by Cari Best
illustrated by Giselle Potter
illustrated by Giselle Potter
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Shrinking Violet By Carrie Best
00:14Illustrated by Giselle Potter For Alexandra, my very excellent daughter
00:21C.B.
00:23For Kiernan G.P.
00:26On the afternoon of the annual Carrie the Flag Day at school, Violet felt her stomach
00:31turn upside down.
00:32I can't do it she told her teacher Mrs. Maxwell.
00:37Everyone will be watching me.
00:40We will be watching your lovely maple leaf frog said Mrs. Maxwell smiling.
00:46And how high you wave it added her best friend Opal.
00:50Not to mention your flag day smile said Harriet.
00:54And how well you march to the music offered John Philip.
00:58I will be watching your fat leaves said Irwin smirking and wrinkling up his nose.
01:04Violet's cheeks blushed rhubarb red.
01:07She passed her flag to Bernie and found a seat in the very last row.
01:12Everyone stared, which made Violet itch and scratch and twirl her hair.
01:17I wish I could just shrink away she thought pretending to tie her shoe.
01:22In the meantime, a fine display of colored flags paraded across the room while Irwin
01:27still smirking, wrote I must be kind to others 100 times, and Violet still blushing, wrote
01:34I am allergic to attention on the inside of her hand.
01:39You don't really have fat knees said Opal as she and Violet walked home after school.
01:45You have hairy arms, said Irwin bursting out of the bushes in front of Mrs. Hawthorne's
01:51house.
01:52All the neighbors stared, which made Violet itch and scratch and twirl her hair.
01:57I wish I could just shrink away she thought, counting the number of hairs she had up and
02:03down her arms.
02:05For as long as Violet could remember, she didn't like to be watched.
02:10She never made waves in the swimming pool.
02:13Or swallowing sounds at snack time.
02:16She didn't sing in the salute to spring concert.
02:20And she wouldn't dance when someone ask her.
02:24For as long as Violet could remember, she liked to do all the watching.
02:29She knew the fast swimmers from the slow ones.
02:32And exactly what everyone brought for snack.
02:36She knew the second someone sang off-key.
02:40And exactly what everyone brought for snack.
02:43She knew the second someone sang off-key.
02:47And who always stepped on whose new shoes.
02:50The more Violet looked and listened, the sharper she got.
02:55Violet showed Opal that a butterfly had six legs and four wings.
03:00And told her how crickets rub their wings together to chirp.
03:05Violet could rumble like a hungry stomach and grumble like King Kong when he got angry.
03:11Opal was impressed.
03:13Violet could do other things too.
03:16My fellow Americans she declared like the president.
03:20She could sing the Hound Dog song like Elvis Presley, shout that ball is over the fence.
03:26Like a sports announcer and hold up her torch like the Statue of Liberty.
03:32But her favorite of all was reciting Captain Hook's Walk the Plank speech.
03:37Yo ho ho, she sneered the end of a hanger sticking menacingly out of her sleeve.
03:43Opal applauded wildly.
03:45You're so good Violet.
03:48Why don't you do your acting for show and tell.
03:52Violet stopped dead in her tracks.
03:54I'd rather eat and she said squirming.
03:58A few days later.
04:01Violet squirmed again.
04:03At school Mrs. Maxwell announced that the class would be putting on a play about the
04:07solar system.
04:09Each of you will have a part Mrs. Maxwell said, like an asteroid or a meteoroid a comet
04:15or a planet a satellite or a star.
04:18What will Violet be, asked Irwin wrinkling up his nose.
04:23Some deadly sure gas.
04:26Violet covered her face with her astronomy book and itched and scratched and twirled
04:30her hair.
04:31After lunch the parts were given out.
04:35Violet was relieved when she didn't hear her name.
04:38And then she did.
04:40The role of Lady Space will be played by Violet said Mrs. Maxwell.
04:45When no one was looking, Violet told her teacher, I can't do it.
04:51So Mrs. Maxwell explained.
04:54There will be nine planets, eight asteroids, seven meteoroids, six comets, and five stars
05:01on stage.
05:03But Lady Space will be speaking from a dark and mysterious place offstage.
05:09For once Violet didn't itch and Violet didn't scratch.
05:13She didn't twirl her hair and she didn't want to shrink away.
05:17She went home and learned her lines bouncing her voice all around the house like an echo.
05:23You can't see me, but I'm here all right.
05:27I'm everywhere.
05:29I am space.
05:31Violet practiced under the coats in the closet on top of the onions in the basement and in
05:36front of the toothbrushes in the bathroom.
05:39In no time at all, she knew her lines perfectly.
05:44And everyone else's too.
05:46Mrs. Maxwell's class rehearsed long and hard.
05:50Louder coached Mrs. Maxwell until everyone got it just right especially Violet who had
05:56to say her part from way up in the projection booth.
06:00Sometimes there were little problems with costumes or with scenery.
06:05But there was only one big problem.
06:07The nine planets kept forgetting where they were supposed to stand.
06:12Remember Mrs. Maxwell said, where you stand on stage depends on how far your planet is
06:18from the sun.
06:19Then she taught them a funny phrase.
06:22My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas.
06:26Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto.
06:32But the planets were still all mixed up.
06:35Just about everyone had the jitters on opening night.
06:39When the curtain went up.
06:42Lady Space was the first to speak.
06:45Our solar system is part of a giant galaxy called the Milky Way she said.
06:51And the sun, a star is at the center.
06:55Violet watched as Harriet looking big and bright stood in the middle while all the planets
06:59moved around her.
07:01Boohoo said the audience when Saturn whirled her rings.
07:06Then right on cue, the spooky outer space music changed to standing in one place music.
07:13Everyone remembered what to do.
07:15Everyone except Irwin who was Mars.
07:18Irwin kept moving.
07:21Around and around like the spin cycle on a washing machine.
07:25Into the scenery and over the props.
07:28Tripping ripping bumping and jumping.
07:32Faster and faster.
07:34Spinning and spinning.
07:36Until he was all spun out.
07:38Now the planets looked like this.
07:41My very excellent pizza just served us nine mothers.
07:46First Mercury started speaking.
07:49Then Venus.
07:51Then Earth.
07:53Mars was next.
07:55But where was Irwin?
07:57Suddenly Violet knew what she had to do.
08:00She put on her Irwin the smirk face and in perfect imitation she began.
08:06I am Irwin the alien, maddest Martian on Mars.
08:10Scientists think there is no intelligent life on my planet.
08:15And they're right.
08:16The audience laughed as if it were all part of the play.
08:20Violet continued, the surface of Mars is as red as blood.
08:26That's why I'm named after the god of war.
08:29Anyone want to fight?
08:31This time the audience roared.
08:34Irwin scrambled to his feet gave Pluto one last push and finally took his proper place.
08:41Everyone stared.
08:42Which made Irwin fidget and burp and twiddle his thumbs.
08:47After that it was smooth sailing.
08:49At the end of the play, there were three curtain calls.
08:54The spotlight looked for Violet.
08:57Until Opal said, the beautiful and talented lady space wishes to remain dark and mysterious.
09:04Which made the audience clap again and throw a storm of confetti.
09:09While the cast was getting ready to go home, Violet had a lot of backstage visitors.
09:16One of them was Irwin.
09:17Thanks he whispered.
09:20I would have looked so dumb.
09:22Even when he saw that everyone was watching, he said out loud, maybe you don't have fat
09:28knees or hairy arms.
09:30And maybe you don't smell like sure gas either.
09:34But you do have a really bad case of skeleton elbows.
09:38And Irwin smirked and wrinkled up his nose.
09:42Just like he always did.
09:45Only this time, even though everyone was watching her, Violet didn't feel like shrinking away.
09:51She knew she had finally done something about that Irwin, in her own way.
09:57And this time, she didn't bother to check her elbows.
10:01She knew they were exactly the way they were supposed to be.
10:05Just like she was.
10:07Carrie Best was every bit as shy as Violet when she played the part of Lady Space in
10:12her school play about the solar system.
10:16You can't see me, but I'm here alright.
10:19I'm everywhere.
10:20I am space are the very words that she spoke, from behind the curtain, of course.
10:28She is the author of seven picture books including Three Cheers for Catherine the Great, a Naylor
10:33Notable Book and Booklist Editor's Choice.
10:37It was also selected as a Best Book of the Year by Child Magazine Publishers Weekly and
10:42Bank Street College of Education.
10:45Carrie Best lives in Connecticut.
10:48Gizelle Potter confesses that she is a little like Violet as well, she would rather not
10:53have everyone looking at her.
10:56As a child, she performed behind the masks of her parents' puppet theater company, the
11:01Mystic Paper Beasts.
11:04She has illustrated many popular and award-winning picture books including Kate and the Beanstalk
11:10by Mary Popesbourne as well as Carrie Best's Three Cheers for Catherine the Great, which
11:15Booklist praised in a starred review saying, Potter's festive whimsical artwork is an irresistible
11:21play of vibrant colors and patterns filled with rich details and diverse expressive characters
11:27Gizelle Potter lives in Rosendale, New York.
11:31The End.