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CHAPTER 1
Just like yesterday and the day before, Gus KICKED out of bed, LACED-UP his thumbtack sneakers and did his teeth-brushing dance
Next he did his bed-making dance, and then his getting-dressed dance.
His mama knew Gus was up because she could hear, the tip-a-tap, rap-a-slap, flap-a-dap thumbtack rhythms through the kitchen ceiling.
Just like yesterday and the day before,
Gus went SLIIII-DING down the hallway on his slippery thumbtacks. He wooshhhh-ed past his mama and out the kitchen door.
Then he flip-flap, skip-rapped down the front steps BACKWARDS!
Just like yesterday and the day before,
Gus riffed, slap-a-dee-dap, slap-a-dee-dap
down the sidewalk, and right up to the big red door of the dance studio.
He knock! knock! KNOCKED! on the big red dance studio door, and when the tall skinny dance teacher with the cane opened the door, Gus went into his Watch-this! dance, just as he had done yesterday and the day before.
"You're just a sidewalk dancer," the annoyed dance teacher said.
"I told you yesterday and I told you the day before, thumbtacks are absolutely not allowed on these hardwood floors. You won't get through this door until you have real tap shoes."
Gus couldn't afford real tap shoes yesterday or the day before. He thought that he might not be able to afford real tap shoes tomorrow or the day after either.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Thumbtack Dancer"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Leslie Tryon.
Excerpted by permission of Royal Swan Enterprises, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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