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    The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother
    The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother
    The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother

    By Elvira Woodruff

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Budding young scientist ten-year-old Nelly Brown is spending the summer with her 70-year-old grandmother in a cottage by the sea. When she finds an old chemistry set in the basement, Nelly is thrilled to discover that the experiments in the set are guaranteed to work. Equipped with bottles and beakers, test tubes and chemicals, it also has instructions for mixing up magic formulas. Each child using the set can make one wish that can come true. Nelly, who loves her grandmother more than anyone else in the world, decides to mix up a formula to make her grandmother young. When things go very wrong, Nelly calls on her cousin Ben to help reverse the effects of the formula. But will he be able to help? And can they reverse the formula in time? (Ages 7 - 10)

    Rave reviews and honors for The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother:

    Winner of Maud Hart Lovelace Award

    Winner of the Florida Sunshine State Young Reader's Award

    "A deft blend of magic and farce . . . A lighthearted fantasy about a somewhat misguided budding scientist." ~ Publishers Weekly

    "This is an enjoyable fantasy with realistic concerns about the effects of aging balanced by the comic results of Nelly's solution, and just a touch of real magic to spice up the story. The reading level, tone, and feeling are similar to Woodruff's Awfully Short for the Fourth Grade . . . combining a childishly serious theme with funny results in an easy fantasy. It will appeal to the same wide audience." ~ School Library Journal

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherElvira Woodruff
    Release dateDec 17, 2014
    ISBN9781311785602
    The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother
    Author

    Elvira Woodruff

    Elvira Woodruff is the author of many popular books for children. In the many years she has been writing both picture books and novels for middle grade readers her work has won a number of children’s state awards such as the Florida Sunshine State Award, the Maud Lovelace Award, The Carolyn W. Field Award, the Mark Twain Book Award, and The Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Award. Elvira was born in Raritan, New Jersey and has lived for many years with her family in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania.

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      Book preview

      The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother - Elvira Woodruff

      Rave reviews and honors for

      The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother

      Winner of Maud Hart Lovelace Award

      Winner of the Florida Sunshine State Young Reader’s Award

      A deft blend of magic and farce . . . A lighthearted fantasy about a somewhat misguided budding scientist. ~ Publishers Weekly

      "This is an enjoyable fantasy with realistic concerns about the effects of aging balanced by the comic results of Nelly’s solution, and just a touch of real magic to spice up the story. The reading level, tone, and feeling are similar to Woodruff’s Awfully Short for the Fourth Grade . . . combining a childishly serious theme with funny results in an easy fantasy. It will appeal to the same wide audience." ~ School Library Journal

      The Summer

      I Shrank

      My Grandmother

      _________________

      Elvira Woodruff

      Text copyright © 1990 by Elvira Woodruff

      Text originally published by Holiday House.

      First eBook edition published by Elvira Woodruff, November 2014

      Cover photo: Young Girl Observing Chemistry Experiment

      copyright © iStockphoto / sdominick

      Cover font: Megalopolis Extra copyright © Jack Usine / SMeltery

      http://www.smeltery.net

      Cover design: J. A. McDonald

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Woodruff, Elvira.

      The summer I shrank my grandmother / Elvira Woodruff.

      p. cm.

      Smashwords Edition

      Summary: When aspiring scientist Nelly Brown uses a magic chemistry set to make her grandmother young again but is unable to stop the alteration, the seventy-year-old woman becomes a baby and Nelly fears that she may shrink into nothing

      [1. Magic-Fiction. 2. Grandmothers-Fiction.] I. Title.

      PZ7. W8606Su 1990

      [Fic]—dc20 90-55099 CIP AC

      Visit Elvira at: http://www.ewoodruff.com

      To Sothea,

      a spunky girl of great spirit.

      Contents

      Rave Reviews for The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother

      Title page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      1. I Almost Had It Glowing!

      2. A Young Scientist at Seaview

      3. For Boys and Girls Who Dare to Dream

      4. The Wizard’s Gaze

      5. Welcome Dreamer

      6. Mixing Powders

      7. The Potion

      8. Good Grief, Grandma! Is that You?

      9. You Haven’t Turned Her Hair Green, Have You?

      10. What Have I Done?

      11. A Game of Shells

      12. Where Is Rugbee?

      13. Emmy Brown Is Such a Pain!

      14. Afraid

      15. Cheerios and Jelly on Her Toes

      16. Before It’s Too Late!

      17. McFinney’s Magnificent Mysteries Co.

      18. Almost Gone!

      19. The Biggest Mistake

      20. Letting Go

      21. Love and Jelly Doughnuts

      About the Author

      Other Books by Elvira Woodruff

      1

      I Almost Had It Glowing!

      "This is the biggest mistake that I’ve ever made in my whole life!" Nelly Brown moaned.

      It’s a pretty big one, her cousin Ben agreed. I’ve never seen anyone disappear before, he whispered. I wonder where they go.

      Nelly was too stunned to reply. The baby they were watching was almost transparent now. Nelly’s lower lip began to tremble. Seeing someone disappear in front of you was bad enough, she decided, but when that someone was your grandmother, and your grandmother was an infant, it was just too horrible!

      She’s going, Nell! Ben said, fighting back tears. She’s almost gone!

      Don’t go, Grandma! Nelly cried. This is all my fault . . . all my fault. It was true. If it hadn’t been for Nelly and the scientific formula she’d made, her grandmother would still be looking like her solid, seventy-year-old self. But soon, thanks to Nelly’s experiment, Emma Brown would be looking like nothing at all!

      I’m sorry, Grandma, I’m so sorry, Nelly whispered.

      She wiped away a tear that had rolled down her cheek, trying to remember how it had all started, before her grandmother had gotten this way, before they’d come to the cottage in Seaview. It all began back in April, when her grandmother was still very much a solid person. Nelly remembered how Emma Brown had stopped smiling when she’d heard of her son and daughter-in-law’s plans to take Nelly with them to New York State for the summer.

      All the way across the country for two months? her grandmother had cried out. Why, you can’t deprive me of my only granddaughter for two long months! Besides, who will look after Nelly while you two are up to your ears in seaweed?

      Nelly’s parents were marine biologists, and their trip was not to be a vacation as much as a trip to do research.

      "It’s true, we will be awfully busy on this trip. There won’t be much time for sight-seeing." Nelly’s father looked at his wife.

      "And Nelly will have to spend a lot of time with a baby-sitter. Nelly’s mother frowned. That’s it, it’s settled. Nelly will spend the summer with me. I’ve rented a little cottage in Seaview. It will be just perfect for the two of us," Emma Brown declared.

      Yippee! Nelly hooted from the other side of the living room, where she had been quietly dipping the magazine into the aquarium. She was conducting an experiment to see whether the fish would read it or eat it.

      Can we take Rugbee with us? Nelly asked.

      Rugbee was her grandmother’s old dog. He was part collie and part Lab and mostly lazy, as Emma Brown often said. And can Ben come, too?

      Of course we’ll take Rugbee, her grandmother answered. But Ben can’t come. He has to visit his dad in Arizona, remember?

      Ben was Nelly’s first cousin. They had grown up next door to each other until his parents had divorced. Then, because his mother had decided to go back to school, they had moved close to a college, an hour away. Ben’s dad was now living in Arizona and Ben was planning on spending the summer with him. Nelly missed her cousin and still thought of him as her best friend.

      We’ll have a good time, you’ll see, Nelly’s grandmother said, noticing Nelly’s disappointment. It will be ladies only, though we’ll have to make an exception for Mr. Rugbee. She laughed.

      Are you sure you want Nelly for the whole summer? asked Nelly’s father, beckoning his daughter and the soggy magazine away from the aquarium. You know she can be quite a handful.

      I know nothing of the kind, Emma Brown said, making room for Nelly on the couch. She’s just a happy, healthy ten-year-old with an inquisitive mind. Actually, she reminds me of the way I used to be. I was ten years old once, too, you know. She smiled at Nelly and playfully gave her curly brown hair a tug.

      You may have been ten once, Mother, but I’m sure your parents never had to put up with the kind of messes this ten-year-old makes, Nelly’s mother said, moaning. Why, just last night she was trying to invent a new kind of spaghetti that would glow in the dark.

      I almost had it glowing, Nelly protested, but you made me stop.

      The only thing that was glowing was the huge mess in my kitchen, her mother said wearily.

      I’m surprised at you two. Emma Brown turned to face Nelly’s parents. You should be doing all you can to encourage this child’s curiosity, she scolded.

      Believe me, Mother, she needs no encouragement in that department. Nelly’s father laughed.

      And so, after a bit more discussion, it was decided

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