Summer School! What Genius Thought That Up? by Henry Winkler Page B

was okay to get books with a lot of pictures and even suggested books on tape. She said the most important thing was to enjoy the books. I don’t think Ms. Adolf would agree with that! She thinks that listening to a book on tape is cheating. I know it’s not. When I did my report on the Hopi Indians, I learned everything about them from a book on tape, and I got a really good grade. So there, Ms. Adolf! Get with it.
    After we left the library, we stopped for hot dogs with brown mustard and grilled onions from Papa Pete’s favorite cart. Then we got back on the subway and arrived at my apartment just as my mom was putting dinner on the table. Papa Pete pointed to his eyeballs and told her we were full up to here with pickles and hot dogs, which meant we didn’t have to eat her Beet Surprise Soufflé. As far as I’m concerned, the only thing surprising about beets is how bad they taste and how red they make your tongue.
    While the others were eating, Papa Pete and I went into my bedroom and started reading up on Einstein. We spread the books out all over the floor, and I flopped from one to the other, looking at the pictures and reading what I could. Papa Pete read me the words I couldn’t sound out. There were plenty of those, believe me.
    At first, I couldn’t figure out why Mr. Rock thought I would be so interested in Albert Einstein. First of all, he had this really crazy head of gray hair that stuck out all over. It looked like he had rubbed a balloon over it so that it was filled with static electricity. Add to that a big, bushy mustache that covered half his face. Then add to that the fact that the scientific theories he developed were really hard to understand. They were all about the universe and gravity and time and space. Oh, and the speed of light. The only thing I know about the speed of light is that Superman flies faster than it.
    But as we continued to look through the books, I discovered two really interesting things about old Albert.
    The first was that when he was a kid, he didn’t get such great grades in school. For a long time, people thought he might even have had dyslexia, which is the name for the learning challenge that I have. These days, they’re pretty sure that he didn’t actually have dyslexia, but one thing is for sure: He got really bored in school and didn’t do nearly as well as he should have. And get this, he was especially slow in reading. Hey, my middle name should be Albert.
    â€œAlbert Einstein was an underachiever, like me,” I told Papa Pete, rolling over onto my back. “How about that?”
    Papa Pete picked up the book I was reading. It had a quotation from old Al himself that he read aloud to me.
    â€œI have no special talents,” Papa Pete read. “I am only passionately curious.”
    â€œHey, I’m curious too,” I said. “That’s why I’m always wondering about stuff.”
    The second really interesting thing I found out about old Albert was that he had a great imagination. In fact, he won a humongous science award called the Nobel Prize for discovering that light always travels at a constant speed, which is 186,000 miles per second. But here’s the really cool part: The thing that helped him develop his theory about the speed of light was that he imagined himself riding on a beam of light, going that fast.
    Papa Pete turned the page of his book and read another quote from Einstein.
    â€œImagination is more important than knowledge,” he said.
    Oh yes, I couldn’t agree more. I’m down with that, as Frankie would say. I love to use my imagination. And I’m pretty good at it, too. Even Mr. Rock said so.
    â€œYou know what, Papa Pete?” I said. “I like everything about this Albert Einstein guy. Except his hairdo.”
    Papa Pete smiled. “He was a great man,” he said. “Do you know he didn’t believe in war? That’s a very refreshing