Sigmund Brouwer - Justine McKeen, Bottle Throttle

To all the students at schools who
dont use bottled water!

Text copyright 2016 Sigmund Brouwer
Illustrations copyright 2016 Dave Whamond

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmittedin any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recordingor by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, withoutpermission in writing from the publisher.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Brouwer, Sigmund, 1959, author
Justine McKeen, bottle throttle / Sigmund Brouwer; illustrated by Dave Whamond.
(Orca echoes)

Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4598-0731-0 (pbk.).ISBN 978-1-4598-1041-9 (pdf).
ISBN 978-1-4598-1042-6 (epub)

I. Whamond, Dave, illustrator II. Title. III. Series: Orca echoes
PS8553.R68467J873 2016 jC813'.54 C2015-904510-X
C2015-904511-8

First published in the United States, 2016
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015944496

Summary: In this early chapter book, the seventh installment in the Justine McKeenseries, Justine sets out to ban bottled water from her school.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programsprovided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada BookFund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia throughthe BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Cover artwork and interior illustrations by Dave Whamond Author photo by Reba Baskett

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS
www.orcabook.com

Printed and bound in Canada.

19 18 17 16 4 3 2 1

Contents

As usual, Justine met her friends for lunch in the school cafeteria. She set herbackpack on the floor. She pulled out her lunch box and a bottled water that shehad marked with a felt-tip pen. The words on the plastic bottle said DO NOT OPEN.

Then Justine took her seat and said hello to her friendsMichael, Safdar and JimmyBlatzo. Their other friend, Savannah Blue, had just moved away to another city. Andtheir school had a brand-new principal. His name was Mr. Proctor.

You got it, Blatzo said to Justine. I wont open your bottled water. Especiallysince you used capital letters. Capital letters make it a very serious thing.

Blatzo was big and looked pretty mean. At one time, he was proud to be known as theschool bully. But Justine had changed all that.

My turn for her fortune cookie, Michael said. He opened Justines lunch box. Justinesfriends knew that her grammy sometimes worked at a Chinese restaurant and broughthome fortune cookies. Michael found Justines fortune cookie and looked at the plasticwrap.

I dont see anything written on this, Michael said. I guess I can open it.

As long as you give me the wrap to recycle, Justine said.

Question, Safdar said to Justine. Why did you write that on your water bottle?

You mean where it says DO NOT OPEN? Justine asked.

Yes, Safdar said.

Because I dont want anyone to open it, Justine answered.

Of course, Safdar said. Silly question. But why dont you want it to be opened?

Bad question, Blatzo told Safdar. Thats why I didnt ask. I knew it would besmarter just to obey and not open it.

How is it a bad question? Safdar asked Blatzo. Its just bottled water. Anyonewould want to know why she wrote it. Especially since she used capital letters.

Because now she is going to answer, Blatzo said. And I have better things to worryabout than why that bottled water should stay closed. Like my project for the sciencefair. Maybe I should do my project on why science-fair projects are a waste of time.

Safdar, I am so glad you asked, Justine said. Did you know that if you made astack of eight million dimes, that stack would reach as high as most jets fly? Thatshould give you an idea of how big that number is. Eight million. Thats about howmany gallons of oil it takes each month to make the plastic for all the bottled waterused in this country. Maybe that stack of oil could reach the moon.

Do we have to talk about math and science right now? Michael said as he unwrappedthe fortune cookie. I believe the point of lunchtime is to eat lunch. Like this.

He cracked open the fortune cookie and pulled out the little slip of paper.

What does it say? Safdar asked.

I dont care what it says. I want to eat my dessert first. Michael tossed the paperon the table.

Safdar took the piece of paper. Michael popped the pieces of fortune cookie intohis mouth.

Yum, Michael said. So good.

He swallowed. And so dry.

Michael grabbed the water bottle.

I wouldnt open it, Blatzo said. There must be a good reason Justine wrote thosewords on the bottle. In capital letters.

I also wouldnt open it, Safdar said. Because I just read your fortune from thefortune cookie.

Why does that matter? Michael said. Everyone knows that the fortunes in fortunecookies dont mean anything.

Safdar held up the slip of paper. Read it for yourself.

Blatzo took the paper and read it aloud for all of them. There is great troublein using bottled water.

Michael frowned. What kind of stupid fortune is that? How can using bottled waterbe any kind of trouble?

Michael opened the water bottle and lifted it to his mouth. Tiny streams of watershot out from all sides of the bottle and began to spray his shirt.

Wow, Safdar said. Maybe the fortune cookie isnt so stupid after all.

Put the lid back on, Justine said. It will stop leaking.

Michael followed her directions. The leaking stopped.

Pinholes, Justine explained.

And it doesnt leak until the lid is off? Michael asked. He opened the lid. Itbegan to leak. He closed the lid. The leaks stopped again. Cool!

Justine said, I did it as part of Project Bottle Throttle. I thought it would bea fun way to ask you guys to join the team.

Bottle Throttle? Safdar asked.

I want to draw attention to the overuse of bottled water, Justine said. As a team,I hope we can throttle the use of bottled water in the school.

I read about that pinhole trick on the Internet, Blatzo said. I just didnt thinkit would work.

What makes it work is hydrostatic pressure, Justine answered. Maybe that can beyour science project.

Nope, Blatzo said. I cant spell big words like that. My rule is to stick withwords that I know how to spell. I dont like making mistakes.

But then how do you learn new words? Justine asked.

I am happy with the ones I have, Blatzo said.

My grammy says that making mistakes is part of learning, Justine answered.

Oh, Safdar said. That explains why your last green project was to knit dog andcat hair.

I didnt do it because I knew it would be a mistake, Justine said. I just didntrealize that when people collected pet hair for me, they would have such stinky animals.So I learned from it. And Im ready to try another idea. I want to convince everyonein our class to stop using bottled water. After that, maybe everybody in the schoolwill stop. And after that, maybe all the schools around us will stop.

Blatzo groaned. Another Queen of Green project. I have enough problems. I have tofinish a science-fair project instead. I dont even have any ideas for it yet.