Horrible Harry and the Dragon War Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Clouds of War

  The “S” Word

  Indoor Rainbow

  Outdoor Battle

  The White Package

  The Dragon Parade

  Clouds of war are rolling in....

  “Could I do my project on dragons?” Song Lee begged.

  Before Miss Mackle could say yes, Harry jumped up. “My grandmother read St. George and the Dragon to me last night. It was cool. See?” Harry whipped the library book out of his backpack. “I want to do dragons, too!”

  Everyone looked at the terrifying beast on the cover. It was spitting fire.

  “Hmmm ...” the teacher replied. “Why not? They’re mythical animals. You can both do dragons. You and Song Lee work so well together.”

  While Harry slapped Song Lee five, we all smiled. No one dreamed Miss Mackle’s decision was going to be deadly.

  I think the weather knew, though. Dark clouds circled Southeast School and thunder rolled. When a tree branch tapped our classroom window, we stopped talking and looked up. Was the whistling wind trying to tell us something?

  BOOKS ABOUT HORRIBLE HARRY AND SONG LEE

  Horrible Harry and the Ant Invasion

  Horrible Harry and the Christmas Surprise

  Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom

  Horrible Harry and the Dungeon

  Horrible Harry and the Green Slime

  Horrible Harry and the Holidaze

  Horrible Harry and the Kickball Wedding

  Horrible Harry and the Mud Gremlins

  Horrible Harry and the Purple People

  Horrible Harry Goes to the Moon

  Horrible Harry Goes to Sea

  Horrible Harry at Halloween

  Horrible Harry in Room 2B

  Horrible Harry Moves Up to Third Grade

  Horrible Harry’s Secret

  Song Lee and the Hamster Hunt

  Song Lee and the “I Hate You” Notes

  Song Lee and the Leech Man

  Song Lee in Room 2B

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by Penguin Group

  Penguin Young Readers Group,

  345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

  Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2

  Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

  First published in the United States of America by Viking,

  a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2002

  Published by Puffin Books,

  a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2003

  9 10

  Text copyright © Suzy Kline, 2002

  Illustrations copyright © Frank Remkiewicz, 2003

  All rights reserved

  THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE VIKING EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

  Kline, Suzy

  Horrible Harry and the dragon war / by Suzy Kline ; [Frank Remkiewicz, illustrator].

  p. cm.

  Summary: Working on a dragon project in Room 3B leads to

  a war between two good friends—Harry and Song Lee.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-07681-1

  [1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Fighting (Psychology)—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.

  4. Korean Americans—Fiction.] I. Remkiewicz, Frank, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.K6797 Hnk 2002 [Fic]—dc21 2001056849

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  Special thanks to the following people for their valuable help with this manuscript: my editor, Cathy Hennessy; my daughter, Emily Hurtuk; my husband, Rufus; my friend Mary Ann Boulanger; Rhoda Blumberg for her helpful essay, “The Truth about Dragons”; and Rick McBride, Cultural Consultant at the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles, California.

  And special appreciation for the wonderful readalouds I shared each year with my students: My Father’s Dragon, Charlotte’s Web, and Stone Fox.

  Dedicated to my third grandchild,

  Gabrielle Lauren DeAngelis,

  born December 1, 2001,

  Manchester, New Hampshire

  Gabby,

  I love you,

  Grandma Sue

  Clouds of War

  My name is Doug. I’m in Room 3B. Usually, I write stories about my best friend, Harry. He loves to do horrible things. Sometimes I write about Song Lee. She’s the nicest person in third grade. Once I even wrote about Harry and Song Lee getting married.

  But that’s an old story.

  This is a new one and the most horrible one of all. Harry and Song Lee’s first fight. A fight that turned into a war.

  It all started with dragons.

  We were sitting on the rug having our morning snack. Harry was eating celery sticks with peanut butter. He says the raisins down the middle are ants on a log. Sidney was munching on his usual, an apple with brown spots.

  I was slurping grape juice with my new twisty straw. Miss Mackle, our teacher, was peeling a tangerine when she broke the news. “Our next project is going to be fun. Pick an animal from any story you’ve read and find out all you can about it.”

  Mary waved her yogurt spoon in the air. “I know who I’m doing. Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web! She saved Wilbur’s life.”

  “I’m doing Searchlight from Stone Fox,” I said. “I love that dog. She helped little Willy and his grandfather save their farm.”

  “Dibs on Templeton from Charlotte’s Web,” Sidney called out. He loves to eat like me!” When Sid bit into another brown spot, Mary cringed.

  “Only you would choose a rat,” she groaned. “But I can see why.” Then she pointed to Sid’s snack. “You both like rotten things.”

  Sidney cackled as he wiped the apple juice off his mouth with his shirt sleeve.

  Miss Mackle clapped her hands. “I’m so happy some of you already know which animal you want. Anyone else have an idea?”

  Song Lee raised her hand. “I love dragons. Remember when you read My Father’s Dragon to us?”

  Miss Mackle smiled. “I sure do. It’s one of my favorites!”

  “I read it again, myself. Could I do my project on dragons?” Song Lee begged.

  Before Miss Mackle could say yes, Harry jumped up. His celery went flying into the air, hit the blackboard, and fell sticky side down on the braided rug.

  Song Lee giggled as she helped wipe up the peanut butter mess with her pink napkin.

  “My grandmother read St. George and the Dragon to me last night. It was cool. See?” Harry whipped the library book out of his backpack. “I want to do dragons, too!”

  Everyone looked at the terrifying beast on the cover. It was spitting fire.

  “Hmmm ...” the teacher replied. “Why not? They’re mythical animals. You can both do dragons. You and Song Lee work so well together.”

  While Harry slapped Song Lee five, we all smiled. No one dreamed Miss Mackle’s decision was going to be deadly.

  I think the weather knew, though.

  Dark clouds circled Southeast School and thunder rolled. When a tree branch tapped our classroom window, we stopped talking and looked up. Was the whistling wind trying to tell us something ?

  Yes!

  Doom was coming to Room 3B!

  The “S” Word

  That stormy morning Miss Mackle set out toilet paper rolls, balloons, newspaper, cardboard, and masking tape on the supply table. She was at the sink mixing something in
a bucket. “I’m excited about this new quick-drying art paste for our papier-mâché. But you need to sketch your animals first.”

  “Yippee!” Harry and I shouted. We loved doing messy projects. Everyone got busy drawing.

  Harry drew a dragon with a huge sail of skin on its back, huge bat wings, five sharp claws, and a spiked tail with a fat arrow at the end. It looked like the picture in his book. It spit fire and poisonous green smoke. “This baby is one mean dragon!” Harry roared.

  “Mine’s not mean,” Song Lee said softly. “He’s kind, like the one Elmer talked about in My Father’s Dragon. Did you know I was born in the Year of the Dragon? It only comes once every twelve years. I was lucky. Dragons bring good fortune!”

  Harry put his green crayon down and stared at what Song Lee had drawn. “A blue, green, and yellow striped dragon with curly hair? Four claws and one little red horn? No wings? How can he fly?”

  “He flies,” Song Lee said proudly. “My dragon has a mane like a lion. It pumps air in and out and helps him fly.”

  “What’s that white round thing in his mouth?” Harry asked.

  “That’s his pearl. In Korean, we call it yom ju. It helps dragons fly, too, but no one knows how.”

  Harry rolled his eyes. “What’s he eating?”

  Song Lee smiled. “He’s eating bamboo and sipping cream.”

  “Cream?” Harry laughed. “Don’t you know dragons drink elephant’s blood? Hercules killed one with a bunch of heads and poisonous breath. Dragons are terrifying! They eat people!”

  “Not mine,” Song Lee insisted. “My dragon isn’t mean. He’s gentle. And he loves cream.”

  Harry shook his head as he watched Song Lee draw flowers on the dragon’s bowl.

  Then he said it.

  One little “s” word that hit our room like a torpedo.

  “Your dragon is stupid!”

  Song Lee immediately glared at Harry. Her eyes got all watery. “My dragon is not stupid. He’s beautiful!”

  “Beautiful? Dragons are fierce. If I lived in the Middle Ages, I’d be Sir Harry! I’d slay the dragon with my silver sword and save you.”

  Song Lee stood up and made a face that I had never seen before. She was angry and sad at the same time. “I don’t need to be saved. I love dragons! They bring good luck!” When she blinked, a tear dropped onto her paper and blurred her dragon picture. She quickly pulled out her pink blossom handkerchief, wiped her eyes, and stopped crying. Then she picked up her things and marched over to Ida and Mary’s table.

  Harry shrugged as he looked at me. “Hey, Doug, I can’t help it if she doesn’t know anything about dragons.”

  I shrugged back. I didn’t feel like taking sides. Harry was my best friend, but Song Lee was my friend, too.

  When Harry reached for a green crayon, he noticed it looked brand-new. “This has to be hers,” he grumbled. “Mine are all stubs.” So he brought it over to Song Lee.

  “You left this,” he mumbled. “You’ll need it to color those green stripes on your dragon.”

  Song Lee didn’t look up. She didn’t say a word. Mary and I shook our heads. We knew we were watching something awful.

  The beginning of a dragon war.

  Indoor Rainbow

  The next hour was deadly. Nobody laughed. Hardly anybody talked. When we blew up the balloons for our papiermache projects, nobody popped one on purpose. Not even Harry.

  Miss Mackle noticed Song Lee had moved to the girls’ table, but she didn’t notice the war. “Everyone’s working so nicely together!” she hummed. “What a wonderful class I have!”

  Mary and I exchanged a look. Working nicely together? Song Lee and Harry were working on separate planets.

  At 11:05, the rain finally stopped. When the sun peeked out between the clouds, Ida broke the eerie silence. “Look!” she screamed. “There’s a rainbow on our table!”

  Everyone shot out of their seat, holding their sticky hands in the air.

  There it was.

  A perfect little rainbow with all the colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. It was magical!

  “See,” Song Lee said. “Dragons bring good luck.” She was careful to say that to the girls only.

  “Yours sure does!” Mary replied, clapping her hands. “The rainbow is arched over your dragon!”

  Harry groaned, “Rainbows, schmainbows. They have nothing to do with luck.”

  Mary and Ida shot Harry a look.

  Sid followed him back to his table. “If you were a leprechaun, Harry, you wouldn’t say that. They hide gold at the end of rainbows.”

  Harry plopped down in his chair. “In case you haven’t noticed, Sid the Squid, I’m not a leprechaun. I’m a knight! Sir Harry! See the dragon I’m making?”

  “Cool,” Sid replied. “So I’ll call you Sir Harry the Canary from now on.”

  Harry nodded as he taped a toilet paper roll onto his dragon. I don’t think Harry minded his nickname as much when Sid put “Sir” in front of it.

  A few minutes later, Harry walked over to Song Lee. He had forgotten she was mad at him. “What do you think of my dragon now?” he asked.

  Song Lee always said something nice about Harry’s work.

  But this time, it was different.

  Song Lee didn’t look at Harry. She didn’t say one word. She just kept pasting long paper strips on her dragon.

  Their fight had turned into a deadly silent war. “How long are you going to keep this up?” Harry demanded.

  Song Lee said nothing.

  The silence was so strong we could hear the wall clock tick tick ticking.

  This time when Harry returned to our table, Mary followed him. As soon as he sat down, she shook a finger in his face. “You need to apologize.”

  “To who?” Harry asked.

  “Song Lee!”

  “For what?” Harry snapped.

  “For calling her dragon stupid.”

  “No way,” Harry insisted. “Any dragon that drinks cream and has stripes and curly hair is stupid.”

  Mary blew up into her bangs. She was furious. “Harry Spooger, I am joining Song Lee’s side in this war.

  Just you wait for recess.”

  Harry grumbled something as Mary stormed off.

  Oh boy, I thought. Recess is going to be deadly. I tried to change the subject. “Hey, Harry,” I said. “You know what this green goopy stuff looks like?”

  Harry didn’t respond.

  I told him anyway.

  “Snot.”

  I let the gooey paste drip slowly from my long paper strip so he could see what I meant.

  “Yeah,” Harry replied. He looked over for a second. He didn’t laugh like he usually did at gross things. Or fall off his chair. He didn’t even flash his white teeth.

  Ever since Harry and Song Lee had their big fight, life in Room 3B just wasn’t fun anymore.

  Outdoor Battle

  At noon recess, Mary shouted, “To the kickball diamond!” Everybody ran to the far field. There was only one puddle on the playground, and it was way over by the fence.

  As we gathered together, Mary announced, “Today’s kickball game is a big one. It’s a battle between the dragons! You can either be on Song Lee’s side, or on Harry’s side.”

  Harry immediately sprang into action. “Anyone on my team is a Fire-Breathing Dragon with Green Poisonous Breath. Our fierce dragons are going to win!” he bragged.

  I knew I’d be on Harry’s side. Sidney did, too. He gargled like he was swishing mouthwash. Sid didn’t look like a very mean dragon, but he tried.

  As people chose sides, Song Lee whispered something into Mary’s ear. Mary nodded, then said, “Our team is the G.L.D.’s. The Good-Luck Dragons! And we’re up first. Play ball!”

  Song Lee waited behind the plate, because in Room 3B, captains kick first. Usually Harry runs out to play centerfield. He likes catching fly balls. Today he stomped.

  I moseyed over to shortstop.

  No one made
small talk or cheered on the team.

  Dexter tried to lighten things up. He did a rock-and-roll dance at the mound first, and sang “Bee bop de boo” a few times. Song Lee just waited at the plate.

  “Play ball!” Mary shouted.

  Dexter sang one more “Bee bop de boo,” then rolled a fast ball over the plate.

  Song Lee leaped forward to meet it. She kicked the ball hard with her red and white sneakers.

  Pow!

  Up ... up ... up ... it went! Harry chased it. The ball hit the fence, then bounced back into the puddle.

  Splash!

  Harry was there for the water-works. He got sprayed right in the face! Song Lee had enough time to race around the bases for a home run while Harry waded into the puddle and fished out the floating ball.

  The G.L.D.’s scored their first point. Mary made a slash mark on the cement in white chalk. “We’re ahead!” she bragged.

  Three outs later, the G.L.D.’s were ahead seven to nothing. Song Lee pitched a bouncy fast ball over the plate. Harry ran up to meet it. His sneakers squeaked with water.

  Suddenly, an ambulance rounded the corner. Harry turned to look and missed the ball!

  When Sid laughed, Harry shot him a look.

  Mary yelled, “Strike one!”

  “There are no strikeouts in kickball,” Harry groaned.

  “It counts as a foul!” Mary replied. “Remember? We added that rule last month.”

  Harry grumbled something while Song Lee pitched the next ball. This time she put an extra twist on it. I could tell she was angry. That ball whizzed to the plate!

  Harry didn’t notice. He was too busy pretending he was a fire-breathing dragon. He exhaled loudly and roared as he ran toward the spinning ball.