LEVELED READER • Q
Mermaid in a Teacup
A Reading A–Z Level Q Leveled Reader
Word Count: 1,340
Written by Stephen Cosgrove
Illustrated by Carolyn LaPorte
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A story from Hattie MacGruder’s diary
Mermaid in a Teacup
Level Q Leveled Reader
© 2002 Stephen Cosgrove
Written by Stephen Cosgrove
Illustrated by Carolyn LaPorte
ReadingA–ZTM
Written by Stephen Cosgrove © Learning Page, Inc.
Illustrated by Carolyn LaPorte All rights reserved. Correlation
LEVEL Q
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There are others who are not telling
the truth.
Sybil and Sarah are liars and fibbers and
tellers of untruth.
They said that the mermaid was nothing
more than a silly toy that wasn’t ever alive.
They said that I made it all up. That’s why
they are liars, fibbers and tellers of untruth.
I have proof that I found a mermaid.
The proof is in my diary, and I’m going
to let you read it exactly as I wrote it three
weeks ago when I found the tiny mermaid.
My name is Hattie MacGruder, and I found
a mermaid!
I found a real, live mermaid that is only
three inches long.
I am telling the truth.
3 4
The Proof:
Diary, Day 93
Sybil and Sarah are coming over today for our
third annual back-to-school picnic.
Hey, they’re here! I’ll write longer later.
Special Note:
I am only going to show you the parts
of my diary that are about the mermaid.
I won’t let you read that Sarah really didn’t
go to see the movie Harry Potter with Danny
Buckman—she went with her mom, who
didn’t think she was old enough to sit by
herself. And I definitely am not going to let
you read about “super equestrian” Sybil when
she fell off her little sister’s pony.
So don’t think that I’m leaving out
something about those fibbers, Sybil and
Sarah, when I skip some stuff.
5 6
Diary, Day 93 (continued later)
You will never in a billion years guess what
happened. I found a mermaid! She is the coolest
little thing you have ever seen. She’s only about
three inches long and is a real, real mermaid.
I dressed her in some Barbie clothes. They fit her Right now she is sitting in a teacup filled with
perfectly. She didn’t need any jeans or anything. water, on my bedside table, watching me write.
7 8
Wait a minute! I’m getting too far ahead. None of us wanted to just eat our picnic in
my backyard—that is so second grade. Now,
The whole thing started when Sybil and Sarah
the good thing about my yard is that it backs
came to get me for the picnic. Ever since we were
up to the Ledbetters’ dairy farm. They have
in the first grade, we have had a picnic on the
hundreds of acres for their cows to graze on.
first weekend after school starts. Now we’re third
graders, and this time we were going to actually At the edge of their pasture is a monstrous
go somewhere besides my backyard. This year, boulder called Crying Rock. They call it Crying
we were supposed to go to River Park. My dad Rock because water seeps down from the
was going to take us, but he got stuck in a mountain and drips over the rock. It makes
meeting or whatever. the rock look like it is crying.
9 10
Sarah was worried that we were going to get
in trouble. She just wanted to eat and go home.
Sybil always did what Sarah wanted, so we ate
our sandwiches really fast.
So we decided to have our annual picnic
in the middle of the pasture. Nobody said we
couldn’t go, even though we’ve been told not to
go through the fence when the cows were
in the field.
There weren’t any cows out today, and nobody
said we couldn’t go under the fence.
So we ran all the way to Crying Rock because
we didn’t want crotchety Mr. Ledbetter to see us.
We got the giggles, which didn’t help at all.
11 12
I climbed and climbed. There was almost
a path that led up around the crying part of
the rock. When I got nearly to the top, I stopped
and looked down. Way off to the side, I could
I probably wouldn’t have found the mermaid see Sarah and her shadow, Sybil, walking into
at all if Sarah hadn’t had to go to the bathroom. the trees.
Sybil always goes wherever Sarah goes. The two
I was just starting down when I heard a
of them climbed down from the rocks and ran
sound coming from high above me. I listened
over to a bunch of trees.
carefully. I couldn’t understand the words,
While they were gone, I decided to climb but it sounded like someone was singing.
higher on the rock to see if I could see them. It was really pretty.
13 14
There were little notches in the face of the I pulled myself up and over the top.
rock, and I started climbing. It wasn’t easy, The ledge was covered in a mossy carpet.
but going up is always easier than coming down. In the middle of the ledge was a small pool
The singing was louder now, and I could tell that of sparkling, clear water. The climb up the
it was coming from the ledge just above my head. rock and the salty chips I had eaten earlier made
me thirsty. I crawled over to the pool on my
hands and knees, bent over, and took a big sip.
I had just leaned down to take another
drink when I saw an odd reflection in the water.
At first I thought it was a frog, and I almost
screamed.
15 16
My nose couldn’t have been more than
12 inches from her back. I don’t know why I did
My heart in my throat, I looked and then
it, but I just reached over and carefully grabbed
looked again.
her with my hand. She twisted and squirmed
It wasn’t a frog. like a fish, which was to be expected since she
was half fish and half human.
It was a tiny mermaid sitting half in the
water, leaning over a rock with her back toward I pulled back from the water, sat back on
me. She held her head in her hands and she was my heels, and looked at what I held in my hands.
singing softly. She looked at me, and I looked at her.
I didn’t say a word. I just lay there, hanging Then her eyes kind of went blank. She closed
out over the water. her eyes, and her body went stiff in my hand.
17 18
I thought I had killed her or something. In the distance, I could hear Sarah and Sybil
I laid her down on the ledge and ran my finger calling my name.
down her fish tail. Right then she looked more
“I’m up here!” I shouted excitedly. “I’m
like a toy doll than a real mermaid.
coming down. Wait until you see what I found.”
I felt really bad, thinking maybe I had killed
With the mermaid gripped tightly in my hand,
her, but then she opened her eyes. She looked up
I climbed down from the rock. I was so excited.
at me and blinked a couple of times. She looked
It’s not every day you find a three-inch mermaid.
over toward the water and then back at me.
This is where the trouble started with Sybil
Then she closed her eyes and went stiff again.
and Sarah.
I wondered what was going on.
19 20
And there it is—my proof. Now you’ve read it,
I showed them what I had found, but the too! But now what do I do? I’ve got a mermaid in
mermaid wouldn’t wake up. The two tellers of a teacup, but every time I show her to someone,
untruth laughed at me. They said the mermaid she gets stiff like a doll.
was nothing more than a silly doll. Then they
grabbed their backpacks and ran laughing back I think I’ll get my dad’s video camera and
to my house. make a movie. Everybody believes the movies
almost as much as they believe what they read
Since then, they have told everyone that I in diaries.
carried one of my “dollies” on the picnic. They
said that when they caught me playing with it, Love,
I made up the story about the mermaid. Hattie MacGruder
21 22
