Isadora Moon Saves the Carnival

by Harriet Muncaster

  Sink your fangs into an Isadora Moon adventure!

  Isadora Moon Goes to School

  Isadora Moon Goes Camping

  Isadora Moon Goes to the Ballet

  Isadora Moon Has a Birthday

  Isadora Moon Goes on a Field Trip

  Isadora Moon Saves the Carnival

  Coming Soon!

  Isadora Moon Has a Sleepover

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 by Harriet Muncaster

  Cover art copyright © 2018 by Harriet Muncaster

  Excerpt from Isadora Moon Has a Sleepover copyright © 2019 by Harriet Muncaster

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published as Isadora Moon Goes to the Fair by Oxford University Press, Oxford, in 2018.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web!

  rhcbooks.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  Trade Paperback ISBN 9781984851741

  Ebook ISBN 9781984851758

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level GradientTM Leveling System.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

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  Contents

  Cover

  Other Titles

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Vampire-Fairy Cakes!

  Which Character Are You?

  Family Tree

  Excerpt from Isadora Moon Has a Sleepover

  About the Author

  For vampires, fairies, and humans everywhere!

  And for Grandpa and Dulcie.

  It was Saturday morning and the sun was shining through our windows. It made me feel all happy and sparkly and as though something interesting might happen.

  “I wonder what it will be,” I said to Pink Rabbit as we made our way down the stairs to breakfast.

  Pink Rabbit bounced up and down beside me. He used to be my favorite stuffed toy, but my mom brought him to life with her wand. She can do things like that because she’s a fairy!

  “Good morning, Isadora,” yawned Dad, who was just coming in through the front door. He had been on his nightly fly. Dad is a vampire, so he stays up all night and sleeps during the daytime. He stepped into the hallway, and I noticed that he was standing on a colorful piece of paper lying by the doormat.

  “What’s that?” I said, pulling it out from under his shiny black shoe.

  “Junk mail probably,” said Dad.

  But it didn’t look like junk mail to me. As I smoothed out the crumples, I saw that the piece of paper was a big glittering poster with a picture of a carousel in the middle of it. The carousel was covered with twinkle lights and spinning under a starry sky. Delighted children sat on top of fancily dressed ponies and held clouds of fluffy pink cotton candy in their hands. CARNIVAL SPECTACULAR! shouted the bold writing above the carousel. NEXT WEEKEND ONLY!

  “Oh wow, Dad!” I said. “Can we go? Please?”

  “Hmm,” said Dad as I followed him into the kitchen. “I’m not sure. Ask Mom.”

  She was at the kitchen table with my baby sister. Mom was spooning strawberry yogurt into Honeyblossom’s mouth. I held the poster up for Mom to see.

  “Look!” I said. “Can we go?”

  “A carnival?” said Mom dubiously. “A human fair…I’m not sure. Ask Dad.”

  “I’ve asked Dad!” I cried. “He told me to ask you!”

  “Oh,” said Mom, taking another look at the poster. “Well…”

  “Please,” I begged.

  “Wouldn’t you rather go to a vampire carnival?” asked Dad. “I used to love going to vampire carnivals with my friends when I was a young boy. All those spooky rides lit by flickering candles in the dead of night. And delicious red food. My favorite ride was the coffin blaster.”

  “Or we could go to a fairy carnival,” suggested Mom quickly. “Fairy carnivals are lovely. All full of flowers and beautiful nature. I used to like going on the little flower-cup ride with my friends.”

  “Pfft!” said Dad. “The coffin blaster is much more exciting!”

  “But not as pretty,” pointed out Mom.

  “Oh, but I really, really would like to go to the Carnival Spectacular,” I said. “And it’s only open next weekend. Please can we go? I promise I’ll clean my whole bedroom!”

  “Maybe,” said Mom. “We’ll think about it.”

  When I went to school the following week, I asked my friends if they had seen that the Carnival Spectacular was coming to town.

  “I saw a poster for the carnival on my way to school!” said Zoe. “I’m going to ask my mom if she’ll take me!”

  “I want to go too,” said Bruno. “I’m going to ask my dad.”

  “So am I!” said Jasper.

  My friends started talking excitedly about the carnival.

  “I want to go on the roller coaster,” said Sashi. “I’ve heard it has one hundred loops!”

  “One hundred!” gasped Bruno. “I’m definitely going on that!”

  “I’m not,” said Samantha. She looked a little scared. “I prefer the teacups.”

  “Teacups are boring,” said Jasper. “The bumper cars and the haunted-house ride are much more exciting!”

  “Ooh yes, the haunted house!” said Zoe, shivering with glee. “And we can eat cotton candy and hot dogs.”

  “I love cotton candy!” cried Sashi. “It’s like eating clouds!”

  “Will you come, Isadora?” said Zoe, looking at me. “I bet you’ve never been to a human carnival before.”

  “I haven’t,” I said. “And I really want to go. I’ll have to ask my mom and dad again.”

  All day I thought about how I would persuade them to let me go. By evening I had thought of a whole list of things I could do.

  “Mom,” I said. “If you take me to the carnival, I promise to water all your fairy plants for a whole week. And I’ll help change Honeyblossom’s diapers every day. And give her pink milk. AND I’ll even take all my baths in the garden pond from now on, to be close to nature.”

  Mom laughed. “That’s very kind, Isadora,” she said, “but—”

  “And, Dad,” I continued, “I promise to polish all of your special vampire silver. And hang my cape up by the front door so that it doesn’t get creased. I’ll clean my bedroom, and I might even brush my hair.”

  “Wow,” said Dad, looking shocked. “You must really want to go to the carnival!”

  “I do!” I said, thinking about the glittering carousel and the cotton candy and all the spa
rkling twinkle lights. I wanted to ride on one of the carousel ponies, with my hair flying in the breeze.

  “Well,” said Mom. “I was going to say that we had decided we would take you anyway. But as you’ve offered to do all these wonderful things for us…”

  “It would be rude of us not to accept!” finished Dad. “My silverware is all laid out in the dining hall. I was thinking about polishing it this evening, but you can do it instead. There are only one hundred and ninety-nine pieces.”

  “And I think Honeyblossom does need a change,” said Mom, sniffing the air. “You can do that too!”

  I stared in horror at my baby sister, who was sitting, gurgling, in her high chair. I had never changed a diaper before.

  “Um…,” I said, feeling my cheeks turn bright pink.

  Mom and Dad both burst out laughing.

  “It’s all right, Isadora,” said Mom. “We’re only joking.”

  “Though it would be nice if you cleaned your room,” said Dad.

  “Yes, that would be lovely,” agreed Mom. Then suddenly she frowned and slapped her hand to her forehead. “Wait!” she said. “I forgot! Your cousins are coming next weekend! We can’t go to the carnival. I’m sorry, Isadora. It completely slipped my mind.”

  “But couldn’t we all go?” I suggested. “I bet Mirabelle and Wilbur would enjoy it.”

  “Well…I suppose we could ask them,” said Mom. “And it would keep your cousin Mirabelle out of trouble, at least.”

  “Oh goody!” I said, hugging Pink Rabbit excitedly to my chest. “I can’t wait!”

  On the morning of the carnival I woke up bright and early and jumped out of bed. I was so excited.

  “When will Mirabelle and Wilbur be here?” I asked as I sat down at the kitchen table. I began to eat my breakfast.

  “Not until late afternoon,” said Mom, looking at the clock. “In about nine hours.”

  “Nine hours?!” I said. “That’s ages!”

  “I’m sure you’ll find something to do,” said Mom. “Why don’t you clean your bedroom, like you promised?”

  “Okaaay,” I sighed.

  It took me a long time to clean my room because it was so boring. The hours crept by very slowly. I watched the clock as it tick-tocked toward lunch and then tick-tocked into the afternoon.

  “How long now?” I asked, staring out the kitchen window.

  “About one hour,” said Mom, who was busy making a strawberry cake. “You can help me decorate the cake if you like.”

  I stood by the table and sprinkled sugar bats and pink stars onto the swirly strawberry icing, but I kept one eye on the window. Eventually I saw a movement in the clouds outside.

  “They’re here!” I yelled, leaping toward the front door and opening it wide. Two figures were coming down through the clouds on broomsticks: my witch fairy cousin, Mirabelle, and her wizard fairy brother, Wilbur.

  “Isadora!” shouted Mirabelle, landing on the ground and then running forward to hug me. She had obviously been spraying herself with her mom’s witchy perfumes, because she smelled a lot like marzipan and purple berries.

  “I’m so excited to go to the carnival!” she said. “Wilbur is too!”

  “I guess so,” said Wilbur, shrugging. He acted like he was too important to go to the carnival.

  “We’ve never been to a human one before,” said Mirabelle. “Mom’s taken us to a witch one, though. It was really fun. There was an amazing broomstick ride and a fortune-telling tent and a black-cauldron Tilt-A-Whirl.”

  “There was,” nodded Wilbur, starting to look a bit more excited. “I liked the wizard-hat spiral best. It was a giant pointy wizard’s hat with a slide twirling all the way down.”

  “I hope there’ll be some fun rides at this carnival,” continued Mirabelle. “I like the fast ones.”

  We all went inside and had some milk and cake while we waited for Dad to wake up. Being a vampire, he sleeps through the day and wakes up in the evening. I got the poster of the Carnival Spectacular from my bedroom and showed it to Mirabelle and Wilbur.

  “It does look exciting,” said Wilbur. “Though it is missing the wizard-hat spiral.”

  “It still looks very pretty and magical, though,” said Mirabelle.

  “It looks almost like the fairy carnivals I used to go to as a child,” said my mom. “Your dad and I used to have so much fun at them together. Has your dad ever taken you to one?”

  Wilbur and Mirabelle shook their heads.

  “Ahh,” said Mom. “Get him to take you one day. They are so exciting.” She started to tell us about all the wonderful things that went on at fairy carnivals: the teacup flowers, the cones of sugared-violet candies, the little leaf boats in the boating pond. She was still talking away when Dad came into the kitchen, yawning and stretching.

  “Good evening,” he said. “Hello, Mirabelle. Hello, Wilbur!”

  “Hello, Uncle Bartholomew,” they said.

  Once we had finished our milk, and Dad had drunk his red juice, we put on our shoes and got ready to go out to the carnival. It was a warm evening, and my insides fizzled with excitement as we headed toward town. As we walked, I reminded everyone that this was a human carnival.

  “There won’t be any magic,” I said. “And we can’t do magic there either.”

  “Absolutely,” said Mirabelle.

  “Of course!” said Mom, waving her wand in the air. “I understand!” Little stars sparkled in the sky for a minute and then disappeared. Mom stared at them happily.

  “So pretty!” she breathed.

  I pointed at the wand.

  “That’s the kind of thing I mean,” I said. “You need to hide that in your bag.”

  “Oh,” said Mom. “Yes, of course.” She quickly stowed the wand away in her handbag.

  “Good!” I said, running ahead of everyone and rounding the corner. I wanted to be the first to see the carnival! I had visions of twinkling lights and striped tents and beautiful, colorful, sparkling rides….

  But what I actually saw made me stop in my tracks.

  “Is this it?” asked Wilbur, sounding disappointed.

  “It looks a bit run-down to me,” said Dad, pursing his lips.

  “It’s not very busy, is it?” said Mom.

  The Carnival Spectacular did not look very spectacular at all. In fact, it looked very unspectacular. The striped tents were gray and tattered. The rides clanked and rattled. The music was so quiet you could barely hear it. And the twinkle lights were fizzing and spluttering as though they were about to go out. The people operating the rides looked sad and gray too. They had worry lines all over their faces.

  “Oh no…,” said Mom sadly. “What a shame.”

  My heart suddenly felt very small and tight. I held on to Mom’s hand for a minute because my eyes were stinging. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to visit a human carnival after all. Perhaps I should have listened to Mom and Dad and gone to a vampire or fairy one. I was embarrassed to have brought my whole family here.

  “Maybe we should go home,” I suggested.

  “Nonsense!” said Mom, who always liked to look on the bright side. “We just got here! It’s not that bad, Isadora. The rides are only a little run-down. Nothing some magic can’t fix.”

  “Ooh yes!” said Mirabelle, rubbing her hands together gleefully. “I bet we could make this human carnival a whole lot more exciting!”

  “No!” I cried. “No magic, remember?”

  “Okay,” said Mom, sounding slightly disappointed. “Well, let’s go in anyway. I want to ride the teacups.”

  “The teacups!” scoffed Mirabelle. “I think we should go on the roller coaster! Or the haunted-house ride!”

  I didn’t feel like going on any of the rides, but I followed my family into the carnival and toward the roller coaster. As we got closer I could see that the p
aint was faded and peeling.

  “At least we won’t have to wait in line!” said Dad cheerfully as we walked up to the man in the ticket booth.

  “Five tickets, please,” Dad said.

  The man in the booth lit up.

  “Five!” he exclaimed. “Excellent! That’s the most tickets we’ve sold so far tonight!”

  “Why?” asked Dad. “Aren’t you getting many customers?”

  “Not as many as we used to,” admitted the man.

  “What a shame,” said Mom.

  “It is,” agreed the man. “The problem is that a lot of our rides need updating. But we can’t afford to fix them because we don’t get enough customers. And the customers won’t come because the rides need work. You can see the pickle we’re in.”

  “I can,” said Dad, nodding. “It’s a conundrum.”

  “A conundrum?” said the man, scratching his head.

  “It’s a fancy word for a pickle,” Dad explained.

  “Ah,” said the man. “Yes, it really is a conundrum. I hope we’ll be able to think of a solution soon, or we might have to close the carnival down. It would be such a shame. It’s a family-run business, you know. Started by my great-grandfather. It’s traveled all over the country, and it’s been going for almost one hundred years!”

  “Wow!” exclaimed Mom. “One hundred years!”

  “Well, in that case,” said Dad kindly, “we’ll take two rides each!” He put some money down on the counter, and we all stepped into the roller coaster. It was my first roller-coaster ride, and I was nervous. Pink Rabbit was nevous too—he had his paws over his eyes. A little bell rang, and suddenly the roller coaster lurched to life. It went clanking and clunking up the track and then stopped at the top.