Lesson 8:A Gift for Grandpa

A Gift forGrandpaby Joanne Matternillustrated by Craig OrbackCopyright © by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior writtenpermission of Houghton Mifflin Company unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law.Address inquiries to School Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 222 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116.Printed in ChinaISBN-13: 978-0-547-02048-8ISBN-10: 0-547-02048-11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 RRD 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08

Quentin got off the bus. He carried his saxophone,a musical instrument he played in the schoolband. His mother asked him to bring it home. Quentindid not want to think about why his mother wantedhim to have his saxophone.Quentin loved playing the saxophone. He couldplay the songs easily. He did not have to practice muchoutside of the band studio at school.Now his mother wanted him to playold songs from the 1940s. He didbusnot want to play them. Theydid not sound like thepopular songs he heardon the radio.Quentin and Marcusget off the bus.notebooksaxophonecase2

Marcus jumped off the bus after his brother. Hecarried his special notebook in his arms. Marcuswas older than Quentin. He was a good student whoworked hard and often finished his homework early!Marcus wrote words to songs inside of his specialnotebook. Most people did not know about Marcus’swriting. In fact, he had not shared his songs witha single person. Marcus liked calm, quiet music.Quentin was different. He liked to listen to the newestsongs on the radio. Marcus did not like to sing in frontof people, but he could hear the songs he wrote in hishead. Marcus also took piano lessons. He even knewhow to write music notes.Marcus wanted to play the keyboard in a bandsomeday. He dreamed that someone would sing hiswords while he played the music.3

4The brothers walked home. They both thoughtabout what happened at dinner the night before.Their mother told them about her plans for an80th birthday party for their grandfather. Everyone inthe family would help. She gave the boys their favoritedessert, banana pudding. Then, she told them whatthey had to do for the party. She wanted them to learnto play their grandfather’s favorite songs on theirinstruments. His favorite songs were jazz, a type ofmusic. Marcus and Quentin were very unhappyabout this.“He will be so excited to hear those songs again.He will be proud that you learned them, too,” she said.“Let’s listen to some songs.” She walked to the stereoto play the music. Marcus and Quentin looked at theirfather for help. He just smiled and ate his dessert. Theboys knew they had to do what their mother said.

Quentin and Marcus do notlike their grandfather’s music.The songs theirstereomother played for themsounded different. Theysounded strange. The horns andpiano did not sound right to theboys. Quentin could not tell onesong from the next. Marcus understoodthe music a little, but he did not like it.“This will make your grandfather so happy!”their mother said. She smiled and gave them the sheetmusic, or notes written down on paper. “Can you learntwo songs?”“Yes, Mother,” the brothers said. They tried topretend they were happy, but they both knew theywere not.5

Quentin wanted to talk about the songs as he andMarcus walked home.“I do not like jazz music!” he said. “Why did Mompick such hard songs for us to learn?”Marcus laughed, “I guess these songs are whatGrandpa liked when he was young.”“You will have to help me,” Quentin said. “Allthe music sounds the same to me. I am concerned wecannot learn the songs.”Marcus nodded. “Okay. Let’s start after dinner. Weonly have two weeks to learn both songs. That isa tough schedule!”Marcus and Quentin agree to work together.6

That afternoon, Marcus looked up jazz music onthe Internet. He wanted to learn more about it. Marcuslearned that one person writes parts of a jazz song.Then, other musicians learn these parts and use themas a model to create new parts of the song. Othermusicians make up more and more parts as the songgoes along.After dinner, Marcus told Quentin what helearned. “I will play the parts that are written in themusic,” he said. “You play whatever sounds good onyour saxophone. Just make it up as you play.”Quentin was not sure. “Where do I start?” heasked. “The music streaks by so fast.”“We will practice slowly,” Marcus said.7

saxophonecomputerpianosheet musicThe boys try to learn the jazz music.At first, the songs sounded awful. They made somany mistakes! Quentin was a little upset that it tookso long to understand how to play the songs. Finally,he said, “Let’s listen to the song again.”“Good idea,” Marcus said. He put the song ontohis computer. The boys listened while they sat at thepiano.Quentin moved his fingers along his saxophonewhile the music played. Marcus hummed along.Quentin was surprised. Marcus did not like to sing orhum out loud.8

At the end of the song, Quentin smiled and playeda few notes on his saxophone.“Let’s play while we hear the song on the computer,”Quentin said. “I think I understand the musica little more. I might even like it!”After the song ended, Quentin said, “Now I seewhat happens in the part I ruined before. The soundsuddenly changes.”“You are right,” Marcus said. “It sounded like thedrummer yanked the whole band back. They playedthe song slower. Then they played it faster again.”“That must be hard to do!” Quentin said.Meanwhile, the boys’ parents washed dishes inthe kitchen. Their father smiled. “It sounds like theboys are starting to enjoy jazz music,” he said.“That was part of my plan,” their mother said.

The days passed quickly. Each day the boys gotbetter at playing the songs. They also looked forwardto playing them every day. Soon it was time for theirgrandfather’s birthday party.The house filled quickly with friends and family.Everyone brought presents and food. The party wasa feast!Grandpa sat in a big chair in the middle of theroom. He could not walk well. He hugged each of hischildren and grandchildren when they came. He washappy to see everyone.Many people come to Grandpa’s birthday party.present10

cakeGrandpa tells his family howhappy he is to see them.Soon it was time to eat dinner. Everyone stood in acircle and held hands. Grandpa thanked everyone forcoming. His eyes filled with tears as he told his familyhow happy he was to see them all together. “This meallooks glorious,” he said. “Let’s eat!”Everyone was excited. One little girl moved forwardand grabbed some of the cake. She smeared it allover her face. All of the people at the party laughed,but her parents were not very happy!11

The family lined up at the table that held all ofthe food. Someone filled a plate with food and gaveit to Grandpa. Then everyone else ate dinner. Marcuswaited in line. He felt nervous. His first plate of foodmade him feel better, so he went back for more food.Quentin did not like to play the saxophone after abig meal. He only ate a little bit of dinner. However, hedid pile a few cookies and pieces of cake on a plate. Hewould eat them after the music.Marcus and Quentin feel nervous as they eat their food.cookies12

The brothers play their grandfather’s favorite songs.After the meal, the dishes were cleaned and putaway. Then, their mother waved her hands. Everyonelooked at her. “Papa, Marcus and Quentin have aspecial surprise for you,” she said.The two brothers each took a deep breath andwalked to the piano. They nodded at each other.Marcus began to play the piano.Their grandfather started to smile. He knew thesong right away.After a few moments, Quentin closed his eyes.He blew into his saxophone. Beautiful music cameout of it.13

TARGET VOCABULARYconcernedfeastgloriousmodelruinedschedulesmearedstreakstudioyankedTARGET SKILL Understanding Characters Usedetails to tell more about characters.TARGET STRATEGY Visualize Use text details toform pictures in your mind of what you are reading.GENRE Realistic Fiction is a present-day story thatcould take place in real life.16

Level: SDRA: 40Genre:Realistic FictionStrategy:VisualizeSkill:Understanding CharactersWord Count: 1,4404.2.8HOUGHTON MIFFLINOnline Leveled BooksISBN-13:978-0-547-02048-8ISBN-10:0-547-02048-11031928