poop?”

  “We are going to save it,” Justine said.

  “Ewww,” someone said again.

  “Double ewww,” someone else said.

  “Seriously,” Justine said. “We can use the dog poop to power streetlights for the park.”

  “Ha, ha,” the double-ewww kid said. “Nice try.”

  “Turn the flyer over,” Justine said. “You can read about something called a biogas digester. It’s a big container that digests dog poop with bacteria. This creates methane gas, which can be used for streetlights. It won’t take much money to set one up right here in the park.”

  “This is way cool,” the double-ewww kid said. “Poop power! I’m glad I’m here to help.”

  “I have a question,” the ewww kid said. “I’m here because I like Mrs. Reynolds so much. How is this going to help get her back in the library?”

  Justine looked at all the kids. “I was told no one important will listen to one kid. So I thought if we had more than one kid, people will listen.” Justine grinned. “Did I forget to tell you that a reporter from the town paper is coming to do a story about us for the front page?”

  Chapter Eight

  Before the bell rang the next morning, Safdar and Justine stood in front of their lockers. They were wearing their Pooper Scooper T-shirts.

  “My mom made a Pooper Scooper Facebook page for us last night,” Safdar said. “She posted all the facts about how dog poop is bad for the environment on it. It also explains how much we need Mrs. Reynolds back. My mom posted Mr. Ripley’s phone number there too, so people could call him. She already has one thousand Likes. People think it’s great that kids are trying to clean up the park. She says all her friends are talking about it.”

  Safdar opened his backpack. “I spent some time on my own computer too. I made some posters.” He pulled one out. The poster said, Buy a Pooper Scooper T-shirt. All profits go toward the Poop Power project.

  At the bottom of the poster, it said, Help us get our librarian back. What’s next, taking gym teachers out of the gym?

  There was also a
photo of Mr. Ripley and the dog poop on his shoe. The school board’s phone number was there for parents to call. And the school’s email address was on it for people to order a T-shirt.

  “My mom and dad emailed this to all their friends,” said Safdar. “They asked their friends to email it to as many people as possible.”

  “Thank you, Safdar,” Justine said.

  Michael hurried down the hallway toward them.

  He had his Pooper Scooper T-shirt on too.

  “Hey!” Michael held up a newspaper. “Look at this headline. School Official Cares More About Poop Than Kids’ Literacy.” The front page showed a photo of Michael and Safdar in the park, wearing their T-shirts with the picture of Mr. Ripley pointing at his shoe.

  “What does it say?” Justine asked.

  “Here, let’s have a look,” said Michael.

  A small army of concerned students swarmed the park yesterday in a massive cleanup project to help keep it clean and safe for kids. Project leader, Justine McKeen, said she was inspired after a visit to the school board office, where she was told it was more important to deal with the poop problem outside the superintendent’s office than worry about the loss of her school librarian due to budget cuts.

  “Our teachers already are given so much work to do in the classroom. We really need our librarian to help with getting kids excited about reading,” Justine said. “We also need her to help us learn how to find information. The Internet is confusing and sometimes dangerous. I don’t know why the superintendent took our librarian away. What’s next? Is he going to get rid of our gym teacher and send us to the gym by ourselves? That’s no different than taking away our librarian, Mrs. Reynolds.”

  When Justine, Safdar and Michael finished reading the paper, they gave each other high fives. But their grins faded when the PA system came on and they heard, “Justine McKeen, please report to the office immediately.”

  Chapter Nine

  When Justine got to the office, Jimmy Blatzo was waiting for her. He had his Pooper Scooper T-shirt on.

  “I’m not letting you get into trouble by yourself,” he said.

  Michael and Safdar showed up too.

  “Hang on,” Michael said. “You are not going in there alone.”

  Safdar looked at Jimmy Blatzo. “That’s okay?”

  “Good to see you guys,” Jimmy Blatzo said. “Let’s get this over with.”

  They entered the principal’s office. The principal, Ms. Booth, sat behind her desk. They lined up in front of her.

  “Strange,” Ms. Booth said. “And here I thought I called only for Justine.”

  “We are in this together,” Michael said. “See our T-shirts?”

  The school secretary knocked on the open door. “Ms. Booth, there’s a bunch of kids out here. All of them are wearing Pooper Scooper T-shirts. They said if Justine McKeen is in trouble, then they are too.”

  Ms. Booth put her face in her hands. When she lifted her head, she said, “I don’t have enough room in here. Please take them to the library. Tell them to wait for me.”

  Ms. Booth held up the paper. “Do you see this headline? School Official Cares More About Poop Than Kids’ Literacy.”

  “Yes,” Safdar said. “My eyesight is good. I had a checkup last week and—”

  Blatzo elbowed Safdar. “She didn’t mean it like that.”

  Ms. Booth put her face in her hands again. Then she looked at Justine. “Let me guess. The Pooper Scooper Club was your idea.”

  “The school supported a walking school bus, right?” Justine said. “From that I learned we can make a difference by working together. So I thought if the whole town got involved, maybe we could get Mrs. Reynolds back in the library.”

  “We miss her,” Jimmy Blatzo said.

  “So you made sure everyone in town saw a photo of Mr. Ripley pointing at dog poop on his shoe?” Ms. Booth asked.

  “There was poop all over the park across from the school board office. He told me to solve that problem instead of the librarian problem. So I listened. The dog poop is a big problem.”

  “Justine,” Ms. Booth said, “do you see that because the T-shirt says Stop the Poop at the School Board Office, some people think that means Mr. Ripley is full of poop? Not that there is too much dog poop in Central Park?”

  “I wish I could lie to you,” Justine said. “But that did occur to me.”

  Ms. Booth sighed. “Some people think the T-shirt is disrespectful.” Ms. Booth sighed again. “Some people think it’s funny. I do wish Mrs. Reynolds was back in the library.”

  “Well,” Justine said, “Mrs. Reynolds said if enough parents cared, maybe that would change Mr. Ripley’s mind.”

  “I have good news for you,” Ms. Booth said. “This morning, two hundred parents sent emails asking if they could buy a Pooper Scooper T-shirt. Most of those emails also ask why the school doesn’t have a librarian. Why are parents sending emails to the school to order T-shirts?”

  Safdar coughed. “Ms. Booth, I wish I could lie to you. But maybe, just maybe, somebody made a flyer that has the school’s email address on it. Maybe that student’s name was Safdar.”

  “Yes, Safdar,” Ms. Booth said. “I’ve seen the flyer. Next time, you need to ask to use the school’s email address, okay? Or at least make sure you don’t put your name on the bottom of the flyer as the person who made it.”

  Ms. Booth stood. “What am I going to do with you all?”

  Nobody spoke.

  “Mr. Ripley has the answer,” Ms. Booth said. “I called you to my office because he wants to speak to you in the library.”

  Chapter Ten

  Mr. Ripley was waiting in the library. He had on his blue suit, a blue shirt and a blue tie. The Pooper Scoopers were all wearing their T-shirts with the photo of Mr. Ripley pointing at the poop on his shoe.

  “Please sit, everybody,” Ms. Booth said to the students. “Mr. Ripley would like to speak to you.”

  Ms. Booth stepped to the side as all the students moved toward the study tables.

  Mr. Ripley frowned at Justine McKeen. “Because of your article, I’ve had dozens and dozens of calls from parents. They think I am going to pull coaches and teachers from school gyms. Parents want to know what I’m going to do to stop the poop at the school board office. The parents were laughing.”

  Mr. Ripley began to laugh. “I have to tell you, those T-shirts are very, very funny.” When Mr. Ripley stopped laughing, he looked at Justine. “My size is extra-large. Can I order a T-shirt from you? I think it would be great if we raised enough money for the Poop Power project at Central Park.”

  “Of course,” Justine said. “You were the one who started this, after all.”

  “I know, I know,” Mr. Ripley said. “It really was my fault. I was mad when I first saw the article and the flyer. But now I think it is a very good idea. It’s been a long time since so many parents cared enough to call me. You are right. We need teachers in classrooms and coaches in gyms and librarians in libraries.”

  “So Mrs. Reynolds is coming back?” Jimmy Blatzo asked.

  “It’s not that easy,” Mr. Ripley said. “The school board has to vote and approve it. In the end, the board makes the decision.”

  “When is the next school board meeting?” Justine asked.

  “A week from today,” Mr. Ripley said. “That’s why I am here. If we get an army of Pooper Scoopers there to ask to put Mrs. Reynolds back into the library, it should make a big impact.” Mr. Ripley looked at Justine. “But I have a favor to ask.”

  “Sure,” she said.

  “Please order me a second T-shirt. Have all your friends sign it. I’m going to frame it and put it in my office. I want to remind myself that when kids care about something, it’s important to listen.”

  Classroom Chapter Notes

  Chapter One

  Ebooks save treebooks!

  Over three billion books (made of paper) are sold each year around the globe. That takes a lot of trees. Books in your schoo
l library get used again and again and again, so no one should ever feel bad about this. However, when people buy books for their home, often it is only read once and then placed on a shelf. This is like wearing a T-shirt only one time and never using it again.

  Ebooks, of course, don’t use paper. So how do they work? Well, there are lots of ways to access ebooks, such as on your computer, an ebook reader or on a number of other personal devices. Ask your local librarian for all of the latest information!

  Once you have downloaded the reading software to your device of choice, you can find thousands of free ebooks to read. Check out www.myrockandrollbooks.com to get free ebooks by Sigmund Brouwer.

  Chapter Seven

  According to the American Pet Products Association, four in ten households have at least one dog. In the United States, for example, that is close to seventy million dogs, and forty-five percent of these animals weigh forty pounds or more. That leads to a lot of dog poop!

  Justine gave her friends a lot of information about how dog poop is bad for the environment. Here are ten reasons why people should take care of dog waste and not leave it in the grass. (Source: www.petfinder.com/your-pet-and-you/scoop-dog-poop.html)

  1. Storm water carries pet waste and other pollutants directly into waterways.

  2. Animal waste adds nitrogen to the water. Excess nitrogen depletes the oxygen in water necessary for beneficial underwater plants, fish and other wildlife.

  3. Animal waste may contain harmful organisms such as Giardia, Salmonella and E. coli that can be transmitted to humans and other animals by ingesting contaminated water.

  4. Roundworms and hookworms deposited by infected animals can live in the soil for long periods of time and be transmitted to other animals and humans.

  5. It’s the law! Many urban and suburban areas require you to pick up after your pet. Even if there is no restriction, cleaning up after your pet is always the right thing to do.