Cookie Monsters: Chapters 1–4

by Erika J. Kendrick
Twelve-year-old Brooklyn Ace is on a mission to sell the most cookies in Santa Monica in order to win a scholarship, represent the U.S. in the World Scouts Alliance, and honor her mother's legacy.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–9, Chapters 10–16, Chapters 17–25
40 words 196 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. involuntarily
    against your will
    Before I can blink, lights flash from a fancy camera,
and my eyeballs involuntarily dance around in their sockets.
  2. flushed
    reddened as if with blood from emotion or exertion
    I spin around and
see the flushed face of a sixth-grade girl in a checkered
romper.
  3. cashmere
    a soft fabric made from goat's wool
    “She’s going to be this year’s district champ,” Stella Rose
announces, adjusting her oyster-shell tortoise glasses and
tossing her matching cashmere scarf over her scout polo.
  4. kismet
    fate or fortune
    We’d only known each other for
a semester, but it was kismet when we met at the beginning of sixth grade. We all signed up for World Scouts
and were placed in the same Sunflower troop, and, well,
we just clicked.
  5. khaki
    a sturdy type of cloth that is a light brown color
    She pushes her big blond spiral coils over her
shoulder and crosses her arms over her khaki sash that’s
filled with tons of creative-arts badges.
  6. podium
    a platform raised above the surrounding level
    “Okay, young people! Can I have your attention?”
Principal Pootie sputters into the microphone on the podium at all the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
  7. formation
    an arrangement of people or things acting as a unit
    I watch the Valentine Middle School HoneyBee
cheerleaders get into formation on the court behind him.
  8. fixate
    focus one's eyes on
    I fixate on her and my other cheer friends, Winnie and LuLu, and break
into a wide smile.
  9. musty
    stale and unclean smelling
    The microphone screeches into
the musty gymnasium air, and I watch as the people in
the audience all wince, grabbing their ears.
  10. muster
    summon up, call forth, or bring together
    And those are the last words I can muster before I go
completely blank.
  11. bate
    moderate or restrain; lessen the force of
    “Last year's district competition was a close one,”
the principal says. “And this year, we’ll be watching with bated breath again.”
  12. scoff
    laugh at with contempt and derision
    “What was my problem out there?” I scoff, drawing a line through the words COOKIE KICK-OFF on my mini dry-erase board.
  13. stifle
    smother or suppress
    I stifle a sniffle.
  14. luster
    a quality that outshines the usual
    “Who’s
our cookie queen?”
    “Me,” I grumble, lacking all the luster.
  15. entourage
    the group following and attending to some important person
    Sometimes she’ll even
designate theme days on her Insta, telling her loyal entourage what to wear and exactly how to style their outfits. What's even more concerning is the way her followers fall
in line and obey.
  16. pristine
    completely free from dirt or contamination
    I snort at her designer backpack as she slithers down
the hall in pristine leather Polo sneakers that match her
scout polo shirt.
  17. swoon
    be overwhelmed with ecstasy, especially when encountering something or someone you admire
    “What’s in it?” I ask, picking it up and flipping
through all the pages to find tons of names and phone
numbers staring back at me in the most gorgeous cursive. “I’d recognize this handwriting anywhere,” I swoon.
  18. pique
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    Dad and Betty Jean lean closer to me, their curiosity piqued.
  19. lapse
    a failure to maintain a higher state
    “If I remember correctly, last year’s big prize was
an opportunity to work with...with...”
    “With Feed the World, Dad,” I say, rescuing him from
his memory lapse.
  20. affirmation
    a statement asserting the truth of something
    The next day, I’m standing in front of my mirror,
ready to recite one of Stella Rose’s affirmations. She’s that
girl—you know, the one who can find positivity in a sea of
disappointment.
  21. deliberately
    with intention; in an intentional manner
    “I promise we won’t go past Mr. Sallinger’s house on the
next block,” I say to him when he deliberately stands in front
of us, preventing us from leaving to hit up the block.
  22. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    Door-to-door sales is a ritual Mom started with me.
We’d venture through the neighborhood together, taking orders from all the cookie lovers.
  23. pitch
    promotion by means of an argument and demonstration
    “Do you girls have your sales pitch ready?”
  24. assume
    take to be the case or to be true
    “What would I do without you?” I ask Lucy, but not
really expecting an answer, because I automatically assume she’s fully aware of her awesomeness.
  25. tendril
    something long, light, slender, and often curling
    She shoves her reading glasses onto the top of her
head, just past her gray tendrils.
  26. clarify
    make clear and comprehensible
    “The what, dear?” Ms. Lancaster asks.
    “She said he’s working for the cookies,” Stella Rose clarifies, nudging Lyric.
  27. trudge
    walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud
    Instead of heading to the next house on the spreadsheet, I cross the street and trudge toward a swing in the
park.
  28. sulk
    be in a huff and display one's displeasure
    “As if,” my scout squad sulks in response.
    And that’s all we need to say, acknowledging that we
lost today.
  29. accessory
    an article worn to complement one's main clothing
    “We need to stop in H&M to check out their accessories, too,” I say, touching all the colorful hair stuff next to
the earrings.
  30. promenade
    a public area set aside as a pedestrian walk
    It’s funny because we always say we're going to be in
and out when we head into all the adorbs stores lining
the Promenade, but the shopping bug can be brutal, especially when you have a designer in tow.
  31. boutique
    a shop that sells women's clothes and jewelry
    She’s a designer extraordinaire. She even runs her
own online boutique.
  32. exclusive
    not divided or shared with others
    The HoneyBees even contracted with her to be their exclusive accessories vendor.
  33. profess
    state freely
    “It’s even aligned with today’s affirmation,” Stella
Rose professes, raising her hands to the heavens. “Everything I need to succeed is within my reach.”
  34. fluorescent
    emitting light during exposure to external radiant energy
    “Whoa! That thing’s pretty big,” Stella Rose says as
we each take turns gawking at it in the fluorescent light.
  35. callus
    a skin area that is thick or hard from continual pressure
    When I glance at Dad, he’s staring into his right palm,
picking at his calluses.
  36. delegate
    give an assignment to or assign a task to
    “Gotcha,” I say, more concerned with delegating office
space. I point to the living room. “That’s your office, Betty
Jean. You can set up shop on the sofa to make your calls.”
  37. balk
    show unwillingness towards
    “Good grief, girl!” I balk. “You’re going to get me put
on punishment with you.”
  38. sappy
    very sentimental or emotional
    He lets out a small chuckle, but
it’s a sad one, kind of like he did at the end of sappy movies
Mom used to make him watch.
  39. determination
    firmness of purpose
    Betty Jean is a big help—she holds down the
fort—but my little kiddo keeps surprising me with her determination to keep this cookie thing going.
  40. legacy
    anything handed down by someone or something in the past
    I know I’m lucky to have so many people who believe
in me and are rooting for me to continue Mom’s legacy.
Created on Sat Jun 22 14:54:44 EDT 2024 (updated Tue Dec 10 15:02:18 EST 2024)

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