Guest Blogger: Samantha Learns a Lesson

(E demanded a turn.)

I've read these two chapters of the book a lot of times. These two chapters are called "Nellie" and "Mount Better School." But today is my first time reading the whole book.

What happens is her friend Nellie, the servant who lives two houses away, has just started school. She's nine, but she's in second grade. The teacher is mean and so are the children. And Samantha goes to Miss Crampton's Academy for Girls. Her teachers are Miss Crampton and Miss Stevens.

After Nellie's first day of school and after Nellie told Samantha how her first day of school was terrible, Samantha gets the second grade books from Miss Stevens and starts to teach Nellie. She teaches her to read and do all other sorts of schoolwork so she can move up to the third grade. She moves up to the third grade. But her desk is next to Eddie Ryland's because they sit in rows of how smart you are. Eddie Ryland isn't that smart, so he sits in like the back row or somewhere around the back row. Nellie just moved up from second grade, so she's not so smart for third grade, so she sits around the back row too.

Also at the end of the book, there's a speaking competition and Samantha is chosen to take part in it, but there's a mean girl in her class whose name is Edith Ettleton. She gets chosen too. But Samantha wins. I already told you about the part where she has a little school for Nellie. That was my favorite part. That's why I keep reading the book over and over again.

[Can I just say how thrilling it is that E now sits around and reads with us? The other day, S was cooking, and M, E, and I were reading in the kitchen with him, and I realized that my dream had been realized: everyone reads! so I can read! Can I also say that we are working on the difference between "smart" and "capable of doing the work," and it's a work in progress?]