Book: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
Author: Trenton Lee Stewart, Illustrations by Diana Sudyka
Page 11, line 11
Genre: Middle-grade
“She urged Reynie to stroke the bird’s feathers (Reynie nervously obliged) and then sent her off again.”
“See, feathers are fiercely fabulous,” Trinny said as they watched her pet parrot scoot across the resting bar in her open cage.
Reynie looked at his palm, furrowed his brows, pulled out his hand sanitizer and squirted a generous amount onto his palm. When the sanitizer came out, it made a farting sound. Trinny giggled. Of course she did. Reynie tucked the sanitizer into his fanny pack then furiously rubbed his hands together.
“You always do that?” Trinny asked.
“I’m a hyper-hygienist,” Reynie said. “Self-diagnosed.” He pulled his shoulders back, zipped up his fanny pack and clapped his (clean) hands together. “Right. So, shall we get a move on then?”
Trinny rolled her eyes. “It’s not time yet. I want to stay here and talk with Reeba,” she nodded toward her parrot.
Reynie looked at the very old, but very expensive watch on his wrist, tapped it twice.
“Nope, we need to go now. The bus will arrive at the stop at precisely 4:37pm,” he looked around the bright kitchen. “Got any snacks? It’s possible we’ll be traveling through the dinner hour. I need to keep hydrated and nourished if I’m to continue my work with efficiency and ease.”
Trinny walked to the counter, opened a cupboard door above the sink. “Ta-da! The snack shack. Take your pick. Grab doubles so I can eat too. I’m sure I’ll get hungry at some point.”
Reynie walked to the cupboard and began pulling snacks out and lining them up on the counter.
“What do you mean, you’ll get hungry at some point? Don’t you eat three square meals a day?”
Trinny smiled as she pulled herself to sit up on the counter. “I eat circle meals, if you please. And I eat them when I’m hungry. When my body wants food, it tells me, then I eat.”
Reynie turned and grabbed his back pack that was on the back of a chair around the kitchen table. He put it on the counter beside the snacks, counted the snacks twice, then started putting them in the bag.
“What is a circle meal? Is that, like, a pizza?” he asked.
Trinny tilted her head. “For real?”
Reynie looked at Trinny, there was a sparkle in her eye that he felt was trying to escape and jump onto him. He didn’t want her sparkle. Too many germs.
“Pizza is round, is it not?”
“It’s a joke, Rey,” Trinny said. She reached over and grabbed a granola bar before he put it into his pack.
“No!” he yelled, trying to take the bar from her. “It needs to be even. Two of each.”
“Get another one,” she said, already unwrapping the snack.
Reynie took another bar from the cupboard, tapped it twice, and put it in the bag.
“So, is your body telling you it’s hungry now? What is it saying? Is it your stomach that can communicate?” Reynie put his backpack on and looked curiously at Trinny.
She chewed. Swallowed. “You’re a weirdo,” she said. “That’s why I love ya. And yes, my stomach gave me a little rolling salute, and that’s how it knows it needs some food.”
She shoved the rest of the bar into her mouth, hopped off the counter and let out a sigh.
*I chose this book…walked up to the bookshelf…in the dark…ran my fingers over spines…and the MBS jumped out!
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