Just Grace Goes Green

Just Grace Goes Green

Written and illustrated
by
Charise Mericle Harper

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Boston New York

Copyright © 2009 by Charise Mericle Harper

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Sandpiper,
an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States
by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, an imprint of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.

SANDPIPER and the SANDPIPER logo are trademarks
of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhbooks.com

The text of this book is set in Dante.
The illustrations are pen and ink drawings digitally colored in Photoshop.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

ISBN: 978-0-547-24821-9 pb

Manufactured in TK

TK 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my editor, Margaret Raymo,
who is patient, kind, and creatively cool!

JUST GRACE GOES GREEN
IS PRINTED ON 100% RECYCLED PAPER

This means it...

1
contains 100% post-consumer fiber

2
is certified EcoLogo and processed chlorine-free

3
is certified FSC recycled

4
is manufactured using biogas energy

Using recycled paper instead of regular paper in
Just Grace Goes Green
helps the environment in the following ways:

1
Saves the equivalent of 17 mature trees

2
Reduces solid wastes by 1,081 pounds

3
Reduces the quantity of water used by 10,196 gallons

4
Reduces air emissions by 2,098 pounds

5
Reduces natural gas consumption by 2,478 cubic feet by using biogas

THINGS YOU CAN CHANGE

1
Your underpants. Hopefully every day and if you are a girl probably without your mother having to remind you about it one hundred and one times.

GIRLS' UNDERPANTS BOYS' UNDERPANTS

2
Your friends. Sometimes you might think that you have the perfect number of
friends, but then you add a new friend to the list and suddenly you can't believe that it used to be different, because now it seems so just right perfect, and just maybe even better than before.

3
Your mind. So that if you at first thought one thing, but then some time goes by and now you think another thing, then that's okay.

THINGS YOU CANNOT CHANGE

1
Your family. Even if sometimes they absolutely and completely drive you crazy, and you can't even believe you are really related to them.

2
Your messy room. No matter how much you clean it up, the new stuff you bring into

it always makes it messy again. Though some rooms are more messy than others. Compared to Mimi's room, my room is the castle of clean!

3
Your name on a teacher's list, even if it is marked in pencil. I know this because I used to be called Grace, but now I'm called Just Grace, and it will probably be that way in my school life forever and ever. Plus, my name is now not even next to the other Graces'!

MY NAME IN MISS LOIS'S BOOK

MISS LOIS VS. ME

Miss Lois is my teacher at school. If her wants and my wants were in a wrestling match, her wants would always win. That's how it goes with teachers and students. And that's why my wants are sitting in the corner feeling sad. It's no fun to always be the loser.

MY WANTS

MISS LOIS'S WANTS

Even though my wants are the always-losers, I don't hate Miss Lois.

THE NEW MISS LOIS

Miss Lois has been a more fun teacher lately. She used to be boring and serious most of the time, but now she is only those things some of the time. It's a big improvement! I think it's because she saw how much all her students loved Mr. Frank. He was fun 100 percent of the time. Mr. Frank was our student teacher, but he couldn't stay with us forever because he had to go back to school to finish off getting his teacher license. It's like a driver's license, except when you get it you don't get to do something fun like drive a car—you just get to stand in front of a classroom and talk.