CHAPTER 9

Fatima

“What if I don’t want to be queen?” Fatima asked.

Ms. Linda was confused. Didn’t every kid want to be in charge? Ms. Linda didn’t know how to answer, so she looked to Touchdown Mandy, the new teacher’s assistant, who looked at the castle’s garden grass—then started eating it.

(Ms. Linda still hadn’t realized her teacher’s assistant was a cow. You see, teachers are too busy looking after children to notice such things.)

“Mandy must think Chloe’s vegan law is still in effect,” Ms. Linda said to herself.

13 walked up to Fatima. “I know I haven’t been human very long, but why wouldn’t you want to tell everyone what to do?”

“Too much responsibility,” Fatima answered. “I’d rather read comic books. Comics are like books, but with fewer words and more pictures. Plus, they’re all action and adventure and awesomeness all the time. Comics transport me to another world, where anything’s possible. I wish every kid could have access to comic books—”

“What did I say about wishing for things?!” Ms. Linda cried. (She still had bad dreams about djinns genies in magic lamps.)

Suddenly, Fatima had an idea.

“I will be a queen. And my first law will be to open free comic book libraries around the nation for everyone to read any comic book they choose!”

Comic book libraries began to appear in every city. At first, parents didn’t want their kids to go. They’d say, “Comics aren’t literature!”

But librarians explained that “all books are books!”

Soon, more people than ever were reading, including the other students from Classroom 13.

“I like the ones where the bad guy is the hero,” Liam said, reading Super-Mean Vampire Villains.

“For me, it’s all about outer space adventures,” Lily said, reading Astro-Bats from Planet Mars.

“Mooooo!” said Ms. Linda’s teaching assistant. Touchdown Mandy didn’t read, but she was eating the latest issue of The Pet-tastic Adventures of Fur Force!

The nation cheered for Fatima. Even people who didn’t like reading enjoyed reading comic books. Everyone—from mayors to barbers to garbage collectors to parents—found a comic they loved.

Except for 13. It kept trying to read them, but its head would light up red. “How do I know which bubble to read first?!”

“Top to bottom, and left to right,” Fatima said. “Unless it’s Arabic, Hebrew, or manga. Then you read right to left.”

“Yeah, that’s not confusing at all,” 13 grumbled. “Whatever happened to good old books without pictures? I like those.”