From Alice to Zen and Everyone in Between (Exceptional Reading & Language Arts Titles for Intermediate)

252 Pages·2008·0.91 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Atkinson

Alice
would rather play
soccer than go to the mall.
Zen
would rather read fashion
magazines than play soccer.
At first, Alice doesn’t mind that she
isn’t just like Haley and Yvette, the
reigning princesses of her new middle
school. Then she realizes that being
different can set you apart...
...and being friends with a boy like
Zen can set you way apart.
Why does being
yourself
have to be so
complicated?

t
CAROLRHODA BOOKS MINNEAPOLIS • NEW YORK
Copyright ©2008 by Elizabeth Atkinson
Front cover photograph copyright
©2008 Todd Strand/Independent Picture Service
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written
permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief
quotations in an acknowledged review.
Carolrhoda Books
A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
Website address: www.lernerbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Atkinson, Elizabeth.
From Alice to Zen and everyone in between : a novel / by Elizabeth
Atkinson.
p. cm.
Summary: Upon moving from Boston to the suburbs, eleven-year-old
tomboy Alice meets Zen, a very strange neighbor who is determined to
help her become popular when they both begin middle school, although
he himself is a loner.
ISBN-13: 978–0–8225–7271–8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
[1. Popularity—Fiction. 2. Middle schools—Fiction. 3. Neighbors—
Fiction. 4. Eccentrics and eccentricities—Fiction. 5. Moving, Household—
Fiction. 6. Family life—Massachusetts—Fiction. 7. Massachusetts—
Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.A86373Fro 2008
[Fic]—dc22 2007009659
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 – BP – 13 12 11 10 09 08
eISBN-13: 978-0-7613-3982-3
For Nate and Madeline
THIS PAGE
INTENTIONALLY
LEFT BLANK
Chapter One
“Breakfast, Alice Bunt!”
My father, Jim Bunt, called me from the kitchen of
our brand-new, 3,500-square-foot white colonial house.
It was our first morning waking up in the suburbs.
“Breakfast, Sophie Bunt!”
Now he was calling my mother, who had to make the
7:30 train into Boston. She was the vice president of
marketing at the largest book publisher in New England.
“Breakfast, Einstein and Yaz Bunt!”
Those two were my dog and cat. Einstein was sup-
posedly the smartest pug puppy his breeder had ever
sold. And my tabby cat was named after my all-time
fave baseball player, Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski.
All four of us rushed down the wide stairs into the
foyer through the long living room past the cathedral
dining room and into the kitchen with its seven-foot
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From Alice to Zen
windows looking out over the half-acre lawn.
Wow, our new house was enormous!
You have to understand, for the past eleven years of
my life—my whole life—we had lived in a small apart-
ment in Boston. There was my teeny bedroom, one tiny
bathroom, Mom and Pop’s little bedroom, and one
large everything room. That was it. We did all our liv-
ing in that large everything room: cooked, ate, played,
talked, worked, and watched TV.
“Smells delicious, dear,” remarked my mother as she
sat at the head of the kitchen table. “How are the new
appliances?”
“Work like a charm!” Pop, beaming.
Einstein and Yaz were happily gobbling up their
morning chow.
“Ooh, Pop, my fave!” I exclaimed. “Rocket waffles.”
My dad was an expert at making waffles. His secret
ingredient was powdered sugar. Once, when I was very
young, he cut the waffles into the shape of a rocket to
get me to try them. He’s been doing it ever since.
Mom checked her watch, then slipped on her suit
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