Post on 15-Oct-2021
EMMAEMMAIs on the AirIs on the Air
Big News!
b y b y ID A SI E G A LID A SI E G A L
i l l u s t r a t i o n s b y i l l u s t r a t i o n s b y
KA R LA P E NKA R LA P E NA
S C H O L A S T I C I N C .S C H O L A S T I C I N C .
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If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware
that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold
and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the
publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Text copyright © 2015 by Ida Siegal
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Scholastic Inc.
This book is being published simultaneously in hardcover by
Scholastic Press.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC,
SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or
registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
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without written permission of the publisher. For information
regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention:
Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or
are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is
entirely coincidental.
ISBN 978-0-545-68692-1
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 16 17 18 19 20/0
Printed in the U.S.A. 40
First printing 2015
Book design by Sharismar Rodriguez
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1
Chapter Chapter
OneOneFamousFamous
IF you have to do a chore, you might as well
set the table. That’s my chore. It’s better than
cleaning your room, or scrubbing the toilet, or
worse . . . changing your baby sister’s diaper
trash can! Yuck. Plus, when you set the table,
you can practice being famous.
“Plaaaate! Everybody needs a plaaaate!” I
sang as I skipped around our faded wooden
table Sunday evening. That’s how famous people
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2
set the table. They sing and set at the same time.
Singing is a very famous job.
“Fooork! Now everybody needs a fooork!”
My cat, Luna, joined in to help me. She
likes to be famous, too. “Meeeoow! Meow, meow,
meeeoow,” she sang along.
Luna has the softest brown fur you’ve ever
seen. It makes me think of chocolate pudding.
My hair is the same brown as Luna’s, except
with curls and really long. Like chocolate pud-
ding Slinkies. If I stretch my pudding Slinkies
out, I can practically sit on them. I’m eight years
old—and so are my curls. I’ve never cut my hair
before. Next year, my curls will turn nine!
I whipped my eight-year-old pudding-Slinky
curls from one side to the other, famous-style.
Then I used a spoon for a microphone and sang
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3
as loud as I could, “Spoooon, glorious spoooon!
Next to the knife youuu go! ”
Down the hall, my baby sister started
crying.
“Emma! What are you doing out there?”
called my mom from the kitchen.
“I’m setting the table, Mom, like you told me
to,” I called back.
“I don’t think I told you to wake up your sis-
ter,” she said, walking into the dining room.
“Though I suppose she had to get up for dinner
soon, anyway.”
Mom went to get Mia, and I continued set-
ting the table.
“Knife and napkin. Knife and napkin. Cut and
wipe and make it happen! ” I sang in my extra-
famous voice.
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5
Then Papi yelled from the living room.
“¿Qué pasa aquí?” he asked.
That’s Spanish. It means, “What’s going
on here?”
“¡Nada!” I yelled back. That means,
“Nothing!”
My papi is from a whole other country called
the Dominican Republic. They speak Spanish
there. That’s why I call him Papi—it’s like say-
ing “Daddy,” but in Spanish. You say it like this:
“PAH-pee.”
“Dinner’s almost ready. Isn’t that right, Mia?”
Mom said as she put baby Mia in her green high
chair next to the table. My mom is not from the
Dominican Republic. She’s from here—New York
City. That’s where we live. Our neighborhood is
called Washington Heights. It’s at the very tippy-
top of Manhattan.
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6
“GAGA BABA BOO,” Mia said in baby
language.
Mom answered her in grown-up baby lan-
guage. “Yes, I know you’re ready for dinner! Oh,
you’re so cute . . . coo, coo, coo . . . look at that
smile.”
Mia is pretty cute. But baby talk is for babies,
and I’m eight, so I ignored them and kept sing-
ing and setting the table.
“Seriously, Emma,” said my dad. “I’m trying
to watch the news; please pipe down a bit.”
The living room is right next to the dining
room, so when Papi started watching the news
on our TV, I could see it, too.
Ugh. The news. It’s just so boring. It’s horri-
bly, ridiculously, terrifyingly boring!
“But, Papi, I haaaate the news!” I groaned.
“It’s sooo boring.”
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7
“Watching the news while you set the table
won’t kill you,” Mom said.
On the TV, there was a man and a woman
sitting at a big news desk. It was blue and yellow
and looked like it glowed in the dark. They
started talking about a boring man with a bor-
ing tie. And then they talked about a boring
doctor, and he talked about a boring doctor
thing.
Then I could feel it. I could feel the boredom
kicking in. It tingled as it entered through my
ears and eyes . . . and then the boredom started
oozing through my whole body and I couldn’t
make it stop! I really was going to be bored to
death! I was about to tell my papi to call an
ambulance when . . . I saw her.
Suddenly there was a woman on the TV. A
fancy-looking newswoman. She was standing on
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the street, and there were lots of police cars
behind her. She had shiny brown hair, a fabu-
lous red coat, and glossy pink lips. Her cheeks
were rosy with blush, and her eyelashes were
long and black. She was wearing a big white
pearl necklace, and she was holding a micro-
phone with a colorful cube on top. She was
amazing.
“Police say the robber smashed the glass
window,” she was explaining. “He grabbed ten
gold watches and ran away down the street.”
She was not boring at all. She looked so . . .
she just looked so . . . so special.
I placed the last cup on the table and raced
over to the sofa where Papi was sitting.
“Papi, who was that?” I asked hurriedly.
“Oh, her? She’s a reporter. I forget her name,”
he replied.
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“A news reporter? Do you think she’s
famous?”
“Well, I suppose,” Papi said.
“Aha! I knew it! I knew she was famous. I’m
going to be just like her!” I declared.
“But, Emma, wait . . . that’s not why she—”
But I had already run out of the room. A
news reporter. I knew right away this was how
I was going to be famous! Besides, how hard
could it be?
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