My Name Is Maria Isabel

My Name is Maria Isabel

By Ahna Flor Ada

Chapter 3: Recess

1. When the bell rang for recess, Maria

Isabel waited for the rest of the kids to leave the class first. 2. She wanted to see what 1. ______they were going to do. 3. Maria Isabel had started 2. ______school in Puerto Rico. 4. Then, when her family 3. ______moved to the mainland, she started going to another school. 5. Her classes there had been 4. ______in Spanish, and Maria Isabel had liked her teachers very much. 6. Miss Herrera, who taught 5. ______second grade, always praised her for her math, and she had started to teach Maria Isabel

English. 7. Maria Isabel especially liked Miss 6. ______

Peyrellade, her third grade teacher, who read wonderful stories and would teach the class outdoors on warm, sunny days. 7. ______

8. Maria Isabel missed her old friends. 9. She 8. ______didn’t know anyone at this new school yet. 10. So 9. ______she just walked behind the other kids until they reached the schoolyard, and stood in a corner once she got there. 11. After a few minutes, 10. ______

Marta Perez came over and took her by the hand. 11. ______

12. “Come on let’s go jump rope,” Marta said, tugging on Maria Isabel’s arm. 13. Maria Isabel 12. ______hesitated, and Marta tugged again. 14. “Come 13. ______on,” she urged. 14. ______

15. Maria Isabel followed Marta to the middle of the yard where she held one end of the jump rope as a girl in plaid jumped up and down. 16. The rhythm of the jump rope as it 15. ______brushed the ground was soothing. 17. It reminded 16. ______

Maria Isabel of her grandmother Chabela’s rocking chair, the one her grandmother would rock her to sleep in, or the ebb and flow of the waves in front of her grandfather Antonio’s house. 18. The waves would gently roll up the 17. ______beach in the small bay and wash over the sand where the fishing nets where drying on top of the boats. 18. ______

19. Maria Isabel loved that beach. 20. She loved to 19. ______go out for a walk early in the morning, picking up treasures the sea had left behind the night before: shells that looked like mother-of-pearl; bits of white coral; maybe even a sand dollar or two. 21. And she liked to go swimming at midday, 20. ______humping in the waves and playing with the sea spray, feeling the coolness of the clear water beneath the hot sun. 21. ______

22. “Go on, it’s your turn,” the girl in plaid shouted to Maria Isabel, bringing her back from her daydream. 22. ______

23. “No, no,” she answered in a low voice. 23. ______

24. “Not now.” 25. Maria Isabel didn’t want the other 24. ______girls to think she didn’t know how to jump rope, but her knee still hurt from her fall. 26. The 25. ______girl in plaid jumped into the middle again. 26. ______

27. Maria Isabel thought, It would be great to get in the middle of the rope go back and forth over and under me. 28. My feel wouldn’t 27. ______touch the rope even once. 29. But she didn’t think 28. ______she would be able to jump well with her hurt knee, and soon the bell rang. 30. Recess was over. 29. ______30. ______31. Maria Isabel followed the two other girls. 31. ______

32. They hadn’t spoken much, and she didn’t know the name of the girl in plaid. 33. But they 32. ______had asked her to jump with them. 34. Tomorrow, 33. ______when her knee didn’t hurt so much, she would show them how well she could jump. 35. And as 34. ______she limped slightly back to class, Maria Isabel thought this new school wasn’t going to be so bad after all. 36. If only her teacher would not 35. ______insist on calling her Mary! 36. ______