Read Tip-Top Tappin' Mom! Online
Authors: Nancy Krulik
Tip-Top Tappin' Mom! (4 page)
Chapter 7
But dinnertime was just as noisy as the afternoon had been.
First, Katie’s mom tapped from the oven to the table with the vegetarian lasagna.
Then she twirled from the refrigerator to the table with the milk.
Finally she shuffle-stepped from the counter to the table with the chocolate cake.
“This dinner sure was tip-top,” Mr. Carew told Katie’s mom.
“Tip-top
tap
,” Katie joked.
tap
,” Katie joked.
Katie’s mom curtsied. “Thank you, my adoring fans,” she joked.
After dinner, Katie and her dad went upstairs to look at his special geography book.
“I really want to do well in the Geography Bee,” Katie told her dad. “Maybe I’ll even win.”
“You can try,” Mr. Carew answered. “And this will definitely help.”
Katie’s dad pulled a big black binder from the top of a bookshelf. He opened it to a page in the middle.
Katie looked at the book. She was a little confused. “Stickers?” she asked. “How can a sticker book help me win the Geography Bee?”
Mr. Carew shook his head. “Look closer,” he said. “They’re
not
stickers. They’re stamps.”
not
stickers. They’re stamps.”
“They’re not like any stamps I’ve ever seen,” Katie told him.
“That’s because they’re from different countries,” her dad explained. “See that one with the ballerina painting on it? It’s from France. The colorful one with the horse and carriage is from China. And the one in the corner with Noah’s Ark is from Israel.”
“This is so cool!” Katie exclaimed. “I didn’t know you collected stamps.”
“I started when I was about your age,” her dad told her. “It’s a lot of fun. I used to imagine I lived in all these different places.”
“Where’s that red one with the boat on it from?” Katie asked.
Mr. Carew looked closely at the stamp. “New Guinea,” he said.
“Where’s that?” Katie asked him.
“I’ll show you,” her dad answered. He turned the page and showed Katie a map of the world. There were stamps all over the map. “I tried to put the stamps on the countries they came from.” He pointed to an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. “See, there’s another copy of that stamp. And that’s where New Guinea is.”
“This is great,” Katie said.
Mr. Carew nodded. “You can look at it for as long as you like,” he told Katie. “I have a lot of other albums, too. Just be careful. A lot of these stamps are kind of old.”
“You can count on me, Dad,” Katie told him. “I won’t let anything happen to your stamps. I promise!”
Chapter 8
A few days later, Katie and Emma W. went to the Cherrydale Mall after school. Katie’s mom was the manager of the Book Nook bookstore. Katie had been coming to the mall since she was a little kid. Nearly everyone who worked there knew her.
“You want to go have a pizza at Louie’s?” Katie asked Emma W. “I can ask him to make my favorite veggie pizza.”
“Yum!” Emma W. exclaimed. “We can study our geography flash cards while we eat. I want to go over the Asian countries again.”
Katie walked to the front of the bookstore, where her mom was hanging a poster on the wall.
“We’re going to Louie’s for some pizza and studying,” Katie told her mom.
“Great idea,” Mrs. Carew said. She stepped back and looked at her poster. “Does that look straight to you?” she asked the girls.
Emma W. nodded. “What is a Tap-Off ?” she asked, reading the poster.
“It’s an event that Miss Ricky’s dance school is having,” Katie’s mom explained. “We’re trying to get as many people as we can to tap dance in the parking lot outside the mall. Our goal is to break a record for the most people tap dancing at one time.”
“Why are you doing that?” Katie asked her.
“Miss Ricky wants to get people interested in tap dancing,” her mother explained. “Hopefully, newspaper and TV reporters will come and do stories about the Tap-Off. Then people will want to take lessons.”
“Cool,” Emma W. said. “Can I be one of the dancers? I mean, I’ve never taken tap dancing, but . . .”
“Of course you can dance with us. Miss Ricky is going to teach the routine to everyone,” Katie’s mom told Emma W. “Also, a few of the dancers from Miss Ricky’s school will be at the front of the crowd. You can watch them and follow what they do. I’m trying out to be one of those dancers.”
“Cool! You could be on TV,” Katie said.
“If I’m chosen,” her mom replied. “I hope I’m good enough.”
“I’m sure you are,” Emma W. told her. “Katie says all you do is practice tap dancing.”
Mrs. Carew gave Katie a funny look, but she didn’t say anything.
“Are you ready to go to Louie’s now?” Katie asked Emma W.
“Sure,” Emma W. told her. “Good-bye, Mrs. Carew.”
“Bye, Emma,” Mrs. Carew answered. “I’ll see you at the Tap-Off.”
“You sure will,” Emma W. said.
“Bye, Mom,” Katie said.
“See you later, Katie,” Mrs. Carew called after her.
As the girls walked out of the store, Emma W. asked Katie, “Are you going to dance in the Tap-Off ?”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Don’t you think it’s great that your mom is going to audition to be one of the dancers who gets to be on TV?” Emma W. asked.
“No,” Katie said.
“Why?” Emma W. wondered.
“Because that’s going to mean I’ll have to hear a lot more tap-tap-tapping,” Katie told her.
A few minutes later, Katie and Emma W. were sitting in a booth at Louie’s Pizza Shop. They were sipping orange sodas and waiting for their veggie pizza with extra broccoli.
Emma W. held up a flash card. “The Yellow River is on which continent?” she asked.
“That’s easy,” Katie said. “Asia. It’s in China.”
“Exactly right,” Emma W. told her.
Now it was Katie’s turn to hold up a flash card. “Fiji is an island in which ocean?”
“The Pacific Ocean,” Emma W. answered.
“You got it!” Katie exclaimed. “My dad has the coolest stamp from Fiji. It has pretty yellow mushrooms on it.”
Just then, Suzanne and her mom walked into Louie’s. Suzanne was carrying a lot of shopping bags. Her mom looked very tired.
“Wow! You’ve been busy,” Katie said to Suzanne.
“I’m studying,” Suzanne explained.
Katie and Emma W. looked at her strangely.
“How is shopping studying?” Emma W. wondered.
Suzanne pulled a pink cap out of one bag. “This would keep me warm in Antarctica, which is near the South Pole.”
Katie doubted a little cotton cap would be much help in Antarctica, but she didn’t say anything.
Suzanne held up a bathing suit next. “If I were in the Amazon rain forest, where it’s very hot, I’d need this.”
“It’s actually for Suzanne to wear this summer,” Mrs. Lock told Katie and Emma W.
Suzanne scowled at her mom. “Right now, it’s for studying,” she insisted. “I’ve been studying hard for the Geography Bee. I’m planning on winning.”
“So are we,” Katie told Suzanne. “In fact, we’re studying right now.”
Suzanne looked around. “Where are your packages?” she asked.
Katie and Emma W. started to laugh.
“Only you could turn a Geography Bee into a fashion show, Suzanne,” Katie said.
Just then, Louie brought the veggie pizza over to the table. Katie and Emma W. offered Suzanne and her mother a slice.
Suzanne folded her slice in half and started to take a bite. A big glob of tomato-covered cheese fell on her shirt.
“Oh, no!” Suzanne moaned.
“Don’t worry, Suzanne,” Katie said. “Pizza is from Italy. Now you have an Italian shirt. It’s studying!”
Suzanne gave Katie a funny look. Then she smiled. “You’re right. And Italy is a country that’s shaped like a boot. Boots are in fashion these days.”
“I wonder if that will be a question in the Geography Bee,” Emma W. teased.
“If it is, I’m ready!” Suzanne exclaimed happily as she took a big bite of her Italian pizza.
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