Isadora Moon Goes on a Field Trip
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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
Coming Soon!
Isadora Moon Saves the Carnival
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 © 2017 by Harriet Muncaster
Cover art copyright © 2017 by Harriet Muncaster
Excerpt from Isadora Moon Saves the Carnival copyright © 2018 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 in paperback by Oxford University Press, Oxford, in 2017.
Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
Trade Paperback ISBN 9781984851727
Ebook ISBN 9781984851734
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v5.4
a
For vampires, fairies, and humans everywhere!
And for my own little Honeyblossom, Celestine Stardust.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Family Tree
Excerpt from Isadora Moon Saves the Carnival
About the Author
Isadora Moon, that’s me! And this is Pink Rabbit. He comes everywhere with me. Even on field trips! I have only ever been on one field trip before—we went to the ballet—so I was very excited when our teacher, Miss Cherry, said that we would be going on another one!
“Oh, lovely,” said Mom when I brought the permission slip home. “A historic castle museum! That will be interesting. Would you like Dad and me to volunteer again?”
“Um…,” I began. Mom and Dad had volunteered on my last field trip and it had been fine (mostly), but I am always a little unsure about them offering to help out. The thing is that my mom is a fairy and my dad is a vampire (which makes me a vampire-fairy, by the way). They are not like other parents, and sometimes it can be embarrassing.
“You can,” I said. “If you really want to. Except Miss Cherry said they only need one volunteer this time. So only one of you can come.”
“Oh,” said Mom, looking slightly disappointed. “That’s a shame. Your dad should go, then. You know how much he loves old castles!”
“I do!” agreed Dad, who was bouncing my baby sister, Honeyblossom, up and down. “I would love to go!” He whipped a pen out from underneath his cloak and briskly signed the letter.
“I hope I will get to wear one of those fashionable safety vests again,” he said. “It was a very striking look.”
“Yes,” agreed Mom. “You did look handsome in it. They were nice and bright, weren’t they? I think the word for that is ‘fluorescent.’”
“Fluorescent!” said Dad. “I love that word!” He handed the letter back to me. “I can’t wait for the trip!” he exclaimed. “Old castles are the best. Do you think it will be haunted? I hope so!”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I’ll have to ask Miss Cherry.”
“Haunted?!” said Miss Cherry in surprise when I asked her the question the next day at school. “Of course the castle won’t be haunted! You shouldn’t be worried about that!”
“I’m not worried,” I said. “I just—”
“Haunted?” asked my friend Zoe. “Did you say the castle was haunted, Isadora?”
“No, I was just—”
“It’s haunted!” cried Zoe loudly, putting her hand over her mouth in shock. “Oh my goodness!”
“Eek!” cried Samantha, wide-eyed. “I’m scared of ghosts!”
“Everyone’s scared of ghosts!” said Bruno.
“The castle is haunted!” shouted Jasper.
Soon the whole class was in an uproar. Samantha’s face had gone very white.
“Now, calm down, everyone,” said Miss Cherry loudly. “The castle is NOT haunted.”
“But what if it is?” squeaked Samantha.
“It’s NOT,” sighed Miss Cherry, rolling her eyes.
But no one in the class was listening. The idea that the castle was haunted had firmly planted itself into everyone’s head.
“I bet the ghost wanders around the castle, wailing and moaning,” said Zoe.
Sashi shivered. “I bet it has red, glowing eyes and very sharp teeth.”
“I bet it eats children for breakfast,” said Bruno.
“Oh, help!” gulped Samantha, trembling.
* * *
“Now, Dad,” I said the night before the school trip. “I know you’re a vampire, but you have to make sure you don’t oversleep tomorrow. We need to be at school at nine o’clock to catch the bus.”
“A bus!” said Dad. “How exciting! I have never been on one of those before.”
He patted my arm. “And don’t worry, Isadora, I will make sure I am ready. I am planning to set five extremely loud alarms. The first one will go off at five o’clock. That will give me about two and a half hours to do my hair. It’s not much, I know, but it will have to do.”
“Great!” I said happily. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Oh my,” said Mom. “Five alarms! I will have to magic up some special earplugs for myself tonight!”
“Don’t worry, Mom,” I said. “You can sleep in my room tonight. We can set up the camp bed! Maybe we can even roast marshmallows, like we did when we went camping!”
Mom laughed. “That’s very sweet of you, Isadora,” she said. “But I don’t mind really. It’s nice to be awake at the crack of dawn sometimes. Nature is very beautiful in the early morning.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, feeling a little bit disappointed. “Could we still have some marshmallows, though? We could have them for dessert tonight!”
“Great idea!” said Mom, glancing out the window at the wet weather. “I do love being out in the fresh, sparkling rain!”
“Um…,” began Dad.
“I’ll use magic to make us a shelter,” said Mom. “That way the campfire won’t go out.”
Dad looked worried. He hates the rain because it messes up his perfectly groomed vampire hair.
“Do you think we could cook the marshmallows indoors?” he suggested. “Over the stove?”
“Oh, no!” said Mom, horrified. “We don’t want to miss this glorious weather!�
��
Dad and I stared out the window at the darkening gray sky as Mom got things ready for the campfire. Rain was now pouring down in sheets.
“I hope it will clear up for the trip tomorrow,” said Dad. “Otherwise we’re going to get very wet.”
“I’m sure it will,” said Mom confidently. “It’s probably just a little shower.”
But we roasted our marshmallows under the magical shelter, and by the time we all went to bed, the rain was still hammering down on the roof of our house.
When I woke up in the morning, it looked even grayer than it had the night before.
“Oh no,” I said to Pink Rabbit as I hopped out of bed. “I think we’re going to need raincoats today!”
Pink Rabbit shivered and looked worried. He hates getting wet, because he is made of stuffing. I opened my wardrobe door and pulled out his little plastic rain cape.
“You’ll be fine if you wear this,” I said, putting it on him. “You’ll stay perfectly dry! And it looks very stylish.”
Pink Rabbit looked cozy. He bounced up and down in front of the mirror, posing like a fashion model while I put on my own clothes. Then we both made our way downstairs to the kitchen.
Dad was already there, drinking his red juice. His hair looked perfectly sleek and vampire-y, and he was wearing his best black waterproof cape. “I told you I would be ready.” He yawned. He hurriedly put on his sunglasses to hide the dark rings under his eyes.
“Well done, Dad!” I said, sitting down at the table and reaching for a piece of toast.
“I’m not too sure about the weather, though,” continued Dad. He glanced anxiously out the window. “It’s pouring! I hate getting my hair messed up in the rain.”
I looked at the black clouds outside and at the raindrops running in streaks down the window.
“We will have to take umbrellas,” I said.
“Ah, yes!” said Dad, suddenly cheering up. “I can use my new, fancy black one with the pointed top!”
“And I can use my umbrella with the bat ears!” I said excitedly.
After breakfast we went into the hall and put on our rainboots. Dad grabbed his umbrella, and I put on my pink plastic rain cape with the hood.
“We’re off!” Dad said, giving Mom a kiss on the cheek.
“Bye, Mom! Bye, Honeyblossom!” I said.
We stepped out of the house.
“The rain can’t touch me!” said Dad happily, twirling his enormous black umbrella above his head. “Don’t we look fashionable!”
Pink Rabbit nodded in agreement as he splashed along beside me in his rubber boots.
When we arrived at the school, we saw Miss Cherry standing outside on the sidewalk next to a big bus. She had a clipboard in one hand and an umbrella in the other.
“Ah, Mr. Moon!” she said as Dad and I came toward her. “You’re here! Wonderful!” She put her clipboard under her arm and rummaged in her bag for a moment. “Here you are!” she said, holding out a fluorescent safety vest. “You need to put this on. It’s required.”
Dad took the vest gleefully. “Oh goody,” he said. “I was looking forward to wearing this again. It’s very stylish, don’t you think?”
“Um…,” said Miss Cherry. “If you think so, Mr. Moon.”
“I do!” said Dad. “Honestly, I’m just too stylish for words sometimes. I should be careful I don’t get snapped up by a modeling agency.”
Miss Cherry coughed awkwardly. “You can board the bus now” was all she said.
Dad put his umbrella down in a flurry of raindrops and stepped onto the bus. I followed him, and Pink Rabbit bounced in behind me.
“Isadora!” shouted Zoe from the back seat. “Come and sit next to me!”
I made my way to the back of the bus and sat down next to Zoe. She was bundled up in a raincoat with frog eyes on the hood.
“Are you nervous?” she asked as I made myself comfortable.
“Nervous?” I asked. “What do you mean?”
“About the ghost!” said Samantha, popping up from a seat in front of us and staring with wide, frightened eyes. “You know, the one in the castle!”
“Oh, that,” I said. “I don’t think—”
“It’s going to be TERRIFYING!” said Bruno from a few rows down. “It’s lucky I remembered my ghost-protector spray.” He held up a little pink sparkly bottle, which looked suspiciously like perfume, and spritzed a cloud of something sickly sweet into the air.
Oliver wrinkled his nose. “That smells like perfume,” he said. “It’s the same bottle my mom uses.”
“It’s not perfume,” said Bruno. “It’s ghost-protector spray. Here, let me spray some on you.”
“NO! NO!” shouted Oliver. “It smells like roses!”
“I’ll use some,” said Zoe. “Spray some on me!”
Bruno leaned across the seat and spritzed his ghost-protector spray all over Zoe. And then Sashi. And then Samantha.
“Do you want some, Isadora?” he asked.
“Yes, please,” I said. I didn’t really believe in Bruno’s ghost-protector spray, but I did want to smell like roses too.
Just then Miss Cherry stepped up into the bus, with the remaining students following close behind her.
“At last!” she said. “We are all here! Bruno, sit down, please. Put your seat belts on, everyone. Let’s go!”
There was a lot of clicking as we all did as Miss Cherry said, and then the bus rumbled to life. Miss Cherry sat down next to Dad and sniffed the air.
“It smells like roses in here,” she said, turning to the driver. “What a lovely air freshener!”
The bus pulled away from the school, and I looked out the window at the shiny road below. It seemed very far away.
“I didn’t know buses could be so big!” I said to Zoe.
But Zoe wasn’t listening. She was busy talking to Samantha and Sashi about the ghost.
“We all need to stick together,” Sashi was saying. “That way, if it attacks, we will be safer.”
“Good idea,” said Zoe.
Samantha nodded, her face as white as a sheet. “Oh dear, oh dear,” she squeaked.
By the time we arrived at the castle museum, my friends had worked themselves up so much about the ghost that none of them wanted to leave the bus.
“Come on, kids!” said Miss Cherry impatiently. “What’s wrong with you all? There is NO ghost in the museum.”
Then Dad’s head popped up from behind his seat.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” he said. “I love a good haunted castle.”
Eventually, after much persuading from Miss Cherry, everyone got off the bus, even Samantha. We all stood on the side of the road as the bus pulled away. Everyone stared up at the castle museum in front of us. Huge black towers rose into the gray sky, and thunder and lightning cracked overhead.
“It definitely looks haunted,” said Bruno.
“You’re right!” said Dad happily. “Maybe it is, after all!”
Miss Cherry frowned. “That is not a very helpful comment, Mr. Moon,” she whispered. “The castle is most definitely NOT haunted! Now follow me, everyone.”
We all followed Miss Cherry to the heavy black castle doors. Just beyond the doors was a ticket booth with a man sitting inside it.
“Ah,” he said when he saw us. “You must be the students we are expecting today.”
“Yes, we are,” said Miss Cherry. “We have come for an educational visit.”
“Excellent,” said the man. He handed Miss Cherry a leaflet with a map of the castle on it and gestured toward the entrance to the first room.
“Have fun!” he said.
“I don’t want to go in,” whispered Sashi as Miss Cherry hurried us into the first room.
“Me neither.” Samantha shivered. “This castle feels spooky.”
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br /> “It’s only spooky because of the weather,” said Miss Cherry as a crash of thunder boomed overhead and a flash of lightning lit up the room. The whole class screamed except for me and Dad and Miss Cherry. I don’t mind thunder and lightning. I am half-vampire, after all.
“Quiet, everyone,” said Miss Cherry, beginning to sound a bit frazzled. “The thunder and lightning won’t hurt you. Now, look at this beautiful historic room!”
We looked. It was a beautiful room. The ceiling was midnight black with silver stars painted on it, and there were two jeweled thrones sitting in the middle of the floor. Miss Cherry consulted the map.
“This is the throne room,” she told us. “And look over there at all those crowns!”
Miss Cherry led us toward a big glass case that was full of glittering crowns. There were tall ones and short ones and spiky ones, and all of them were covered in diamonds.
“Wow,” said Dad admiringly.
“I want to try one on!” said Zoe.
“You can’t try these on,” said Miss Cherry. “They’re much too delicate. But look, there’s a dress-up box over there. You can try on the costumes a king and queen would have worn in the olden days.”
“I want to be a queen!” cried Zoe as she bolted toward the dress-up box. She rummaged inside it. “Ooh, look at this beautiful crown!”