Can someone help me ID this short story? I read it as a kid, in a reading book in (IIRC) 4th or 5th grade. The story goes that a new family moved into the house next door to this kid, and he noticed that they seemed to have an unusual obsession with the weather. They always carried around a barometer, and if there was even the slightest hint of rain they would stay indoors. Then one day they got caught out in the rain and they all melted away, because it turned out they were made of sugar.
Ack! I remember that! I read it when I was 11 or so and thought it was just the coolest story. But I don’t remember what it was. A Bruce Coville, perhaps?
That’s probably it. I was trying to find it because it has become a standard joke in my family for whenever someone doesn’t want to go out in the rain (“Why not? Are you made of sugar?”).
Maybe it isn’t really a children’s story, I assumed it was because I read it in late elementary school, in the reading textbook. Apparently, it is indeed used in a textbook.
I think that the expression was the inspiration for the story, not the other way around. At least, I’ve heard several of my older relatives, who haven’t read Asimov, saying similar things.
