Ramona decided that she preferred

Sustained Silent Reading to DEAR because

it sounded more grown-up.When time came

for everyone to Drop Everything And Read,

she sat quietly doing her Sustained Silent Reading.

How peaceful it was to be left alone in

school. She could read without trying to

hide her book under her desk or behind a

bigger book. She was not expected to write lists of words she did not know, so she could figure them out by skipping and guessing.

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Mrs.Whaley did not expect the class to write summaries of what they read either, so she did not have to choose easy books to make sure she would get her summary right. Now if

Mrs.Whaley would leave her alone to draw,

too, school would be almost perfect.

Yes, Sustained Silent Reading was the

best part of the day. Howie and Ramona

talked it over after school and agreed as they walked from the bus to his house.There they found two of the new friends he had made

at Cedarhurst School waiting with their

bicycles.

Ramona sat on the Kemps’ front steps, her

arms clasped around her knees, her Sustained Silent Reading book of fairy tales beside her, and looked with longing at the boys’ two

bicycles while Howie wheeled his bicycle

out of the garage.

Because Howie was kind and because

Ramona was his friend, he asked,“Ramona,

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would you like to ride my bicycle to the

corner and back?”

Would she! Ramona jumped up, eager to

take a turn.

“Just once,” said Howie.

Ramona mounted the bicycle and, while

the three boys silently watched, teetered and wobbled to the corner without falling off.

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Having to dismount to turn the bicycle around was embarrassing, but riding back was easier—at least she didn’t wobble quite so much—and she managed to dismount as if

she were used to doing so. All I need is a little practice, thought Ramona, as Howie seized

his bicycle and rode off with his friends, leaving her with nothing to do but pick up her book and join Willa Jean in the house.

Now that Willa Jean was going to nursery

school, she was full of ideas. Dressing up was one of them. She met Ramona at the door

with an old curtain wrapped around her

shoulders. “Hurry up and have your snack,”

she ordered, while her grandmother sat

watching television and crocheting.

The snack turned out to be pineapple

juice and Rye Crisp, a pleasant change for Ramona, even though Willa Jean stood

impatiently beside her, watching every swallow until she had finished.

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“Now I’ll be the lady and you be the dog,” directed Willa Jean.

“But I don’t want to be a dog,” said

Ramona.

Willa Jean’s grandmother looked up from

her crocheting, reminding Ramona with a

glance that Ramona’s job in the Quimby

family was to get along at the Kemps’. Did she have to be a dog if Willa Jean wanted