This time the applause went on and on, continuing even after Jordan had gone back to her seat.
No one rushed to the stage to push two dozen yellow roses into her arms, there were no autograph seekers and no paparazzi.
But none of that mattered.
Jordan, Plain and Average, was completely happy about everything, including herself.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the people at the National Weather Service for the wealth of meteorological information they make available online. I also need to make it clear that the events imagined in this fictional story are in no way meant to reflect poorly upon the remarkable job the National Weather Service does every day to provide warning to the public about approaching dangers.
I also wish to thank my editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, and all the other fine professionals at Atheneum Books for Young Readers for helping me to seem smarter, more grammatical, more logical, and more consistent than I actually am. (And yes, I’m sure they’ve even checked over these brief acknowledgments with great care!)
I want to offer particular thanks to Amy Berkower at Writers House for her wise counsel and support.
—A. C.
“Andrew Clements set the standard for the school story.”
—New York Times
Other bestselling favorites
from Andrew Clements
Andrew Clements
is the author of more than sixty books for children, including the enormously popular Frindle; the New York Times bestsellers No Talking and Lunch Money; the Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School series; and most recently Troublemaker. He lives with his wife in central Massachusetts, and has four grown children.
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
SIMON & SCHUSTER | NEW YORK
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Also by Andrew Clements
A Million Dots
Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School
We the Children
Fear Itself
Whites of Their Eyes
Big Al
Big Al and Shrimpy
Dogku
Extra Credit
Frindle
The Handiest Things in the World
Jake Drake, Bully Buster
Jake Drake, Class Clown
Jake Drake, Know-It-All
Jake Drake, Teacher’s Pet
The Jacket
The Janitor’s Boy
The Landry News
Lost and Found
Lunch Money
No Talking
The Report Card
Room One
The School Story
Troublemaker
A Week in the Woods
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2012 by Andrew Clements
Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Mark Elliott
Jacket illustration copyright © 2012 by Jim LaMarche
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The text for this book is set in Bembo.
The illustrations for this book are rendered in pencil.
0612 FFG
First Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clements, Andrew, 1949–
About average / Andrew Clements ; illustrated by Mark Elliott. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: As the end of sixth grade nears, Jordan Johnston, unhappy that she is only average in appearance, intelligence, and athletic ability, reveals her special skills when disaster strikes her central Illinois elementary school.
ISBN 978-1-4169-9724-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4169-9726-9 (eBook)
[1. Ability—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Individuality—Fiction. 4. Heroes—Fiction. 5. Tornadoes—Fiction.] I. Elliott, Mark, 1967- ill. II. Title.
PZ7.C59118Abo 2012
[Fic]—dc23 2012015106