Princess Posey and the Crazy, Lazy Vacation Read online

  Enjoy all of the Princess Posey books

  1

  PRINCESS POSEY and the FIRST GRADE PARADE

  2

  PRINCESS POSEY and the PERFECT PRESENT

  3

  PRINCESS POSEY and the NEXT-DOOR DOG

  4

  PRINCESS POSEY and the MONSTER STEW

  5

  PRINCESS POSEY and the TINY TREASURE

  6

  PRINCESS POSEY and the NEW FIRST GRADER

  7

  PRINCESS POSEY and the CHRISTMAS MAGIC

  8

  PRINCESS POSEY and the FIRST GRADE BOYS

  9

  PRINCESS POSEY and the FIRST GRADE BALLET

  10

  PRINCESS POSEY and the CRAZY, LAZY VACATION

  G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

  an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street

  New York, NY 10014

  Text copyright © 2016 by Stephanie Greene. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Stephanie Roth Sisson.

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  G. P. Putnam’s Sons is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  eBook ISBN 978-0-698-17605-8

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Greene, Stephanie.

  Princess Posey and the crazy, lazy vacation / Stephanie Greene ;

  illustrated by Stephanie Roth Sisson.

  pages cm

  Summary: First-grader Posey is concerned that her spring vacation will be boring compared to her friends’ travels, but her mother’s plan to take each day as it comes turns out to be full of excitement.

  [1. Family life—Fiction. 2. Vacations—Fiction.] I. Sisson, Stephanie Roth, illustrator. II. Title. PZ7.G8434Pmh 2015 [E]—dc23 2014031152

  ISBN 978-0-399-16963-2

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  For Oliver, who loved his leisure time

  —S.G.

  To my dear friend Dina Young

  —S.R.S.

  Contents

  More Princess Posey Books

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 Spring Vacation

  2 That Doesn’t Sound Fun

  3 The Zombie

  4 A Loose Tooth

  5 Going Too Fast

  6 “I Miss My Mommy”

  7 Gramps Is Back

  8 Riding Like the Wind

  9 A Crazy, Lazy Vacation

  10 “You Know What’s Impossible?”

  Spring Vacation

  It was the day before spring vacation. After lunch, everyone helped Miss Lee clean the classroom.

  Posey, Nikki, Ava, and Grace worked in the art corner.

  Posey put the scissors in the scissors bin. Ava and Nikki sorted the colored paper into piles. Grace’s job was to collect the colored markers.

  “You know what’s impossible?” said Posey.

  “What?” said Nikki.

  “It’s impossible to count all the hairs on your head.”

  Grace and Ava and Nikki giggled. They loved to play the impossible game. Lots of kids in their grade played it.

  “You know what’s impossible?” said Nikki. “It’s impossible to count all the leaves on a tree.”

  “My turn,” said Grace. “You know what’s impossible? It’s impossible to talk if you are dead.”

  “What if you’re a ghost?” said Posey.

  They giggled again.

  Miss Lee came over to them. “You four are being very silly today,” she said.

  “That’s because vacation is tomorrow!” said Posey.

  “We’re going to be silly for a whole week,” Ava said.

  “I’m sure you are.” Miss Lee turned to the rest of the class. “We’re almost out of time,” she called. “Finish what you are doing. Then get whatever you’re taking home and line up.”

  Posey got her things and stood in the car line. Ava, Nikki, and Grace got into the bus line.

  “I hope you all have a wonderful vacation and come back to school exhilarated!” Miss Lee said.

  That was their new “exciting” word. Miss Lee had started teaching them a new one every week. They learned the meaning and how to spell it.

  “That means ‘happy’!” a boy shouted.

  “Very, very happy,” said Posey.

  “Great job, both of you.” Miss Lee smiled. “The Monday we get back, you can write a story about what you did and share it with the class.”

  Everyone started to talk about their plans.

  “We’re going to Florida,” Luca said.

  “I’m going to stay with my nani in New York City,” said Rashmi.

  Posey frowned. She didn’t know what they were doing on vacation.

  Her mom was taking the week off. But Posey didn’t think they were going anywhere.

  How could she be exhilarated if all they did was stay home?

  That Doesn’t Sound Fun

  Her mom was waiting for her in the line of cars. Posey got into the backseat with Danny.

  “Are we going anywhere on vacation?” she asked.

  “Hello to you, too,” said her mom.

  “Hi,” Posey said. “Are we?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then what are we doing?” Posey buckled her seat belt.

  “Nothing.” Her mom sounded happy about it.

  “That doesn’t sound like a very fun vacation,” Posey grumbled.

  “We’ll make it fun,” her mom said.

  “Can I sleep over at Gramps’s house?” Posey asked.

  “Gramps is driving Mrs. Romero to visit her sister.”

  “No fair.” Posey slid down in her seat. She crossed her arms over her chest.

  Her mom smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “All we do is rush, rush, rush,” she said. “We need a nice, lazy vacation.”

  “What does that mean?” said Posey.

  “We won’t make any plans,” said her mom. “We’ll wake up every day and see what we feel like doing.”

  “That sounds boring.”

  Her mom laughed. “Wait and see. You might be in for a surprise.”

  The Zombie

  On Saturday, it rained.

  “I’m staying in my pajamas all day,” Posey said.

  “Me, too,” said her mom. “We might even have pancakes for dinner.”

  “For dinner?” Posey shouted.

  They ate breakfast on the couch and watched cartoons.

  Then Posey played blocks with Danny. He knocked everything down.

  “Why’s Danny so cranky?” she asked.

  “He’s getting a new molar tooth,” her mom told her. “He was up half the night.”

  Posey went up to her room. She read her favorite books.

  She col
ored.

  She tried different clips in her hair.

  Then she put on her tutu and made a castle with the pillows and blanket from her bed. She put her stuffed animals inside and crawled in with them.

  She was Princess Posey, the brave princess who protected the castle.

  After a while, her mom came upstairs. “I’m putting Danny down for a nap,” she said. “Keep your fingers crossed.”

  Danny cried for a long time.

  Finally, he fell asleep.

  “So far, so good,” whispered a voice.

  Posey poked her head out of the castle. Her mom was in the doorway. Her face was bright blue. There was a circle around each eye and one around her mouth.

  “You look like a blue clown,” said Posey.

  “Shhhh . . .” Her mom held her finger to her mouth. “It’s a clay mask,” she whispered.

  “You look so funny,” Posey whispered back.

  “I know. Come help me make cookies.”

  Posey tiptoed down the stairs behind her mom. Just as they reached the bottom, the doorbell rang.

  It was very loud.

  Posey’s mom yanked the door open before the bell could ring again.

  “Shhhhh!” she hissed.

  The delivery man with a package in his hands froze.

  His mouth fell open. His eyebrows flew up.

  Posey’s mom silently took the package from him. “Thank you,” she mouthed.

  She smiled her clown smile and shut the door.

  Posey put her hand over her mouth and followed her mom to the kitchen. They burst out laughing.

  “He must have thought I was crazy,” her mom said.

  “You look crazy,” said Posey.

  “The poor man.” Her mom slapped her hand to her chest. “I scared him half to death.”

  “He looked like a zombie.” Posey opened her eyes and mouth wide. She raised her arms in slow motion.

  That made her mom laugh harder.

  For the rest of the day, every time Posey did her zombie imitation, her mom laughed and laughed.

  A Loose Tooth

  Sunday morning was sunny and warm. The minute Posey woke up, she felt something funny.

  “Mom! You won’t believe it!” she shouted.

  She ran into her mom’s bedroom and jumped on her bed. “I have a loose tooth! Look!”

  Her mom sat up. “Let me see.”

  Posey opened her mouth wide. She wiggled her top tooth with her tongue. “I felt it as soon as I woke up,” she said.

  “That looks very loose,” said her mom.

  Posey wiggled her tooth again. It felt so exciting. “Let’s eat breakfast outside to celebrate!” she said.

  “Great idea.”

  Posey ran downstairs and opened the back door. Two red cardinals darted off the bird feeder. Robins pecking in the grass flew up into the apple tree.

  Next door, Nick and Tyler were riding their bikes in their driveway.

  They had used bricks and a board to make a ramp. They rode their bikes up the ramp and jumped off the end.

  They practiced every day after school.

  Posey ran back inside. “Can I ride my bike today?” she asked.

  “You were too big for it at the end of last year, remember?” said her mom.

  “I want to try.”

  “Okay. Let’s have breakfast first.”

  The garage was so messy. There was hardly room for their car. Gramps had hung Posey’s small bike on hooks for the winter. It had training wheels.

  Her mom took it down and put it on the driveway.

  Posey sat on it and tried to pedal. Her knees hit the handlebars.

  “I was afraid of that,” her mom said.

  “No fair,” said Posey.

  When she started to get off, Danny tried to climb on.

  “No, Danny, it’s mine.” Posey sat down again.

  “Here, Danny.” Their mom wheeled out Danny’s plastic truck. He climbed on and pushed it across the driveway with his feet.

  “How come Danny gets to ride?” said Posey.

  “Seems to me that a girl with a loose tooth needs a bigger bike.”

  “Really?” Posey jumped up. “Can we buy one?”

  “We’ll go tomorrow,” her mom said.

  “Why not today?”

  “I need to clean out the garage before we put another thing in it,” her mom said.

  “Wait till I tell Tyler and Nick!” Posey shouted.

  She ran over to the boys. “I’m getting a new bike tomorrow.”

  “Are you getting those dopey training wheels again?” said Nick.

  If Nick called them “dopey,” Posey didn’t want them. “Of course not,” she said.

  “Good thing.” Nick rode his bike up the ramp. He gave a loud shout when he jumped off the end.

  “I have a loose tooth, too. See?” Posey wiggled it back and forth, but the boys didn’t look.

  Posey didn’t mind. Today, she had a loose tooth.

  Tomorrow, she would have a new bike.

  Soon, she could do stunts, too.

  Going Too Fast

  Posey’s new bike was ocean blue. The handlebars had streamers at the end. It had a striped seat.

  Her new helmet had stripes, too.

  The man at the store made Posey straddle the bike to make sure it was the right size.

  “What about training wheels?” he asked Posey’s mom.

  “I don’t want them,” Posey said quickly.

  “You sure?” the man asked.

  Posey nodded.

  “Okay, well, when you need to stop, you pedal backward.” He showed her. “You can also put your feet on the ground.”

  He held the bike steady while Posey sat on the seat. She put her feet on the pedals. They felt just right. She pedaled backward. They stopped halfway.

  “See? That’s all it takes,” said the man.

  “That’s easy,” Posey said.

  He showed her how to put down the kickstand. Then he said, “It’s all yours.”

  When they got home, her mom lifted the bike out of the trunk.

  “Wait until I get the groceries inside,” she said. “I’ll help you.”

  Posey was too excited to wait.

  She straddled the bike and put one foot on the pedal. She hopped onto the seat and pushed down on the other pedal with her other foot.

  The bike moved forward. She was riding!

  Not for long.

  The bike started to wobble. Posey gripped the handlebars harder, but it shook from side to side.

  She forgot how to stop.

  She forgot to put her feet down.

  She was going so fast . . . the grass looked so far away . . . she was too afraid!

  CRASH!

  Posey landed in a heap with her bike on top of her.

  She started to cry.

  “I hate riding bikes,” she wailed. “It’s too hard!”

  Her mom ran out of the house.

  “Calm down. You’re all right,” she said. She lifted off the bike. “Let me see.”

  She felt Posey’s arms and legs. She checked for scrapes. “No harm done,” she said.

  “There was harm! I was afraid!” Posey cried. She wiped her face with her hand.

  Blood!

  “I’m wounded!” she cried.

  “That’s because of this.” Her mom picked up something from the grass. “You lost your tooth.”

  Posey’s tears stopped like magic. She felt in her mouth with her tongue.

  She had a space!

  “You knocked it out when you fell.” Her mom helped Posey stand up. “Let’s go and wash your face.”

  Posey smiled her biggest smile in the bathroom mirror. She pok
ed her tongue through her space.

  She could hardly wait to show Grace and Ava and Nikki!

  But she never wanted to ride that bike again.

  “I Miss My Mommy”

  The tooth fairy left a crisp new dollar under Posey’s pillow.

  “Look,” she said when her mom came into her room the next morning.

  “Lucky you.” Her mom sat on her bed. “Guess who called last night after you went to sleep?”

  “Who?”

  “Nikki’s mom. Nikki invited you and Grace and Ava to a sleepover tonight.”

  “Can I go?” said Posey.

  “If you want to. All you have to bring is your sleeping bag,” said her mom.

  Posey got her sleeping bag out of the closet. She packed her suitcase. She asked her mom, “Is it time yet?” about a million times.

  Her mom drove her to Nikki’s after lunch.

  Her friends spotted Posey’s space right away.

  “Did it hurt?” Ava asked.

  “I didn’t even feel it.” Posey told them about her bike crash.

  “I don’t want to take off my training wheels,” said Nikki.

  “One time, my daddy had to get stitches because he fell on his bike,” Ava said.

  They went outside and took turns jumping on Nikki’s trampoline.

  “You know what’s impossible?” Posey yelled as she jumped. “It’s impossible to jump so high, you touch the moon!”

  They ate pizza for dinner. Then they watched a movie. After, they went up to Nikki’s room to get ready for bed.

  “Something’s wrong with Ava,” Grace said.

  Ava was huddled on Nikki’s bed. She was crying.

  “I miss my mommy,” she said.

  Posey and Grace and Nikki sat beside her.

  Posey patted Ava’s face. “You will see your mommy tomorrow,” she said.

  “I want to see her now,” Ava cried.