Hurray for Ali Baba Bernstein Read online

  BY JOHANNA HURWITZ

  The Adventures of Ali Baba Bernstein

  Aldo Applesauce

  Aldo Ice Cream

  Baseball Fever

  Busybody Nora

  Class Clown

  The Cold and Hot Winter

  DeDe Takes Charge!

  The Hot and Cold Summer

  Hurricane Elaine

  The Law of Gravity

  Much Ado about Aldo

  New Neighbors for Nora

  Nora and Mrs. Mind-Your-Own-Business

  Once I Was a Plum Tree

  The Rabbi’s Girls

  Rip-Roaring Russell

  Russell Rides Again

  Russell Sprouts

  Superduper Teddy

  Teacher’s Pet

  Tough-Luck Karen

  Yellow Blue Jay

  Hurray for my friends

  Helen and David Stephenson

  Chapter 6, “Ali Baba and the Mystery of the Missing Circus Tickets,” originally appeared in a different version as “Rosie Relkin’s Raincoat” in In Another World and Other Stories, edited by Mark W. Aulls, Ed.D., and Michael F. Graves, Ph.D. Copyright © 1985 by Scholastic Inc. Reprinted with permission.

  Text copyright © 2013, 1989 by Johanna Hurwitz

  Illustrations copyright © 2013, 1989 by Gail Owens

  All rights reserved.

  Published by StarWalk Kids Media

  (Printed edition originally published in 1989 by

  William Morrow and Company.)

  Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and articles, no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher. Contact: StarWalk Kids Media, 15 Cutter Mill Road, Suite 242, Great Neck, NY 11021.

  www.StarWalkKids.com

  ISBN 978-1-623346-58-4

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  1. Ali Baba Breaks the Rules

  2. Ali Baba and the Case of Kelly’s Deli

  3. Ali Baba Bernstein, King for a Day

  4. Ali Baba Meets Santa Claus

  5. Ali Baba on His Own

  6. Ali Baba and the Mystery of the Missing Circus Tickets

  1. ALI BABA BREAKS THE RULES

  Last year when David Bernstein was in third grade, there had been three other boys named David in his class. There were David Katz, David Rodriguez, and David Shapiro. David Bernstein did not like that a bit. It was much too confusing. Then, one day when he was reading a book called The Arabian Nights, he discovered a wonderful name: Ali Baba. There were no other Ali Babas in his class. And as far as David Bernstein knew, there were no other Ali Babas in his school. It was the perfect new name for a boy who wanted to be different.

  David Bernstein had told his parents, his teacher, and his classmates to call him Ali Baba. His teacher had been surprised by this name changing in the midst of the school year. However, there was no rule about it, and so with time, she did.

  Now Ali Baba Bernstein was nine years, four months, and seven days old. His mother said he was old enough to act his age and accept the name he had been given when he was born. That was easy for her to say. She didn’t sit in a fourth-grade classroom from Monday to Friday and hear other people being called her name over and over again. Even though David Katz had moved during the summer, there were still four Davids in the class. Now there was a new boy named David Lee, who had transferred from another school.

  Ali Baba Bernstein was determined that if he ever changed schools, he would have his parents investigate the names of his new classmates first. And in the meantime he would continue to use the name Ali Baba. It made him feel important and it made him feel special. He liked that.

  On the Friday morning in September that Ali Baba Bernstein was nine years, four months, and eleven days old, his fourth-grade class was scheduled to take a trip to the public library.

  Ms. Melrose had told the students about the library visit several times during the week. Each time she concluded her comments with the words, “Be sure to bring your library card to school with you on Friday.” She wanted each of them to borrow a biography for their first report. A biography, she explained, was the story of someone’s life. Ali Baba hoped that someday someone would write a book about the story of his life.

  Ali Baba always carried his library card in the same plastic case that held his monthly bus pass and an emergency card with the telephone number of his father’s office. So when he got on the bus to go to school that Friday morning, it never occurred to him that he had a problem. But as the bus neared the school he put his hand into his back pocket and removed the little plastic case. He admired his green bus pass and wondered what color he would get next month. Perhaps October would be red.

  Then Ali Baba flipped open the different compartments of the case and looked for his library card. It was not there. How could he have lost it?

  “Hey, come on,” Natalie called to Ali Baba as she was getting off the bus. “This is our stop.”

  Natalie was a second-grader who lived on the same street as Ali Baba. On the bus to school each day she always sat or stood as close to Ali Baba as she could. Usually she just stared at him. Ali Baba knew that she had a crush on him, because a couple of the girls in Natalie’s class had told him. He generally pretended to ignore her, but he often watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was the first girl who liked him.

  Ali Baba stuffed the plastic case back into his pocket and readjusted his backpack as he got off the bus. Where could his library card be?

  “I love Fridays,” said Natalie as the two of them walked in the direction of the school.

  Ali Baba didn’t answer. He was too busy trying to figure out the location of his missing library card. He was sure he hadn’t lost it. He remembered going to the library and checking out a book quite recently. And suddenly Ali Baba realized what had happened. The librarian had stuck his card in the pocket of the book he had borrowed that day. The card was still in the pocket, and the book was on the floor under his bed at home.

  “Don’t you like Fridays?” asked Natalie. When Ali Baba didn’t respond, she asked, “Don’t you like to talk to me? It’s not my fault that I’m not as old as you are.”

  “I don’t care how old you are,” said Ali Baba. “I’ve got a problem.” He looked at the small girl walking beside him. “Do you have a library card?” he asked her.

  “Sure,” said Natalie, nodding her head. “I got it when I was in first grade.”

  “Would you let me borrow it?”

  Natalie looked less certain. “The librarian said that we should never, ever let anyone else use our card, because then we’d have to pay if the book got lost.” She looked at Ali Baba. “But if you cross your heart and hope to die that you’ll return all the books on time, I’d let you use my card.”

  “Super,” said Ali Baba, smiling at Natalie with relief. Who would have guessed that it would be so useful to have a second-grade girl with a crush on him? “My class is going to the library this morning, and Ms. Melrose will have a fit if she finds out I left my card at home.”

  “Oh,” said Natalie as they reached the entrance of the school. “My card is at home, too. I thought you wanted to use it this afternoon when school was over.”

  “That’s no help,” grumbled Ali Baba.

  “Good-bye,” Natalie said, waving to Ali Baba as they parted.

  Ali Baba was too preoccupied about his library card to respond.

  Practically the first thing that Ms. Melrose said to the class was, “Does everyone here have a library card?”

  Ali Baba knew he should raise his hand and tell her that he did not have his card. But the way the teacher worded the
question kept him from responding. Yes. He had his library card. At home. If she had said, “Do all of you have your library card here with you right this minute?” then he would have had to admit that he didn’t.

  “Good,” said Ms. Melrose, beaming at her students. “Then everyone can borrow a book at the public library.” Ms. Melrose was the prettiest teacher Ali Baba had ever had. She looked as if she should be on TV and not teaching at P.S. 35. In a way, Ali Baba thought that he felt the same way about Ms. Melrose that Natalie felt about him. He liked to sit in class and watch her. And whenever the teacher smiled, he felt like smiling, too. So how could he possibly tell her something now that would bring a frown to her face?

  Ali Baba looked around the classroom. He wondered who would share their card with him. If only Roger Zucker was in his class this year, he would have agreed in a second because he was Ali Baba’s best friend. Tony Mancuso sat with Ali Baba at lunch every day. He might have let him use his card, except Tony had been absent from school the day before. Looking around him now, Ali Baba saw that Tony was still absent.

  There was no time to talk with anyone because Ms. Melrose was rushing through the morning’s routine. The students stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance and took their Friday morning spelling quiz. Then Annabel Singer’s mother was at the classroom door. She was the class mother who was going to accompany the fourth-graders when they went to the library.

  Ali Baba got an idea. While all the other students were putting their notebooks away, he went up to Ms. Melrose and asked permission to go to the office. “I have to phone my mother,” he said.

  “Is there a problem?” she asked him.

  “It’s something personal,” he said.

  “All right. Hurry right back.”

  Ali Baba rushed down the hall to the front office. He told Mrs. Greene, the secretary, that he had to make a call home. Luckily no one else was waiting to use the telephone. Sometimes there was a whole line of students who had forgotten their lunches or their consent slips or money for special things. Ali Baba was going to ask his mother to meet him at the library and to bring his card. It was a good plan, except that no one answered the telephone. He counted twelve rings, although he knew his mother always answered it by the third ring. Even when she was sitting right next to the telephone, she always waited until the third ring to pick it up.

  He thought of calling his grandparents, but he knew that even if they were home, it was too much to expect them to travel up to his apartment and find his library card and then bring it to the library. His father wouldn’t want to do that, either.

  So Ali Baba went back to the classroom where the students were all lined up and waiting for him.

  “You’re sure everything is all right?” asked the teacher.

  Ali Baba was almost going to tell her that he had left his card at home. But he was afraid she would ask him why he hadn’t told her earlier, and he didn’t know what he would answer. So he just nodded his head as he put his jacket on and got on the end of the line. He didn’t have a partner, but he was too busy thinking about his library card to care.

  The public library was ten blocks away from the school. Ali Baba’s home was ten blocks away from the library. The library was exactly in the middle between his home and the school. It was because he lived twenty blocks from school, which was a full mile, that he got the student bus pass from the city every month.

  As the students walked toward the library, Ali Baba had another idea. He would slip away from the class and go home. Then he could get his card and meet the class at the library. A whole classful of students walking down the street moved much more slowly than he could on his own. If he hurried, he could meet the class at the library, and no one would even know that he had been gone.

  Luckily Ali Baba was at the end of the line of students. And luckily, too, he didn’t have a partner. So it was quite easy to duck behind into a doorway as the students turned a corner. He waited till they were halfway up the next street before he dashed out of his hiding place. Then Ali Baba set off at a run. It was a lovely autumn day, and he felt good as he ran along the streets to his home. At some corners he had to wait for the traffic light to turn green before he could cross, but at other corners he did not have to break his stride at all. It was fun running. If he didn’t have a heavy backpack, he could run to and from school every day, he thought.

  By the time he reached his house, Ali Baba was winded. He stood panting for breath as he waited for the elevator. “My goodness, why aren’t you in school?” asked one of the older women who lived in the building. Ali Baba wasn’t sure what he would have answered, but he was still trying to catch his breath and so no words came out, and the woman walked away without an answer.

  Ali Baba had his own key. It was taped to a piece of cardboard and kept inside the plastic folder with his bus pass. It was there for an emergency, and finally Ali Baba had an emergency. He rarely had an opportunity to use his key, so he was pleased to have this chance to let himself into the apartment.

  “Mom?” he called out, just in case his mother had returned home. But there was no answer. He ran to his bedroom and looked under his bed. Sure enough, there was his library book right where he had left it. And sure enough, inside the pocket of the book was his card.

  Ali Baba glanced at the clock in his room as he rushed out. It was only ten-twenty. His class had left the school building just before ten o’clock. They were scheduled to be at the library at ten-thirty. If he ran to the library as quickly as he had run to his house, he would make it without a problem. He had to waste a whole minute waiting for the elevator. When it arrived, fat Mr. Salmon, who lived on the floor above, was in it. The two looked at each other but didn’t exchange any words.

  Once out of the building, Ali Baba set off at a run. He thought he would ask his father how one went about entering the New York City Marathon. With this experience behind him, he felt he could do it easily.

  Ali Baba had hoped that he would arrive at the library at the same time as his class. But when he reached the entrance of the public library, there was no sign of his classmates. He was either too early or too late. He looked at his watch and saw that it was twenty-five minutes to eleven. He was late. By now Ms. Melrose and the fourth-graders were upstairs in the children’s room. He wondered if anyone had noticed that he was missing. He could tiptoe inside and sit in the back. Or else he could wait in the hallway to the children’s room, and when everyone got up to look at the books, he could join them then. He decided that was what he would do.

  Ali Baba climbed up the steps to the library door and tried to open it. It was locked. A sign on the door said that the library was closed until noon. That meant that when his class arrived, someone had opened the door especially for them. If he rang the doorbell to the library, it would call attention to his lateness. Worse, Ms. Melrose would know that he had left the class when they were walking to the library.

  Ali Baba sat down on the top step and tried to think what to do. He could wait until his class left the library and join them then. He was sure that by that time Ms. Melrose would realize that he was missing. And, of course, he wouldn’t have a book to discuss in class that afternoon. It was a big problem.

  A big brown United Parcel truck pulled up in front of the library. Ali Baba watched as the driver got out of his seat and rummaged around in the back of the truck. That was a great job, he thought, driving all around the city and bringing packages to people. The driver stepped out of the truck and set a large carton on the ground. He put a second, smaller carton down on top of the first.

  “Do you need help?” Ali Baba called to him.

  “I have two packages to deliver here,” said the man.

  Ali Baba ran down the steps and picked up the smaller box. “Let me do it,” he offered.

  The man picked up the big carton and followed Ali Baba up the library steps and pushed the bell.

  “What are you doing here?” asked the driver as they waited for someone to answ
er the door. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

  “My class is visiting the library,” Ali Baba explained.

  Just then the door opened. The driver and Ali Baba walked inside with the packages. “You have to sign here,” the man told the librarian as he handed him a clipboard.

  Ali Baba put the smaller package on the front desk. Then he walked quickly and quietly toward the steps leading up to the children’s room. He could hear the children’s librarian talking as he neared the top. She was telling a story to the class. The lights were turned off and the room was in semidarkness. The librarian was telling a spooky Halloween story. All eyes were on the librarian. It was dark, but not too dark for Ali Baba to see his way to an empty chair in the back row. He tried to sit down quietly, but the scraping of the chair legs against the tile floor made a noise that seemed extra loud because of the silence. Ali Baba stared straight ahead at the librarian.

  “You did it!” shrieked the librarian, and she pointed her finger at Ali Baba.

  Ali Baba jumped with fright. “No I didn’t,” he said, gasping. “I mean, I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t help it. I forgot my card.”

  Everyone was laughing. The librarian’s shout had been the last line of the story. She wasn’t accusing Ali Baba of anything, but nevertheless he had given himself away.

  The lights were turned on and the children were told to look for books. The librarian led the way to the biography section and began to help everyone select books. Ms. Melrose went over to Ali Baba. Even with a frown on her face she looked pretty, he thought.

  “Where were you?” she asked.

  “I went to get my library card,” he explained.

  “You know you are not to leave school without permission,” said Ms. Melrose.

  “But I did have permission. The whole class left together. I just went home and got my card before I came here,” said Ali Baba. It didn’t seem like such a big crime to him.

  “During the school day you are under my jurisdiction,” said the teacher. “You can’t just rush home when you please. I didn’t know where you were. I was very concerned about you.”