In this read‑aloud segment of the Junie B. Jones series, Isaac Letchford narrates Chapter 9, titled “Zooming Speedy Fast.” The story follows Junie B. as she races through a school trying to find a bathroom. Every door she attempts—cafeteria, hallway rooms, girls’ bathroom, boys’ bathroom—is locked, heightening her panic. Remembering her mother’s advice, she dials 911 from the nurse’s office, but the operator can’t calm her and she hangs up. Sirens grow louder as a fire truck, police car, and ambulance arrive at the school’s parking lot. A gruff school custodian (the “man with the can”) confronts her, then pulls out a bunch of keys, grabs her hand, and together they zoom back into the school, resolving the emergency. The narration is energetic, interspersed with a secondary speaker’s brief interjections, and captures the child’s frantic emotions, the urgency of an emergency, and the eventual rescue.
Chapters
Storytime with Isaac Letchford. Chapter 9, Zooming Speedy Fast. I like running inside the school. It's funner than running inside your house. In school, you can zoom with your arms out like a jet plane, and you don't knock over the furniture, and also the head doesn't get broken off your mother's bird statue, which used to be a blue jay, I think. I zoomed straight to the cafeteria, 'cause there's a lot of tables to hide under in that place. Only when I tried to open the door, it was all locked up. And so then I ran to another room across the hall, only that stupid door was locked too. Hey, who did all this dumb locking? I asked. Then I started jiggling up and down, 'cause I was having a little bit of a problem, that's why. The, the kind of problem that's called personal. It's about— and so all of a sudden I had to run down the hall speedy quick right to the girls' bathroom. Only guess what? When I got there, that stupid door wouldn't open either. And so I kicked it and I hang on the— I hanged on the handle because I weigh 37. Open up and I mean it! I yelled. But the door kept on staying shut. It's emergency! I shouted. Then all of a sudden I remembered about that boy I can beat up, 'cause he had emergency too, and he got to go into the boys' bathroom. And so I zoomed across the hall and I pulled on the boys' bathroom door, but that dumb thing was locked too. Stupid, stupid doors! I hollered. After that, I started to jiggle up and down very fast. Oh no!
Oh no!
Now I'm gonna have an accident on my skirt that looks like velvet! Only just then I remembered something else about emergencies, 'cause Mother told me what to do if I ever needed help, and its name is called 911. And so I ran back to the dangerous nurse's office, 'cause That's where the phone was, of course, and I picked it up and I pushed the 9 and the 1 and another 1.
Help!
This is an emergency! I yelled. All the doors are locked in this place. I'm gonna have a terrible accident! Then I heard a voice on the other end. She said for me to calm down. Yeah, only I can't, 'cause I'm in big trouble and I'm all by myself and I need help real bad. Then the lady said to me to calm down again, except for I couldn't stand still, and so I just hung up and ran right out of there. And I just kept running and running until I got to the big doors at the end of the hall, and then I ran right outside, 'cause maybe there might be a little toilet out there or something, except I didn't see one. All I could hear was sirens, loud sirens, were all over the place. And they kept on getting closer and closer. And then a big green fire truck came zooming right around the corner, and a white police car, and a fast red ambulance. And guess what else? They turned right into the school parking lot. And so I stopped jiggling for a second, and I sniffed the air, only I couldn't smell any smoke. Then I heard a grouchy voice. Hey, hold it, Missy. It yelled, and I got very scared inside, 'cause Missy's my name when I get in trouble. I turned around. It was the man with the can, and he was running at me. Hold it right there! He yelled again, and then I started to cry.
Yeah, only that's the trouble. I can't hold it. I said, I already tried. I already held it as all I can. And now it's— and now I'm having an emergency! I was bothering the lotter— and now I'm going to have an accident very quick!
And then the man with the can didn't look so grouchy anymore. Why didn't you say so, sis? he said. Then he pulled a big bunch of keys out of his pocket and he grabbed my hand. And then him and me zoomed back into the school, spifast!
