When I was a child my mother always read The Ugly Duckling to me and explained how I should never judge a book by its cover. I never really understood what she was talking about - until fourth grade, when something happened that changed my life. I didn't realize it then, but Mrs. Beaker's fourth-grade classroom was a baleful and vindictive place. No one would have known this better than Dexter Doodle. He was the joke of the class, but not by choice. Dexter was short, pudgy, and had hideous buckteeth. I was an obnoxious child and one day I started calling him "Beaver-face" and the whole class followed suit. Soon everyone had almost forgotten his real name.…
