Judy Sierra
Illustrated by Stephen Gammell
Grade 1-3–A nameless girl needs an idea for her science project. Her solution is to go on the Internet, where she comes across Professor Swami's Super Slime–a mutant yeast with just a piece of dragon DNA. Of course, she orders it and doesn't follow the directions on the box: do not open until the science fair, then feed the slime sugar until it expands to 1000 times its size and watch it explode into a harmless cloud of gas. The child finds herself with a large, green, slimy glob that begins to grow and swallow those who are rude to it: her cat, which hisses; her dad, who complains of a smell; her third-grade teacher–Eeew! What is that big, digusting creature?–and so on. Finally the child remembers the sugar and, once kids have pelted the goo with sweets and sprayed it with soda, it explodes. My project didn't win first prize, and that was fair...I guess..../Miss Fidget kept me after school to clean up all the mess.