Isadora Moon Goes to School
Isadora Moon Goes Camping
Isadora Moon Goes to the Ballet
Isadora Moon Has a Birthday
For vampires, fairies, and humans everywhere! And for Georgina, my favorite sister.
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 © 2016 by Harriet Muncaster
Cover art copyright © 2016 by Harriet Muncaster
Excerpt from Isadora Moon Goes to School copyright © 2016 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 2016.
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.
ISBN 9780399558337 (hc)—ISBN 9780399558351 (pbk.)—ebook ISBN 9780399558368
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Contents
Cover
Other Titles
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Isadora loves dressing up. What’s your favorite outfit?
Are You More Fairy or More Vampire?
Family Tree
Excerpt from Isadora Moon Goes to School
About the Author
Isadora Moon, that’s me! And this is Pink Rabbit. He was my favorite stuffed animal, so Mom brought him to life with her wand. He comes everywhere with me, even to birthday parties!
I have been to lots of birthday parties since I started school. Human ones! They are very interesting and very different from the parties we have at home. I had only ever been to vampire or fairy ones before I met my human friends. That’s because my mom is a fairy and my dad is a vampire. Yes, really!
Do you know what that makes me?
A vampire-fairy!
Being half-fairy, half-vampire isn’t easy—I wasn’t sure where I fit in! But then I went to human school and discovered that everyone is a little different and that’s the best way to be.
I have really enjoyed going to my human friends’ birthday parties. They are all so different! I couldn’t wait for my birthday so that I could have a party of my own.
“I hope you will be having a nice traditional vampire party when it’s your birthday,” said Dad.
“Hmm,” I said.
I wasn’t sure about having a vampire party. I think my friends would find it a little scary. A vampire party is always held in the dead of night, and you have to dress very fancy and have neat hair. Vampires are very fussy about their appearance. They like to play flying games and shoot across the sky at lightning-quick speed. My wings can never keep up, because they are more flappy, like fairy wings. Vampires also like to eat red food at their parties and drink red juice. I don’t like red food.
“How about a nice traditional fairy party?” suggested Mom. “That would be fun!”
I remembered the fairy party I had when I was four. It was a swimming party. Fairies love nature, so we went to a wild forest stream. It was very cold, and there were lots of weeds and fish in the water.
“It’s so refreshing!” Mom cried as she jumped into the water with all the fairy guests.
I shivered in the water. Pink Rabbit stood on a rock. He hates getting wet.
“I’d rather have a human party like my friends at school,” I told Mom and Dad honestly. “They are much more fun.”
“Impossible,” said Dad. “There’s nothing more fun than a vampire party. Think of all the delicious red food!”
“I think another swimming party would be wonderful,” said Mom dreamily. “We could have a campfire afterward and make flower crowns.”
“I would really like a human party,” I said. “Please? At a human party there are all kinds of fun things!”
“What kinds of fun things?” asked Mom suspiciously.
“Well, at Zoe’s party last week we all had to wear costumes.”
“I wondered why you were wearing those pink bunny ears,” said Dad.
“I was being Pink Rabbit!” I told him. “And Pink Rabbit dressed up as me. It was so much fun. We had cake and ice cream, and there were party favors, and we played hot potato.”
“What potato?” asked Mom.
“Hot potato!” I said. “You pass a present around and around in a circle, and at the end there’s a surprise!”
“Sounds very weird,” said Mom. “And what is a party favor?”
“It’s a bag you give the guests at the end of the party,” I explained. “It’s full of little presents.”
I continued, “At Oliver’s birthday party, he had a bouncy castle and a magician.”
“A magician sounds good,” said Mom, perking up.
“A pretend one,” I said quickly. “He didn’t do real magic like you can do with your wand.”
Mom looked confused. “Why not?” she asked.
I shrugged. “It’s just the way they do it at human parties.”
“It all sounds very strange,” said Dad.
“I really would love a human birthday party,” I said, smiling my most angelic smile.
Mom and Dad sighed.
“Well…all right, then,” said Mom.
“I guess we could try a human birthday party this year,” agreed Dad.
Pink Rabbit and I jumped up and down in excitement.
“Thank you! Thank you!” I shouted. Pink Rabbit can’t shout, but he waved his paws in the air.
When it came to planning my birthday party, Mom and Dad seemed to be organized.
“We don’t need any help,” they said.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I asked nervously.
“Oh yes!” said Dad. “We’ve got all the ideas written down: hot potato, magician, cake, balloons, presents, bouncy castle, costumes, party favors….”
“It’s going to be the best birthday party ever!” said Mom.
“Don’t forget the invitations,” I told them.
Dad frowned and scratched his head. Then he wrote “invitations” at the bottom of the list.
The next day at school we were doing math problems when suddenly we could hear a flapping sound from outside.
“What on earth is that?” said Miss Cherry, darting toward the window.
A swarm of envelopes flew through the air on bat win
gs. They were tapping against the windows, trying to get in.
“Oh my!” Miss Cherry exclaimed.
I felt my face go red with embarrassment.
“Let them in!” cried Oliver. “Let’s see what they are!”
“Don’t let them in!” wailed Samantha.
The envelopes kept beating their wings against the glass until one of them found an open window. It beckoned to the others. Then they all came flying in, fluttering and flapping, landing one by one on my friends’ desks.
“It’s an invitation!” cried Oliver once he had ripped his envelope open.
“A birthday party!” yelled Zoe. “At Isadora’s house!”
“It’s a costume party!” someone else said.
All the kids were talking excitedly, but Miss Cherry did not look happy. In fact, she seemed annoyed.
“Isadora,” she said. “It’s not appropriate to make such a scene in the middle of a lesson.”
I slunk down in my chair and felt like I wanted to disappear.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
* * *
When I got home that afternoon, I marched into the kitchen, where Mom and Dad were busy making party decorations.
“You got me into trouble at school, sending those bat invitations,” I told them.
Dad looked surprised.
“But they were so good,” he said. “Did you see how I used my very best handwriting?”
“Did your friends like them?” asked Mom.
“Well, yes…,” I said. “But they weren’t like normal human party invitations, you know.”
“They weren’t?” asked Mom.
“No!” I said. “With human invitations you just hand them out yourself. They’re only made of paper—they don’t have wings.”
“How boring,” said Dad, who was in the middle of sticking stars onto a “Happy Birthday” banner.
“You are planning a human birthday party, aren’t you?” I asked nervously.
“Yes,” said Dad. “Don’t worry, Isadora. We have it all under control.” He tapped his list of ideas. “We are following your instructions exactly.”
I peeked at the list again. “Hot potato, magician, cake, balloons, presents, bouncy castle, costumes, party favors.”
“Invitations” was crossed out.
“Okay,” I said, feeling reassured once again. “But you know you don’t have to include all those things in the party. Most human parties just have one or two.”
“Of course,” said Dad absentmindedly.
I made myself a peanut butter sandwich and headed upstairs to my bedroom in the tower.
On the morning of my birthday, I woke up bright and early. The sun was shining outside, and the birds were chirping. I poked Pink Rabbit awake.
“Today’s the day!” I said to him. I leapt out of bed, and we flew down the stairs together.
Mom, Dad, and my baby sister, Honeyblossom, were all in the kitchen waiting for me. The table had been set for breakfast, and sitting in front of my place was a pink package tied up with glittery ribbon.
“Happy birthday, Isadora!” cried Mom and Dad together. They both sat at the table, smiling. Mom had a bowl of flower-nectar yogurt with wild berries in front of her, and Dad had already started drinking his red juice. Vampires love red juice. Honeyblossom was sitting in her high chair and happily waving her bottle of pink milk in the air.
I sat down at the table.
“May I open my present?” I asked excitedly.
“Of course!” said Mom. “You have only one because it’s a very, very special gift this year.”
I reached for the present. I was just about to pick it up and tear off the wrapping when…
DING DONG!
Mom swooped the present away from under my hands and jumped to her feet.
“That must be Cousin Wilbur!” she said. “He’s here early. We can’t let him see Isadora’s present. He’ll be very jealous.”
She put my present in the cupboard under the sink and hurried to answer the door.
“You’ll have to open it later,” said Dad, sounding disappointed.
Cousin Wilbur came into the room. He was wearing a long black robe with silver stars on it and a pointy hat on his head. Wilbur is a wizard. Well, almost a wizard. He is a wizard-in-training and also a bossy know-it-all. He thinks he knows everything because he is older than me.
“Happy birthday, Isadora,” he said. Then he puffed out his chest and stuck his nose in the air in a smug sort of way.
“I am your birthday magician,” he explained. “Wilbur the Great!”
“But…,” I began.
“I have some excellent tricks up my sleeve,” Wilbur continued. “Your friends will all be very impressed.”
“It’s very nice of you to come and help out at Isadora’s party,” said Mom.
“It is, isn’t it,” agreed Wilbur.
I frowned. “Wilbur is a real magician,” I said. “The magician is only supposed to do pretend magic.”
Mom, Dad, and Wilbur all looked confused.
“Well, that’s just silly,” snorted Wilbur. “Can a human magician do this?”
He took his hat off and held it in front of him. Then he said a very long and complicated word and stuck his hand into the hat….
“ARGHHHH!” he yelled. “Get it OFF!”
From the end of Wilbur’s finger, holding on by its teeth, dangled a large white rabbit. Wilbur swung his arm around and around.
“GET IT OFF!” he screamed.
Pink Rabbit put his paws over his eyes, and Honeyblossom started to cry. Mom picked up her wand from the breakfast table and waved it. The white rabbit vanished into thin air.
Wilbur continued to swing his arm around and scream for a while longer before realizing the rabbit had disappeared. Wilbur’s face went bright red—as red as his sore finger.
“Ahem,” he said. “I might have to practice that trick.”
“Yes, that might be a good idea,” said Dad hurriedly. “Why don’t you go and do a little bit of practice before the guests arrive?”
“It won’t be long now,” said Mom, looking at the clock. “There’s a lot to fit in today, so we asked everyone to arrive early. Isadora, you had better go and change into your costume!”
I felt butterflies of excitement flutter in my stomach. It was almost time for my party! I grabbed Pink Rabbit’s paw, and we ran upstairs to change. As I put my costume on, I started to feel nervous. Would my friends think my family was too weird? And what would they think of Cousin Wilbur?
“Bewitching!” said Dad when I came downstairs in my costume. “You look just like a bat!”
I loved my outfit. Dad had helped me to make it the night before. I had some black velvet ears on a headband, and a black spiky dress, and even some black bat shoes in the shape of claws. I twirled with Pink Rabbit in the hallway until…
DING DONG!
The first guest had arrived! It was Zoe. She was wearing a black catsuit and standing on the doorstep with her mom.
“Happy birthday, Isadora!” she said. She handed me a present wrapped up with a big pink bow.
“Thank you, Zoe!” I said happily.
Zoe’s mom peered curiously into the hallway.
“I see your parents dressed up too, Isadora,” she said. “How fun! That’s a nice fairy costume your mom is wearing. The wings look so realistic! And what a great job they’ve done decorating the house! The bat chandelier is a nice touch for the party.”
“It’s not just for the party…,” I started to explain, but Zoe’s mom was looking at her watch.
“I have to go,” she said. “I’ll be back to pick you up later, Zoe!” She gave Zoe a quick kiss on the cheek and hurried down the garden path.
Ol
iver was next to arrive. He was dressed as a vampire.
“Wonderful!” said Dad when he saw Oliver’s costume. “I didn’t know you had invited any vampires, Isadora!”
“He’s not a real…,” I began.
“I had better get some red juice for the vampire,” said Dad, hurrying toward the fridge.
The doorbell chimed again, and Mom opened the door. Shy Samantha stood on the doorstep, dressed as a fairy.
“Oooh!” squeaked Mom. “I didn’t realize you had invited any fairies, Isadora! How wonderful. We can talk all about nature!” She took Samantha’s hand and led her into the kitchen.
* * *
When all my friends had arrived, we went into the great hall. Mom and Dad had done a fantastic job decorating it.
Silver stars hung from the ceiling, and there were pink and black balloons all over the floor.
My friends seemed very impressed. Some of them were running around the room and playing with the balloons. They all looked happy.
Maybe my party will be fun, just like a human one after all! I thought.
“Time for hot potato!” boomed Dad, who had put on a pair of fancy sunglasses to protect his eyes from the morning light. It was still very early for him to be awake. Vampires usually sleep through the day.
“You all know the rules, don’t you?” he shouted. “Of course you do. You’re humans!” Then he produced a big present from behind his back.
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