Miss Klute Is a Hoot! by Dan Gutman Page B

anybody know what hypoallergenic means?”
    Andrea waved her hand in the air like she was stranded on a desert island and trying to signal a plane. But Mr. Macky called on me.
    â€œThat means Miss Klute is a kind of shampoo,” I said, sticking my tongue out at Andrea. I knew that because my mom told me her shampoo is hypoallergenic.
    â€œNot exactly, A.J.,” said Mr. Macky. He called on Andrea.
    â€œHypoallergenic means Miss Klute won’t bother people who are allergic to dogs,” said Andrea.
    â€œThat’s right, Andrea!”
    Andrea smiled the smile that she smiles whenever she’s the only one with the right answer. Why can’t a truckload of hypoallergenic shampoo fall on her head?

    We all gathered around to pet Miss Klute. She seemed to like it. She didn’t bite anybody’s hand off, anyway.
    â€œShe’s adorable!” announced Alexia.
    â€œMiss Klute is cute!” said Emily.
    â€œI love her!” Neil said, wrapping his arms around Miss Klute and hugging her.
    Wow, a minute ago Neil thought Miss Klute was going to bite his head off, and now he was saying he loved her. Neil is weird.
    â€œWould you like me to read a story to Miss Klute?” asked Mr. Macky.
    â€œYes!” said all the girls.
    â€œNo!” said all the boys.
    I still didn’t get it. Dogs don’t understand English. Why would anybody want to read to them? Boy, for a reading specialist, Mr. Macky didn’t know a whole lot about reading.
    He pulled a book off the shelf. It was called Doug Unplugged . Mr. Macky sat on the floor next to Miss Klute, and we all gathered around him.
    â€œ This is Doug. He’s a robot ,” read Mr. Macky. “ Each morning his parents plug him in to fill him up with lots and lots of facts. ”
    I looked at Miss Klute. She was looking at Mr. Macky as he read.
    â€œ They love their little robot and want him to be the smartest robot ever ,” Mr. Macky read from the book.
    Miss Klute cuddled herself up into a giant ball and put her head on Mr. Macky’s lap as he read about Doug the robot. I had to admit, it was adorable.
    Doug Unplugged was a cool story. It had us all glued to our seats.
    Well, not really. We were sitting on the floor. Why would anybody glue themselves to a seat? How would you get the glue off?
    When he got to the middle of the story, Mr. Macky reached into his pocket and pulled out a Cheerio. He gave it to Miss Klute to eat.
    â€œYou keep Cheerios in your pocket ?” I asked. “That’s weird.”
    â€œDid you run out of bowls?” asked Ryan.
    â€œNo, we had to put Miss Klute on a special diet,” Mr. Macky said, “because sometimes she eats too much.”
    â€œMy mom is on a special diet,” I said. “If she loses ten pounds, she’s going to buy a bikini.”

    â€œYour mom is weird,” said Michael.
    â€œIf Miss Klute loses ten pounds, we should get her a bikini,” suggested Ryan.
    â€œYeah, Miss Klute would look good in a bikini,” said Neil.
    â€œDogs don’t wear bikinis!” said Alexia.
    â€œThat’s right,” Emily said. “They go swimming naked.”
    â€œEwww, disgusting!” we all shouted.
    â€œLet’s stay on task, shall we?” said Mr. Macky.
    He finished reading Doug Unplugged. Then he gave Miss Klute another Cheerio.
    â€œIt looked like she was really paying attention to the story,” Andrea said. “Miss Klute is amazing!”
    No, she’s not. She just sat there and did nothing the whole time. Do you know what would really be amazing? If Miss Klute read a story to us .
    Now that would be amazing.

Mr. Macky said he had to leave because he needed to bring Miss Klute to the other classes. But the next day, after we finished math, he poked his head into our doorway again.
    â€œMiss Klute is here!” everybody yelled when we saw her. “Hooray!”
    â€œWould you like to read her a