EllRay Jakes Is Not a Chicken

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VIKING

Published by Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U. S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in 2011 by Viking, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group

Text copyright © Sally Warner, 2011

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Warner, Sally.

EllRay Jakes is not a chicken / by Sally Warner ; illustrated by Jamie Harper.
p. cm.

Summary: Eight-year-old EllRay's father has promised a family trip to Disneyland if EllRay can stay out of trouble for a week, but not defending himself against Jared, the class bully, proves to be a real challenge.

ISBN : 978-1-101-56458-5

[1. Behavior—Fiction. 2. Bullies—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Family life—California—Fiction.

5. California—Fiction.] I. Harper, Jamie, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.W24644Em 2011
[Fic]—dc22
2010025106

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

“Two for flinching,” Jared Matthews says at lunch one
MONDAY
in January.
BOP!
He punches me really hard on my right arm muscle—which is not very big, it's true.

It looks like a ping-pong ball, only brown.

“I didn't flinch,” I argue, rubbing my arm to make the sting go away.

My name is EllRay Jakes, and I am eight years old. I am the smallest kid in Ms. Sanchez's third grade class, even counting the girls, and Jared is the biggest.

It's like I am made out of sticks, and Jared is made out of logs.

My dad says I'm going to get bigger someday, but when?

“Here's one to grow on, EllRay,” Jared's kiss-up friend Stanley Washington says, his glasses gleaming like mean lizard eyes.

And—
BOP!

“EllRay
wishes
he would grow,” Jared says—because I'm so short. Great joke, Jared.

And then Jared laughs like a cartoon donkey: “
HAW, HAW, HAW!
”

It's just another relaxing lunch on an ordinary day at Oak Glen Primary School, in Oak Glen, California.

There is a third grade boys' war going on at our school, but the three kids in the war—Jared Matthews, Stanley Washington, and me, EllRay Jakes—all act like nothing is wrong.

Our teacher, Ms. Sanchez, doesn't have a clue.

Ms. Sanchez is smart about what goes on
inside
her classroom, but she doesn't know what goes on outside—before school and during nutrition break, lunch, and afternoon recess.

And outside is when school really happens for kids.

“Good one, Stanley,” Jared says after Stanley insults me, and Jared high-fives him.

“Bad one, Stanley,” I echo, trying to make fun of them.

Stanley Washington is like Jared's shadow. He wears glasses, like I said, and he has straight brown hair that flops over his forehead as if it has given up trying.

Jared is chunky and strong, and he has frowning eyes, and his brown hair sticks up all over the place like a cat just licked it.

His hair does whatever it wants, just like Jared.

A couple of girls hop by, holding hands. Jared and Stanley step back, looking all innocent—because girls
tell.
Especially these girls, Cynthia Harbison and
her
kiss-up friend Heather Patton.

“Icky boys,” Cynthia calls out over her shoulder.

Cynthia is the cleanest person I have ever met. She is strangely clean.

For instance, Cynthia's fingernails never have any dirt under them. Also, her clothes never get any food, poster paint, or grass stains on them, no matter what. I don't think she has very much fun, and what's the point in being that clean if it means you never get to have any fun?

Cynthia has short, straight hair that she holds back with a plastic hoop, and Heather pulls
her
long hair back so tight in a ponytail that her eyes always look scared. But maybe Heather really
is
scared—from hanging around mean, bossy Cynthia all the time!

Cynthia is like Jared, only without the hitting.

“Hey, EllRay, why don't you go sit on the grass with the rest of the girls?” Jared asks me when Cynthia and Heather have hopped away to the other side of the playground.