Mr. Belvedere’s Jingle Shop Is a Middle Grade Book

This middle grade book follows Mr. Belvedere as he goes about making jingles for the residents of Floogley. He works very hard figuring out how to put the best feelings inside of the jingles for his fellow Flooglians, but one day the jingle flames in his jingle globes start going out and he can’t figure out why. Feelings are the answer….

Here is an excerpt from Mr. Belvedere’s Jingle Shop.

Chapter 1 – A Stormy Night

Mr. Belvedere peered out of his shop’s window just after noon to see how terrible the weather was in Floogley. Instead of terribleness, he saw the sun sparkling bright in a summery-looking blue sky. Out of that blue sky fell lovely little snowflakes. The North Pole Weather Bureau had forecast a big snowstorm for the Arctic for that afternoon. Mr. Belvedere was trying to decide if he should close The Jingle Shop early or keep it open until 5:00 p.m., like he always did. He saw Samuel, the wisest squirrel in Floogley, coming out of Jess’s Fresh Market. His hands were full with bags and boxes. Chris Sealy, Mr. Belvedere’s neighbor, was quickly loading his snowmobile trailer up with fish. 

In fact, everyone on Main Street seemed to be in a hurry. The West Floogley polar bears sleigh was parked out in front of The Ice Fishing Shop. And every few minutes he could see the polar bears returning to the sleigh with a new package.

Everyone is in such a hurry, the storm must be on the way, Mr. Belvedere thought to himself. He doubted anyone would be coming into his shop to order a jingle that afternoon. Just then, the jingle bell on his shop door jingled.

“Good day to you, Mr. Belvedere,” greeted Floogley’s most respected tea caribou, Mr. Jersey.
“Good day to you too, Mr. Jersey,” Mr. Belvedere replied.
Mr. Jersey set his tea tray down on Mr. Belvedere’s desk, removed the teapot off the samovar and poured tea into a cup and handed the cup along with its saucer to Mr. Belvedere.

“Thank you, I didn’t realize it was already three o’clock, you are always so wonderfully punctual,” Mr. Belvedere said with sincere appreciation.
“You’re very welcome, the number one rule of being a tea caribou is making delicious tea and the number two rule is always to be punctual for the delivery of said tea. That’s what they taught us in tea school some thirty years ago and I have tried to remain true to it ever since,” said Mr. Jersey.

“What do you think about this impending storm? Do you think it’s going to be as big as the last one?” Mr. Belvedere asked.
“I certainly hope not, I wasn’t able to deliver tea for over a week. I think this time it will be a satisfying storm with the biggest whistles and howls taking place this evening. Tomorrow, we’ll wake up to sun and wind and piles and piles of snow, which will mean the town will be closed for the day, but Floogley will be back to normal the day after.

“Well, if it only lasts a day, then it will be ok,” said Mr. Belvedere as he took a long sip of his tea and sighed with satisfaction.
“I’ll be off now, enjoy the rest of your day,” Mr. Jersey said.
“You too,” replied Mr. Belvedere.

Mr. Belvedere sat down on his favorite armchair, a red velvet beauty, and watched the snow fall while enjoying his tea.
After he was done with his tea, he put it in the teabox outside the shop door so Mr. Jersey could pick it up later.
He turned over the “Open” sign on his shop’s door so that it read, “Closed” and got to cleaning and organizing his shop like he did at the end of each day.

Owls are naturally very tidy and organized, but Mr. Belvedere was a little extra organized because he wasn’t just an owl, he was a snowy owl, the tidiest and most organized owls of all.

Mr. Belvedere swept and mopped his wooden floors, and dusted his bookshelves and jingle globe shelves. After that he examined the one wall of his shop that was covered with preserved Antarctic pearlwort which his grandpa had picked up on an expedition to the South Pole. He then wiped down his desk and the other tables in the shop.

Mr. Belvedere noticed that someone had taken one of the cushions off of one of his burgundy couches and placed it on a windowsill. He promptly returned the cushion to its correct place. He also discovered that someone had placed one of his pens on a bookshelf, which he also promptly returned to its place on his desk.

Once everything was organized to his liking, he put on his gray woolen coat and gray woolen hat and headed out onto Main Street to pick up some supplies before the storm landed.

First, he headed to Mrs. Cloister’s Bakery to pick up a loaf of maple syrup chestnut bread. It was one of Mrs. Cloister’s most popular breads, so he made a little wish asking for a loaf to be sitting there just for him. He couldn’t imagine anything better than having a slice of warm maple chestnut bread as the wind howled outside.
As soon as he entered the bakery, the sweet smell of baking bread hit him and he instantly felt hungry. He saw there were still plenty of cookies and cakes and muffins and croissants on the shelves. 

He tried to look for the maple chestnut bread but Mrs. Cloister, who was an average-sized polar bear, was blocking a large part of the bread shelves so he couldn’t be sure if the bread he wanted was there. He got into the long line in front of the counter.

“Wonderful day for a storm isn’t it, Mr. Belvedere?” said Lady Love of the central Floogley ptarmigans, as she slid in through the door behind him.

“Hello, Lady Love, I suppose it will be a cozy evening for us all. Are you a fan of snowstorms?” he asked.

“Oh yes, Mr. Belvedere, I am indeed. I have my evening planned well. I will be doing a face mask and doing my nails and conditioning my hair and watching Days of Ptarmigans and drinking hot chocolate and eating maple chestnut bread,” she said.
“That sounds wonderful. I hope there will be some loaves of maple chestnut bread left for us by the time we get to the front of the line,” he replied.