Quiz Girl

The first in a brand new series, this Quiz Girl book has been SO much fun to write. It’s a middle grade book for 8-12 year old girls. Do you know a Quiz Girl?

Excerpt:

Chapter 1

I have two favorite things in the world. Puzzles and quizzes, and not necessarily in that order. See, life is full of little puzzles. Writing quizzes helps me make sense of them–in a fun way.

My top ten list of favorite activities looks like this:

April Betancourt’s Favorite Things to Do

Read mystery books

9. Homework, especially if it includes writing

8. Dream of having straight hair

7. Play Rummy, anytime, anywhere

6. Speak Spanish with my Dad

Defend my title as reigning tetherball champion

4. Swim

Hang out with Haven and Darcie, my best friends

2. Puzzles–Any kind of puzzles

and my #1 favorite thing to do is…

1. WRITE QUIZZES, of course

My most perfect day would be to combine all ten of the things on my top ten list. So far, that opportunity hasn’t come knocking at my door.

But when it does, I’ll be ready.

“Hello? Earth to April. Are you listening to me?” Darcie’s voice sounded far away.

I looked up from my purple polka dot notebook where I’d been writing. “I’m listening,” I said. Actually, I’d only been half listening because I’d been busy modifying my Top Ten List and developing a quiz question about it. And when inspiration strikes, as my dad always says, you have to jump on it.

Darcie poked her head out of the panty and said, “Well?”

“Well what?” I asked. Maybe I hadn’t been listening at all because I had no idea what she was talking about.

Haven answered instead. “Don’t you want summer to last forever?”

I stared at my two best friends as I thought about this. Endless summer. Never ending summer. The summer that wouldn’t end. That would be horrible, I finally decided. “No way,” I answered.

Darcie stared at me like she had no idea who I was. “But if summer lasted forever, we could swim and play and make as many batches of cookies as we wanted. We could go horseback riding and eat watermelon and…and…and there would be no homework for all eternity! Can you imagine it?”

I tapped the eraser end of my pencil against my forehead. Darcie knew that I actually liked homework. Well, liked might not be the right word. I didn’t mind homework. “You’d get totally bored,” I said.

Haven frowned. “I’d never get bored. I could bake 24/7.”

“It’s too hot in Texas for summer to last forever,” I said.

“Yeah,” Darcie said, “but we’d be swimming, remember?”

“You’d both miss your other friends,” I said.

“Probably.” Darcie agreed with this. “But I wouldn’t miss long division.” She came all the way out of the pantry with a bag of leftover Halloween candy. “I wish I could have missed that in fourth grade.”

Not me. I liked social studies, I thought science was okay, I loved any kind of writing, and I even thought long division was kind of fun. And liking long division is not something that a lot of people would admit.

Don’t get me wrong. It isn’t that I don’t like summer, too. No school meant more time to play tetherball (I was the reigning fourth grade champion over girls and boys), more time for goofing around, more time to read, and more time for writing quizzes. But come on, an eternity of that would get majorly old after awhile, wouldn’t it?

Summer verses school. School verses summer. A new quiz idea zipped into my head. I started writing.

Quiz Question #1

You wake up one morning only to discover that summer is going to last forever. You…
Jump up and down, do a backflip, and cheer
Call up the school and tell the principal–

“Hey! April!” Darcie slammed her hand on the table, then plopped down beside me. The old Halloween candy spilled all over the table.

Haven sat down next to her. “You’re writing another quiz, aren’t you?”

I looked up at them, smiled really big, and nodded. “I’m going to work all summer long and by the time school starts,” I paused for dramatic flair, “it will be finished.”

Darcie took a bite of a candy bar. I was pretty sure her mom would not be happy with her breakfast of a chocolate bar, even if it did have crispy rice cereal in it. “What’ll be finished?” she asked.

I wasn’t sure what they would think of my new plan. The three of us are practically triplets–only Darcie is about four inches taller than me, has stick straight blonde hair (mine is the color of red tree bark and curly–and I mean C. U. R. L. Y., CURLY), and Haven has skin the color of black coffee, tiny beaded braids in her hair, and is a year younger than me and Darcie. We’re all totally awesome at tetherball, but Darcie loves to do crafts and Haven loves to bake (both things I like to do, but am actually not very good at–except for my world-famous Leftover Halloween cookies). I love to write quizzes (which they don’t quite get, but they love to take).

But they are my best friends, and if they couldn’t understand my obsession, then no one could.

I flipped back some pages in my notebook and showed them the cover page I’d made.

I’m a Quiz Girl: April Betáncourt’s Book of Quizzes