Gracie’s Guide: Gracie Learns About the Dangers of Prescription Drugs by Headline Books / Zoom Into Books

Gracie is great at solving mysteries and super at spying around, but Eli starts crying in the middle of class, she can’t figure out why. The kids in the fifth grade classroom learn a valuable lesson about prescription drug safety when Eli mistakes drugs for candy. Gracie’s message is clear— “HAVE AN ADULT CHECK IT OUT SO THERE'S NO DOUBT!”

About the Author

Award winning author, Angie Wilson, is a veteran elementary school reading teacher. She is the creator of two children's book series, Appalachian Heritage Books and Gracie’s Mysteries Series. Her books have received a London Book Festival Award, Readers' Favorite Award, and three Mom’s Choice Awards. She is very active in the Headline Kids School Show Program and visits classrooms throughout the year. She can often be found traveling with her husband, Derek, a church consultant minister. For more information visit www.AuthorAngieWilson.wix.com/author-page

About the Illustrator

Award-winning author and illustrator, Ashley Teets, is a summa cum laude graduate of Alderson-Broaddus College where she earned a bachelor's of visual arts degree with a minor in creative writing. She has illustrated multiple award winning children's books. Ashley is also a portrait artist and muralist. For more information visit www.AshleyTeetsIllustration.com

Gracie’s Guide:

How to Deal with Prescription Drugs

Angie Wilson

Illustrated by Ashley Teets

Gracie’s Guide: How to Deal With Prescription Drugs by Angie Wilson illustrated by Ashley Teets copyright ©2017 Angie Wilson All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any other form or for any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage system, without written permission from Headline Books. To order additional copies of this book, for book publishing information, or to contact the author: Headline Books, Inc. P.O. Box 52, Terra Alta, WV 26764 www.HeadlineBooks.com Tel: 800-570-5951 Email: mybook@headlinebooks.com Headline Kids is an imprint of Headline Books www.AuthorAngieWilson.wix.com/author-page ISBN-13: 9781882658817

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

For all of those who help keep us healthy and safe.

Gracie sniffed and smiled. She smelled popcorn! The unmistakable aroma of little puffs of crunchy yumminess. Slowly, all the kids in the fifth grade classroom began to eagerly search for Ms. T., their teacher, to come through the door with the freshly popped bags so the party could begin. It was a special treat day. The students were having popcorn and a movie; a reward for the classroom who raised the most money for the local Children’s Hospital.

The class had worked hard in three different fundraisers and now it was time to celebrate. The room changed from looking like a classroom to looking like a big family room.

All of the desks were moved to the side and the students were on the floor with a pillows and blankets they brought from home. Gracie and Kenzie, her BFF, sat side by side awaiting the newest kid movie released on DVD.

For almost two hours the students sat staring at the screen and munching on snacks. It was a just-right-kindof-day. That is, until the weirdest thing happened. Eli Canton pulled a little baggie of multi-colored candy out of his pocket and Ms. T. called him to her desk. She took his candy and examined it and then she took him out into the hall for a little talk. When he came back into the classroom, Eli was crying!

Now, a few years back, like maybe when they were in kindergarten, this would not have been a big deal. In fact, at any given moment any of them could have burst into tears, but as fifth graders? Now, that’s a different story! Everyone just kind of stared at Eli for a moment. Ms. T. came back into the room and asked everyone to clean up and get the room back in order.

That was it? No details? Gracie was the kind of kid who liked details. In fact, she loved to investigate things and find information on anything and everything. There were times when she actually solved mysteries. There were other times when she was just plain nosy and curious about things in life. This was one of those nosy, curious times. Actually, you might want to add meddling, snooping, and intrusive to that list. Gracie gave Kenzie a look the two of them often exchanged when they were dumbfounded—big round eyes and mouth hanging wide open. They knew this was a new case for the two self-proclaimed super-spies to solve.

But at the end of three days, they were still stumped. Absolutely no clues. And it didn’t matter how many kids they asked, no one knew why Eli cried. Finally, Gracie decided the only way she was going to find out was to go to the source, so at recess she hung out with Eli. “I know you’ve been snooping around and asking people about me, Gracie, and that’s okay. I guess it was a little weird.” Eli said as they sat on a bench by the playground. Gracie hung her head, a little ashamed of her nosiness. “I just got a little freaked out the other day. I had gone through my mom’s purse for some candy and I accidentally got into a container of her prescription medication. It scared me because it could’ve made me sick.” “How did that happen? Weren’t they in a medicine bottle?” Gracie asked.

“No, she had some in a container and I thought it was candy. It sure did look like it. Ms. T. saw me with the bag and became suspicious. That is one time I was glad she was watching me like a hawk. I could have died.”

Gracie gasped, “I thought a prescription was supposed to help you.” “They do help you if you take them correctly, but I mistook them for candy and if you take medicine that doesn’t belong to you, it can hurt you really bad, or maybe even kill you.” Eli said. The two sat quietly on the bench. Ms. T. had overheard their conversation and came over and began to tell Gracie what she had told Eli about the dangers of mistaking medication for candy. “You must always ask an adult before eating anything that you don’t know what it is,” she said. Gracie was quiet as she tried to wrap her mind around what she had just learned. She found it hard to believe it would be so easy to make that mistake. As they sat there, suddenly a ball landed in Eli’s lap. “I guess that means it’s time for you to get out there and play with the others,” Ms. T. said with a giggle.

And before you could say, ‘She sells seashells by the sea shore’, Eli and Gracie hopped up and ran to join the game. They spent the rest of their recess huffing and puffing on the soccer field.

Ms. T. thought about the dangers of prescription medication and thought it would be a good idea for a lesson on drug safety. The next day the students had a visit from Ms. Suzanna, the school nurse. She said that she had a mystery for the class. Gracie sat up straight in her seat and got super excited. “This is my mystery bag,” Ms. Suzanna said as she sat a big black book bag on the table. “We are going to play a game called ‘Medicine or Candy’. I’m going to show you seven different pairs of containers. One of each pair has medicine inside and the other one has candy.” She took out the containers, sat them on a table and gave everyone a sheet where they could write their answer. Gracie reached for her backpack full of spy supplies and pulled out her magnifying glass so she could do a close inspection. She thought to herself that this was going to be as easy as pie. The students were given time to examine the containers and record their answers.

Gracie took longer than anyone else in the classroom. She inspected each piece in every container. One piece looked like it was a breath mint, or was it a pill . . . ? Another container looked like it was gummy candy, or was it gummy medicine . . . ? Yet another one looked like little round tart candy . . . or was it? She zoomed in as close as she could get with her magnifying glass, but it didn’t matter how closely she examined them, she honestly could not tell. Even a super-spy could not tell the difference. Every answer she recorded was a guess.

Crossword Puzzle 11 12

10 7 5

2 1

3 9

Word Search

Ms. Suzanna went over the correct answers and the students realized if they had eaten some of the pills, thinking they were candy, they would have been extremely sick or maybe even dead! The point was that kids need to be careful around stuff like that because sometimes what looks like a treat is really a powerful drug that could make them really sick or even kill them. That night when Gracie was curled up in bed, her mind was super-busy when it should’ve been super-sleepy. The events of the day were rolling in her mind like a movie. Instead of counting sheep she was counting the lessons she learned at school—how something that looked like candy could be harmful medicine!

She wondered why people make candy that looked like medicine - or is it medicine that looked like candy? Either way, it is Craziness with a capital C!

She thought about how thankful she was that Ms. T. got to Eli before it was too late. Then, she sat straight up in bed. What about all the others kids who haven’t had their school nurse teach them about the dangers lurking in medicine cabinets, houses, or purses? Who is going to tell them? Gracie jumped out of bed and began pacing around her room. Someone had to do something. The more she paced, the more convinced she was that the ‘someone’ needed to be her. Her steps became faster as she tried to think of what she could do. And then it hit her. She ran out of her room and across the hall and burst into the bedroom of her mom (who happened to be sound asleep!) “Mom! Mom! I’ve got it!” Gracie yelled. Her mom jumped up so quickly she almost fell out of bed, “Graceanne Faith! What in the world is wrong?” Mom retorted. “I know what I can do to help other kids learn about staying safe around prescription medication.”

Mom sat up and listened as Gracie proclaimed, “We have to spread the word—we have to tell everyone we meet—we have to write it, text it, tweet it, post it, and shout it to the world! “HAVE AN ADULT CHECK IT OUT SO THERE’S NO DOUBT!”

Make your own poster with the slogan!

Double Puzzle

Unscramble the words from the story. Copy the letters in the numbered boxes to the boxes on the bottom with the same number to reveal the hidden phrase.

Medication Safety “Medications are the leading cause of child poisoning. In 2013, over 59,000 children were seen in emergency rooms for medicine poisoning. That’s one child every nine minutes. Almost all of these visits are because the child got into medicines during a moment alone. “Children are curious by nature, and it makes sense that they would be even more curious when it comes to medication. Many medications look and taste like candy. While it’s important to encourage our kids to explore and discover new things, when it comes to medication, we want to be careful to keep them safe. Here are a few tips to show you how.” (safekids.org) Top Tips for Parents (safekids.org) • Put all medicine up and away and out of sight. In 86% of emergency department visits for medicine poisoning, the child got into medicine belonging to a parent or grandparent. • Consider places where kids get into medicine. Kids get into medication in all sorts of places, like in purses and nightstands. Place purses and bags in high locations, and avoid leaving medicine on a nightstand or dresser. In 2 out of 3 emergency room visits for medicine poisoning, the medicine was left within reach of a child. • Consider products you might not think about as medicine. Health products such as vitamins, diaper rash creams, eye drops and even hand sanitizer can be harmful if kids get into them. Store these items up, away and out of sight, just as you would traditional medicine. 30

• Only use the dosing device that comes with the medicine. Kitchen spoons aren’t all the same, and a teaspoon or tablespoon used for cooking won’t measure the same amount of medicine as a dosing device. • Write clear instructions for caregivers about your child’s medicine. When other caregivers are giving your child medicine, they need to know what medicine to give, how much to give and when to give it. Using a medicine schedule can help with communication between caregivers. • Save the Poison Help line in your phone: 1-800-222-1222. Put the toll-free number for the Poison Control Center into your home and cell phones. And remember, the Poison Help line is not just for emergencies, you can call with questions about how to take or give medicine. If you or someone you know is abusing or misusing prescription medications, call 1-844-HELP-4-WV.

TOP TIP FOR KIDS Remember Gracie’s Rule:

HAVE AN ADULT CHECK IT OUT SO THERE’S NO DOUBT

Check out ALL of Gracie’s Guide Books!

About the Author

About the Illustrator