Iva Honeysuckle Discovers the World by Candice Ransom Page A

label half of the states. She had gotten bogged down in all those square ones. Kansas, Nebraska—who could keep them straight? And what about those states that began with I ? The state discoverers should have come up with better names.
    Heaven tapped a drawing on one corner of the map. “Lily Pearl?”
    â€œYeah.” Iva had tried to erase her sister’s drawing of a witch wearing a diamond tiara and spraying an arc of rays. The caption read, Fancy Witch. Get You a Ghost in Lily Pearl’s scratchy kindergarten scrawl. Lily Pearl’s masterpieces were always in ink.
    â€œHoward doesn’t dare touch my stuff,” Heaven said, snorting through her left nostril. Once Iva had heard Aunt Sissy Two tell Iva’s mother that Heaven must have adenoids the size of tennis balls. Iva figured an adenoid must be that little punching-bag thing she’d noticed in the back of her throat. Heaven must have two of them. She would .
    â€œI’ll make a new map,” Iva said. “Better than this one. My honor is at stake.”
    Heaven kicked off her ladies’-sized pink flip-flops. “You still got the worst mark of anybody in the whole third grade.”
    â€œI don’t care,” Iva said, though she really did. “I’m a discoverer. Discoverers find places nobody has ever seen before.”
    Heaven pointed her big toe at the map. “Chicago isn’t a state.”
    â€œIt should be. Who ever heard of Illinois?” Yet this was the very thing that worried Iva.
    How would she ever be a famous discoverer like George Washington or Admiral Byrd or her great-grandfather Ludwell Honeycutt if she didn’t even know Chicago was a city? She was almost nine. She’d better get busy discovering.
    With a black crayon, she scribbled her initials on one of the porch posts. “I bet Ludwell Honeycutt knew all the states and their capitals by first grade.”
    Heaven snorted through her right nostril. “Mama says our great-grandfather was a crackpot, who never paid his light bill. And he would drive a hundred miles an hour out of his driveway and then poke along on the wrong side of the road.”
    â€œHe was not a crackpot!” Iva said. “Why are you here, anyway? Did you come over just to bug me?”
    â€œYou want to go with me to Cazy Sparkle’s yard sale tomorrow? I’m looking to get me some embroidered pillow slips for my Hope Drawer. Special ones that say ‘Good Morning’ on one side and ‘Good Night’ on the other. That way I won’t get bored making the bed.”
    Iva was bored just listening to Heaven. “Cazy Sparkle is a crook.”
    â€œShe is not!”
    â€œThen how come she has yard sales at weird times, like Tuesday morning and Thanksgiving?”
    â€œBecause she’s looking for things to sell all those other days, that’s why.”
    â€œYou know where she gets that stuff?” Iva said. “She sneaks into old people’s houses in the middle of the night and steals their pot holders and tea towels. Then they come to her yard sales and buy their own tea towels back.”
    Heaven jumped up. “You never want to do anything I want to do!”
    â€œYou never want to do anything good, like discovering.”
    â€œYou’ll never be a discoverer,” Heaven said, snorting through both nostrils. “You can’t even pass geography.”
    â€œA fat lot you know!”
    From inside Iva’s house Mrs. Honeycutt said mildly, “Girls. Be nice, now.”
    Heaven aimed her tattling voice at the screen door. “Aunt Sissy, Iva won’t come yard sale-ing with me tomorrow.”
    â€œI wouldn’t go with her to the corner!” Iva called back.
    â€œAnd she wrote all over the porch,” Heaven threw in for good measure.
    Iva stood up, grabbing her map and crayons. Once Heaven started telling on her, she wouldn’t quit till Christmas. Iva stamped inside the