the fizzy wizard book (1)

The Fizzy Wizard Mone LEVELED BOOK • Took 10

A Reading A–Z Level T Leveled Book T e Fiz yh z
Word Count: 1,200
Wiz ra d
Connections
Writing Series
Write the script for a television
commercial persuading people to Written by Karen Mockler ybags Mike · B
buy candy from Mike. Present your Illustrated by Jacqui Davis
advertisement to your class.
Math www.readinga-z.com
If Mike wants to sell 160 eggs and
there are 40 eggs in a bag, how many
bags will he need to buy? Show your
work two ways.

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TWheizFairzdzy Words to Know

asking price marked down
customer base net
deprived price out
desperate profit
gross quantity
loan tactic

Written by Karen Mockler The Fizzy Wizard Correlation
Illustrated by Jacqui Davis Level T Leveled Book LEVEL T
© Learning A–Z
www.readinga-z.com Written by Karen Mockler Fountas & Pinnell P
Illustrated by Jacqui Davis Reading Recovery 38
Focus Question
All rights reserved. DRA 38
How does Mike choose a business,
and what is the outcome? www.readinga-z.com

It was the week after Easter, and Mike “I’ll give you a quarter for that egg,”
McCarthy had a chocolate egg in his lunch. River said.
From several feet down the cafeteria table,
his classmate River eyed it longingly. “Cheapskate,” said Derek. He was Mike’s
best friend.
“Your mom packs candy in your lunch?”
River asked. “Done,” said Mike.

“My dad, actually,” Mike said. “Sometimes, River dug in his pockets, but in the end
after holidays and stuff. You know.” he could only bring up seventeen cents.

River shook his head. “I don’t know,” he “I’ll pay you the rest tomorrow,” River
sighed. River was one of those poor, deprived promised.
kids whose parents never let them have sugar.
Derek’s eyes gleamed with sudden interest.
Mike peeled away the pink foil from his “Hold on,” he said, producing a dollar bill.
egg. He didn’t want to torment River, but “I’ll pay you one dollar right
even under the cafeteria lights the chocolate here and now.”
gleamed warmly.

The Fizzy Wizard • Level T 34

Mike knew Derek didn’t really want the “Pretty much,” Derek said. “Besides, now
chocolate egg because he knew Derek was a he’s hooked and you’ve got him exactly where
chocolate snob. Derek would probably say the you want him. Think how much money you
chocolate egg tasted like wax. But behind the could make if you doubled your asking price.”
dollar bill, Derek eyed Mike slyly, and Mike
understood what his friend was doing: he Mike shook his head. Almost without
was trying to drive up the price. thinking, he said, “I can’t price out my
customer base.”
It was working. River looked desperate now.
Mike’s feet stopped so suddenly that he
“I’ll pay you a dollar tomorrow,” he nearly tripped over them. Thunderstruck,
promised. his mouth fell open. Customer base?

“Nah,” Mike said, handing him the egg. What customer base?
“We’re good.”
What customers?
At recess, Derek reached over and shook
Mike’s hand. What product?

“Well played,” he said. “The old ‘first In that moment, Mike
one is free’ tactic, am I right?” knew the answer to all
three. Thanks to Derek,
“Not really,” Mike said, “unless you he knew at long last what
consider seventeen cents free.” his business would be, and
he knew that this time his
The Fizzy Wizard • Level T 5 business would succeed.

“Derek,” Mike said, “you’re a genius.”

6

When Mike got home, he pulled down Originally, Mike had planned to take out a
the bag of foil-covered eggs from the kitchen loan from Aster for twenty-five dollars. That
cupboard. His mom walked in. amount had seemed like just enough to get a
business up and running, but that was before
“Not before dinner,” she said. he knew what he’d be selling. As it turned out,
twenty-five dollars was far more than he
“Oh, I know,” Mike said. “I was just needed because the thing Mike ended up
curious how many of these eggs come selling was so cheap.
in a bag. It doesn’t say on the back.”
Instead, Mike took out
“About forty.” a loan for ten dollars. He
bought two bags of Easter
“And how much was the bag?” candy—marshmallow chicks
and more chocolate eggs—
“About four dollars.” marked down for quick sale.

Mike put away the bag and ran upstairs His customer base started with River and
to visit his banker. his sugar-deprived friends. Kids might not
carry wallets, but everybody seemed to have
“Hey, sis,” he said, hanging loose change in their pockets. If they didn’t,
in Aster’s doorway. “I’m nobody seemed to mind loaning a friend a
ready for that loan.” dime. Nobody seemed to mind that Easter had
come and gone, either. Word spread through
Math Minute the third-grade class like wildfire: Mike’s got
candy! Dirt-cheap candy!
If a bag of chocolate eggs costs
$4 and contains 40 eggs, how 8
much does each egg in the bag cost?

Answer: 10 cents

The Fizzy Wizard • Level T 7

The chicks were gone in two days, the eggs Aster fist-bumped him. “You’re on a roll,”
in three. That afternoon, Mike rolled up the she said. “Gonna keep going?”
second empty bag, stuffed it in his backpack,
and whistled on the walk home. “You know,” Mike said, “I think I might.”

“You’re in a good mood,” said Aster. Now that the Easter candy was sold, Mike
changed things up. He wanted hard candy,
Mike smiled and kept on whistling. which wouldn’t dry out or grow stale like
marshmallows or melt like chocolate. If the
“Candy business working out?” candies were wrapped, they wouldn’t stick
together in the Midwest humidity, either.
“I’ve got the money to pay back the loan you
gave me”—Mike paused—“and the interest.” He shopped for the best deal and found a
He was trying to sound casual, but his brain big bag of Fizzy Wizzys (128 candies!) for four
was shouting: This is working, this is working, dollars. Mike stood in the store aisle with a
this is actually working! pocket calculator, punching numbers. At that
price and quantity, each piece of candy cost
The Fizzy Wizard • Level T 9 him just over three cents.

10

Lost in thought, he stared so hard at the Aster spread the word, and soon the second
store ceiling that passing shoppers looked graders were buying from Mike, too. Then it
up, too, wondering what was up there. was the fourth and fifth graders and even a
teacher or two.
“Say I sell these for ten cents apiece,” he
muttered feverishly. “I’d be clearing almost 12
seven cents per candy. That’s”—he punched
more numbers—“almost nine dollars profit.
And that’s net, not gross!”

The numbers were mind-boggling, almost
unbelievable. Mike double-checked his math,
but the numbers spoke the truth.

The Fizzy Wizard • Level T 11

His business was going gangbusters, “Hey, kid,” Ruben said. “Are you the one
ramping up as third grade was winding they call the Fizzy Wizard?”
down. On a bad day, Mike was selling twenty
Fizzy Wizzys; on a good day, he was selling Mike nodded, pleased that his fame had
double that. He was clearing twelve dollars spread so far. Ruben was the coolest kid
a week, and business showed no signs of in school, and Mike—even Derek—had
slowing down. worshipped him for as long as they could
remember.
The best part, though, was that customers
loved his product. It made them happy— “Show me what you got,” Ruben said,
he made them happy. They’d even given him and Mike did.
a nickname: the Fizzy Wizard.
14
It was only one year since his business
adventures had begun, one year since he’d
been a clueless second grader who didn’t even
know the difference between net profit and
gross. Mike looked back now and shook his
head in wonder: Imagine not knowing that!

When school let out on the last day, four
hundred shouting kids exploded through
the front doors like a short, crazed army. So
when Ruben Aguilar-Green approached Mike
and Derek, he seemed to float toward them
through a sea of small, noisy heads.

The Fizzy Wizard • Level T 13

Ruben picked two and handed Mike Glossary
a quarter. “You’re performing
a public service,” he said. asking the amount of money a person or
“Keep the change.” price (n.) company expects a customer to pay
for a good or service (p. 6)

customer a group of people who will regularly
base (n.) buy a good or service (p. 6)

deprived lacking something important
(adj.) or beneficial (p. 3)

desperate having an extreme need or willing
(adj.) to use extreme measures (p. 5)

gross (adj.) of or relating to the total money earned
before costs have been subtracted (p. 11)

loan (n.) something that is borrowed for
a certain amount of time (p. 7)

Mike and Derek watched in awed silence marked lowered the price of a good or service
as the older boy unwrapped the watermelon down (v.) (p. 8)
Fizzy Wizzy. He tucked the candy in his
mouth, the wrapper in his pocket, winked, net (adj.) of or relating to the money earned after
and ambled away. all costs have been subtracted (p. 11)

Derek’s tongue worked first. “He’s a price out to make the cost of a good or service so
national treasure!” Derek called after him. (v.) high that customers won’t buy it (p. 6)

Ruben kept walking, but over his shoulder, profit (n.) the money earned from a business or
he gave them a big thumbs-up. investment after all costs are paid (p. 11)

quantity (n.) an amount of something (p. 10)

tactic (n.) a plan for achieving a certain goal (p. 5)

The Fizzy Wizard • Level T 15 16