by Joe McGee
He took a deep breath. It… was… perfect.
“Caw?” Edgar asked.
Baron Von Grump glowered at Edgar.
“I don’t know where those other monsters are, and I don’t care,” he said. “Can’t you see I finally have my moment of silence?”
“Caw,” said Edgar. He pointed back to the Fun House of Fun.
“Yes, yes, they may be in the Fun House of Fun. But who cares? They’ll be hypnotized just like everyone else!”
Edgar shrugged.
“Now, silence!” said Baron Von Grump.
He closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. He listened to… nothing.
Silence
Shhhhh…….
Quiet zone
No talking
This means you!
Don’t read this aloud.
Too late… You’re already doing it?
Well, stop.
What do you mean you can’t stop?
Do you have to read the words on the page?
What do you mean,
“That’s what the words on the page are for”?
Fine, be that way.
CHAPTER 10
“LOOK, THERE’S A LEVER,” SAID Franky.
Vampyra groaned. “Oh no, not another lever,” she said.
Vampyra, Franky, and Wolfy had had a very scary experience with a lever in Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory when they’d helped their friend Igor Junior get out of trouble.
“I think this one is okay,” Franky said.
“How do you know it’s okay?” Vampyra asked.
“It could do anything!” said George.
“There has to be a way to turn it on and off, right?” Franky asked.
“And there doesn’t appear to be any other buttons, switches, or levers,” said George.
“Wait… there’s writing,” said Franky.
“What’s it say?” asked Vampyra.
Franky peered closer. “It says…”
HYPNOTIZE
OFF
REVERSE
“So all we have to do is move the lever to reverse,” said George.
“Here goes nothing,” Franky said.
He pulled the lever.
* * *
Baron Von Grump had just settled into a calm, quiet, relaxed moment of silence when…
“Woof!” said Sprocket.
Baron Von Grump jumped. He was not expecting Sprocket to bark, and it startled him. But Sprocket was not barking to startle him. She was barking because Wolfy and the cubs had snapped out of their hypnosis. Their eyes weren’t spirals or swirly. They seemed very confused. Everyone seemed very confused.
“Sprocket!” Wolfy said. “Where’re Franky and Vampyra? Wait a minute.… Baron Von Grump?”
“What’s going on here?” asked the mayor.
“Why are we all out here around this wagon?” asked another villager.
“Say, what are you doing up there on my hay?” asked a third villager.
“I can explain!” said Baron Von Grump. “It… It wasn’t me. It was…”
“Caw!” said Edgar. “Caw! Caw!”
“Yes, exactly. It was another guy with a very tall top hat, and funny glasses, and a colorful scarf. He hypnotized you! I was just trying to break the spell!”
Wolfy sniffed the air. It smelled like Baron Von Grump was not telling the truth.
“You mean this very tall top hat?” Fern asked. She and the other cubs appeared from behind the ticket stand carrying one very tall top hat.
“And this colorful scarf?” asked another cub.
“And these funny glasses?” asked a third cub.
“How did those get there?” asked Baron Von Grump. “Haha… that’s strange, isn’t it?”
“Not as strange as that mirror inside the Fun House of Fun,” said a voice right next to Baron Von Grump.
“Who said that?” asked Baron Von Grump.
You and I and Wolfy and the cubs know who said it, but nobody else did because they could not see him. But George had climbed right up next to Baron Von Grump.
“Who said what?” George asked.
“Who’s talking?” asked Baron Von Grump. “Who’s playing tricks on me?”
“You mean tricks like… hypno-sizing people?” asked Vampyra. She flittered over to the wagon in her bat form.
“And making them cluck like chickens and moo like cows?” Franky asked. He carried the large, cape-covered mirror out of the Fun House of Fun and set it down.
“Explain yourself,” said the mayor.
“I want my money back!” said a villager.
“Get off my hay!” said another villager.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any cheese, would you?” Boris asked.
“Caw!” said Edgar.
“Yes!” said Baron Von Grump. “Run!”
He jumped down from the hay wagon and ran as fast as he could toward the Old Windmill. Edgar flapped along above him.
“You can’t stop Baron Von Grump forever, you meddling monsters!” he hollered.
“I think your village may have seen the last of him for a bit,” said a floating tall top hat and a pair of funny glasses.
“Oh my!” said the mayor. “A talking top hat!”
“George!” Vampyra said. “We can really see you now! Kind of.”
“Oh yeah?” he said. “Well, check this out.…”
He pulled the cape off the mirror.
Everyone gasped and closed their eyes tight.
CHAPTER 11
“IT’S OKAY,” GEORGE SAID. “YOU can open your eyes.”
When the Junior Monster Scouts and the villagers opened their eyes, they saw an ordinary mirror. And standing in front of the mirror was not an ordinary sight.
“That cape is floating!” said a villager.
“Just like those silly glasses!” said another.
“And that very tall top hat!” a third villager said.
“No, they’re not,” said Vampyra. “George is wearing them.”
“Who’s George?” the mayor asked.
“He’s our friend,” said Franky.
“He’s indivisible,” said Fern.
“She means invisible,” Wolfy said.
Fern shrugged. “That’s what I said.”
George was very pleased that everyone could, kind of, finally see him. It was nice to be noticed for once.
“George helped us turn off Baron Von Grump’s hypnotic mirror,” Vampyra said.
“If it weren’t for George’s help, we might all be hypnotized still,” said Franky.
“Moo!” Wolfy said.
Everyone laughed.
“Well,” said the mayor, “I think we can find you a better set of clothes than a cape and a very tall top hat. Come with me, young George.”
“Where are we going?” George asked.
“Why, to the tailor, of course,” said the mayor. “We’ll have you dressed in a whole new outfit so that wherever you go in the village, people can stop and say, ‘Good morning, George!’ and ‘How do you do?’ ”
If Baron Von Grump had heard that, he would have had a fit. Another person in the village to go around saying “good morning”? He would not like that at all.
Speaking of Baron Von Grump…
CHAPTER 12
BARON VON GRUMP FUMED. HE fussed. He tugged his beard and pounded his fists.
“It was all so perfect!” he said. “It was all going according to plan!”
“Caw! Caw! Caw!” Edgar said.
“Well, how was I to know that those Junior Monster Scouts had an invisible friend? Whose side are you on, anyway?”
Edgar crossed his wings and shook his head. Sometimes living with Baron Von Grump was a very trying experience. Okay, most of the time. All right, probably all of the time.
Just then, there was a knock at the front door.
CHAPTER 13
WHILE GEORGE WAS GETTING FITTED at the tailor’s, the Junior Monster Scouts busied themselves getting ever
ything they needed for the s’mores. Franky bought the chocolate. Vampyra bought the graham crackers. All they needed were the marshmallows.
“Hi, Junior Monster Scouts!” George said.
“Hi, George!” they replied. They could see him now because he was dressed in a whole new outfit. He had a pair of buckled shoes and knee-high socks, pants and a shirt, gloves and glasses, and even a fancy cap on his head. A fancy cap with a feather! The only things they could not see were his mouth and nose.
“I never thought that new clothes might make a difference,” he said. “My old clothes must have turned invisible in the same experiment that first turned me invisible.”
He was also holding a bag of marshmallows.
“Brought you these,” he said.
“Now we can have s’mores tonight!” said Fern.
The other cubs all howled with delight. Sprocket barked and howled along with them.
“Ah, there you are,” said the mayor. “George, you are looking splendid. Simply magnificent! I want to show you all something.”
The mayor led them to the village square where Peter, the piper, stood next to something tall and rectangular and covered with a sheet.
Peter pulled the sheet off to reveal a full-length mirror. Only, when you looked at it, you did not get hypnotized. Instead, it made you look squashed and extra wide, or stretched out and super skinny, or wavy and wobbly. It was a new fun-house mirror, and this one was actually FUN!
“Junior Monster Scouts, George,” said the mayor, “you taught us all another valuable lesson today. It’s not what you look like—it’s what you do. We used to be scared of the monsters because they looked different, but they always come to our aid. And George, you weren’t noticed because of what you looked like… or didn’t look like… but because you helped save us all from being hypnotized!”
“So what’s the mirror for?” asked Wolfy. He stuck his tongue out, and his reflection looked even sillier. His tongue looked ten times as long!
“Because when we look into it,” Peter said, “we’re reminded that things aren’t really what they seem! Even if it looks that way.”
“But where did that hypnotizing mirror go?” Franky asked.
“You know,” said the mayor, “I really don’t have the slightest idea.”
CHAPTER 14
REMEMBER THAT KNOCK AT THE front door of the Old Windmill?
“I’m coming!” hollered Baron Von Grump. “Quit pounding on my door! Noise, noise, noise, NOISE. Always with the noise. What do you—”
“Hey, Von Grump,” said Boris the rat. “You left this back at the village. Figured you might want it back.”
Baron Von Grump’s eyes got very wide. The rats had brought him back his mirror. His hypnotic mirror.
And they’d just pushed the lever to HYPNOTIZE.
Baron Von Grump’s eyes became spirals. Then they got swirly. He was very sleepy.
“Cluck like a chicken,” said Boris.
“Cluck! Cluck!” said Baron Von Grump.
“Oink like a pig,” said another rat.
“Oink, oink, oink!” Baron Von Grump said.
“Come on,” said Boris, leading the rats into the Old Windmill, “let’s grab some cheese and sit back and watch the show!”
“Oink, oink, oink!” said Baron Von Grump.
Edgar covered his ears with his wings. Baron Von Grump was SO noisy!
CHAPTER 15
THAT NIGHT’S SCOUT MEETING TOOK place around a nice, toasty campfire. Can you smell the wood burning? Can you hear the crackle? Can you see the bright embers dancing up into the star-filled summer sky? Campfires are nice. Summer campfires are even nicer. And summer campfires with s’mores? The best.
“Well, sounds like you had a very exciting afternoon,” said Esmeralda. She handed out marshmallow sticks. There were a lot of sticks. Not only were the Junior Monster Scouts there; and their moms; and Vampyra’s aunts Belladonna, Hemlock, and Moonflower; but also Dracula, and Wolf Man, and Doctor Frankenstein, and the cubs, and Sprocket, and Igor Junior, and Igor Senior, and finally, last but certainly not least, George.
Wolfy’s mom, Harriet, opened her Junior Monster Scout handbook. “Let’s start tonight’s meeting by saying the scout oath,” she said. Everyone joined in.
“I promise to be nice, not scary. To help, not harm. To always try to do my best. I am a monster, but I am not mean. I am a Junior Monster Scout!”
“It sounds like you weren’t only helpful today,” said Vampyra’s mom, Vampirella. “It sounds like you were clever.”
“Regular detectives!” said Aunt Belladonna.
“Supersleuths!” said Aunt Hemlock.
“No clue too confusing for these clever monsters!” Aunt Moonflower said.
“Which is why you are receiving your Mystery Merit Badges,” said Harriet. “All four of you.”
She looked right at George and pinned the merit badge to his shirt.
George smiled, and even though no one could see his smile, they could feel it.
“Gee, thanks!” he said.
“You’re very welcome,” said Esmeralda.
“I believe we have another surprise tonight, don’t we?” said Dracula.
Vampirella smiled. Her fangs glinted in the campfire light.
“Indeed we do,” she said. “Fern, cubs, congratulations. You are the very first Little Junior Monster Scouts!”
Wolfy leaped up and howled at the moon. Everyone howled along with him.
It was a Junior Monster Scout meeting to remember!
OINK!
CLUCK!
MOO!
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS •
Wow… here we are, at the end of the fourth book in the Junior Monster Scouts series. It goes without saying that I want to thank my amazing wife, Jess (not that I have other wives, but I thought it’d be nice to mention her name and not just call her “my wife,” and if I’d thanked “Jess,” you might have asked, “Who’s Jess?”), for her love, support, encouragement, inspiration, and friendship. I want to thank my editor, Karen Nagel, for opening this door to me in the first place and for championing these books. Karen, you and the Aladdin team made these books even greater than I could have ever imagined them. Chelsea Morgan, thanks for putting up with my habitual mistake with a certain dialogue tag. Thank you, Linda Epstein, for all of the hard work you have done (and continue to do) with this series. Thank you, Ethan, for your wonderful illustrations. I’m a lucky author to be partnered with you.
Shane, Zach, Logan, Ainsley, Sawyer, and Braeden—thank you for being proud of what we do. We are proud of each one of you. And by “we” I am, of course, referring to Jess and to myself, and not speaking about myself only in some strange third-person kind of reference. Thank you, Becca, Josh, Madi, and Lena, for being you.
I recently attended a book festival, and someone asked me what it felt like, or what my reaction was, to holding my first published book in my hands. My first book was published in 2015, and I’m fortunate to have quite a few books out now and even more on the horizon, but my answer was this: it was a surreal and wonderful feeling of accomplishment to know that I’d done what I set out to do when I was a ten-year-old with a dream—to hold in my hands a book that an agent, an editor, and you, the reader, felt was important enough, fun enough, good enough to invest in. And, I continued to say, that has never changed. I get that same feeling with every book. I am grateful for every opportunity, every reader, every book I publish. I am reminded of what I have managed to do and to not take any of this for granted. I am truly thankful for the ability and opportunity to put these books in your hands.
And speaking of book festivals, thank you so much to every organizer and volunteer of every book festival out there. Your hard work presents so many opportunities for us (the authors and illustrators) to meet old and new readers and share our art. Thank you, independent bookstore owners, for being the beating heart of the book world. There’s so much more to this gig than shelf space and ISBNs.
> Thank you to the teachers and librarians who celebrate reading, creativity, art, and writing in a STEM world. The classroom libraries you build, the book fairs, the authors and illustrators you bring in, and the school-wide reading nights may be more important to a young person than you may realize (but I’m betting I’m wrong—I’m betting you know just how important it is). And trust me when I say that you are making a difference. You may never know it, but you are. I might not ever learn the name of the fourth-grade teacher who changed my life. (We moved so much that it was somehow lost in the shuffle.) I will most likely never get a chance to thank her personally. But she saw in me what you see in some of your students, and her encouragement and belief in my potential put me on a trajectory that has me sitting here typing acknowledgments in this book. I am the fruit of your labor, teachers.
Lastly, I want to thank all of my fellow children’s writers and illustrators. The art you produce, the work you do (from the books to the school visits to the signings and festivals), is a bright light in a sometimes dark world. We are the torchbearers. We bring the magic. I’m very proud to stand with you, helping children to learn, laugh, love, and discover. Yes, I know… discover does not start with an “l,” and I missed a chance at nailing a four-word alliteration. But seriously, thank you. We all lift one another up and propel each other forward. Our kidlit community is pretty amazing.
Finally (even though I just previously said “lastly”), I’d like to thank every mom and dad who takes their kids to the bookstore and the library, who sends in their Scholastic Book Club money, who says yes to buying another book. I’m not thanking you for your money (although yes, I am thankful for that—it’d be rude not to say thanks for that, don’t you think?)—I’m thanking you for feeding a child’s hungry imagination, curious creativity, and insatiable appetite to explore new worlds and delve into new adventures. Thank you for saying yes when it’s just as easy to say no.
