| ||||||||||||
| Category: Fiction:Young Adult | |
| About the Book | |
|
It's
pretty much a fact that Nikki Neal is the smartest kid in our school.
In fact, I'd bet that she's the smartest kid anywhere. My name is Paul Bailey and I live in a small town called Ellendale, Missouri. I go to Harry S Truman Elementary with Nikki. We?re in Mrs. Thomas's 4th grade class together. Nikki Neal doesn't look like anyone special--well, not like you'd think somebody who's super-smart would look. I mean she doesn't LOOK like a total geek. She's kind of tall for a girl with sort of grayish-green eyes--she says they're hazel--and straight blonde hair that's not short, but it's not real long, either. She keeps tucking it behind her ears, especially when she?s thinking which is most of the time. Mom calls her "a very pretty young lady." I don't know. I guess. She's not like the other girls I know. Most of them are only interested in Leo or the "Backstreet Boys." Not that Nikki doesn?t like music or anything, even if what she likes is sort of weird. I mean, she's the only kid I know who can even spell "Beethoven," and she listens to his music without even being told. She says a song called "Ode To Joy" is her favorite. Nikki says Beethoven was a genius, especially because he was deaf when he wrote some of his music and couldn't even hear when people gave him a standing ovation once at a really big concert. He just heard how all the parts of the songs fit together inside his head. I think Nikki is like that sometimes--she can see how the parts fit together, even when no one else can. I should tell you she especially likes solving puzzles. That's what got us into the detective business.
|
|
| About the Author | |
 |
Since college, Derek Gilbert has been a Top 40 disc jockey, a real estate agent, the manager of a tuxedo shop and a steel pipe salesman. He lives near St. Louis with his beautiful wife, Sharon, his wonderful daughter, Nicole, three happy dogs and Braveheart, the Birdseed-Eating Chipmunk. |