Isadora Moon Goes Camping

by Harriet Muncaster

  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 Erin Green, dolphin queen.

  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

  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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  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.

  ISBN 9780399558252 (hc) — ISBN 9780399558269 (lib. bdg.) —ISBN 9780399558276 (pbk.) — ebook ISBN 9780399558283

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ 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

  Dedication

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  About the Author

  Excerpt from Isadora Moon Goes to the Ballet

  Isadora Moon, that’s me! And my best friend is Pink Rabbit. He was my favorite toy, so Mom brought him to life with her magic wand. Mom can do things like that because she is a fairy. Oh, and did I also mention that my dad is a vampire? That makes me half-fairy, half-vampire!

  My second-best friends are Zoe and Oliver. We all go to the same school together. It’s a regular school for human children. I love it!

  Every morning Zoe and Oliver pick me up, and we walk to school together. Mom and Dad always try to avoid opening the door. They are still a bit funny about talking to humans.

  It was the first day back at school after the summer break, and I was really looking forward to seeing my friends. As soon as I heard a “bang bang bang” on the door, I flew to open it.

  “Zoe!” I said, leaping on top of her and giving her a big hug. I didn’t leap on top of Oliver because he doesn’t like hugs.

  We started to walk down the sidewalk together, and Pink Rabbit bounced along beside us. Zoe made a tinkling sound as she walked, because she was wearing a lot of jewelry. She wants to be an actress when she grows up and is always dressing up as different people.

  “Today I am the queen!” she told me, twizzling one of her necklaces around her finger and patting the paper crown on her head. “Queen Zoe!”

  “I like your bracelets,” I said. “Where did you get them?”

  “In France!” said Zoe. “That’s where we went over the summer. It was très fantastic. We got to ride on a ferry boat.”

  “Ooh, that sounds great,” said Oliver. He loves boats.

  Then Zoe looked in her bag and pulled out another bracelet.

  “This one’s for you, Isadora,” she said. “From France.”

  “Wow!” I said, taking the bracelet. “Thanks, Zoe!” I felt all glowy inside as I put it on.

  “And this is for you, Oliver,” said Zoe, holding out a magnet in the shape of the French flag.

  “Cool!” said Oliver. “Thanks, Zoe.”

  It was very kind of Zoe to bring me something from her vacation, but I felt a tiny bit embarrassed that I hadn’t got anything for her.

  “I can’t wait for show-and-tell today,” said Oliver. “I’ve brought photos of my trip. We stayed in a hotel by the beach!”

  “That sounds nice,” I said, and then I tried to change the subject. I suddenly didn’t want to talk about vacations anymore. Especially my vacation. I had been to the beach, like Zoe and Oliver, but strange things had happened there…the sorts of things that probably didn’t happen on human vacations.

  When we got to school, our teacher, Miss Cherry, was already arranging the classroom for show-and-tell.

  “Good morning, everyone!” she said, beaming around the classroom. “I hope you all had a wonderful summer. Who wants to come up and talk about their summer break first?”

  A lot of hands shot up into the air, and I tried to slink down behind my desk. I really didn’t want to stand up and tell everyone about my vacation. I was sure they would all think my summer break was not normal. I felt embarrassed.

  “Isadora Moon!” said Miss Cherry. “How about you?”

  I stared at her in panic.

  “Come on,” she said. “I’m sure you had a lovely summer.”

  Slowly, I stood up and walked to the front of the class. A sea of expectant faces stared back at me. I took a deep breath and felt my voice wobble.

  “Well…,” I began.

  It all started one sunny morning. I came downstairs to find Mom waving her wand around in the kitchen. She had made a flower-patterned tent appear, and it was sitting in the middle of the floor. My baby sister, Honeyblossom, was in her high chair smashing toast in her face, and Dad was sitting at the table with her, yawning (he had just come back from his nightly fly) and drinking his red juice. Dad only ever drinks red juice. It’s a vampire thing.

  Mom smiled at me as I came into the room. “There you are!” she said. “What do you think of this?” She pointed at the tent. “Do you like the pattern? It’s for you. We’re going camping!”

  “WHAT?!” said Dad.

  “Camping!” Mom repeated. “We’re going camping at the beach. I booked it this morning.”

  “I,” said Dad primly, “do not do camping.”

  “Oh, don’t be silly!” said Mom. “You’ll love it! There’s nothing better than waking up outdoors with the morning sunshine blasting into your tent…cooking on a campfire…playing in the sand. It’s wonderful to be so close to nature!”

  Dad did not look convinced.

  I walked around the tent in the middle of the floor, inspecting it and lifting the flap to peer inside.

  “So what do you think?” Mom asked again.

  “I’m not sure about the color,” I admitted. “It’s a bit too pink and flowery….”

  “Okay,” said Mom. “How about this?” She waved her wand again, and the tent changed to a black-and-white-striped pattern.

  “Ooh, yes, that’s more like it,” I said, crawling inside. Pink Rabbit followed me, and we sat crouched under the canvas walls listening to Mom and Dad.

  “We’ll be right next to the beach, so we can go swimming in the ocean every day,” Mom was saying. Pink Rabbit put his paws over his ears. He hates getting wet, because it takes him ages to dry. We have to pin him up outside on the clothesline.

  “And anyway,” Mom said, “it’s booked. It’s final. We’re going camping. We leave this afternoon. So you’d better get packing!”

  “Well,” said Dad, “I’m going up to take a bath and enjoy the comforts of home while I still can.”

  I wondered how Dad was going to cope without his bathroom on our cam
ping trip. He does like to spend a lot of time in there. He has baths that last for hours while he plays classical music and lights hundreds of flickering candles. Then he spends at least an hour with his special comb, smoothing down his shiny black hair with gel.

  “A vampire’s hair is their pride and joy,” he always says. “You should brush yours more often.”

  After breakfast, we all went to pack our things and then stood by the front door, waiting for Dad. Eventually, he appeared at the top of the stairs with five giant suitcases.

  “You can’t bring all that!” Mom gasped. “It won’t fit in the car!”

  “We will strap it on to the roof, then,” Dad said cheerfully.

  Mom sighed. She tried to pick up one of the suitcases, but it was so heavy she couldn’t even get it off the ground.

  “What have you got in there?” she said, waving her wand at it. The suitcase sprang open, and hundreds of Dad’s grooming products burst out onto the floor.

  Mom rolled her eyes. She pointed at a twirly black comb. “Surely you’re not bringing that,” she said. “That’s your great-great-great-grandfather’s antique jeweled vampire comb.”

  “Yes, and it’s my favorite thing!” Dad said.

  “But that comb is very precious,” said Mom, helping Dad put everything back into the suitcase. “You don’t want to lose it.”

  “I won’t lose it,” said Dad, picking it up and admiring the red rubies that sparkled in the handle. “Look how it shines.”

  Dad’s suitcases took up so much space that there was barely room for Pink Rabbit, Honeyblossom, and me to sit in the back. It wasn’t very comfortable.

  It was a very long drive. Pink Rabbit kept bouncing up and down on my lap, trying to spot the ocean out the window. Bounce, bounce, bounce. And then at last, BOUNCE! Because finally there it was. The blue sparkling ocean, like a glittering ribbon across the horizon.

  “THE BEACH!” I shouted. “There’s the ocean! We’re here!”

  Honeyblossom waved her chubby little arms in approval.

  Mom started humming as she drove the car down a bumpy countryside lane. Pink Rabbit and I stared out the window. At the end of the lane there was a sign. It read:

  “That’s us!” said Mom cheerfully, driving past the sign and into a small field with lots of tents.

  “Isn’t it just beautiful!” said Mom as we parked and got out of the car. “Breathe in that fresh ocean air, Isadora!”

  I took a long sniff. So did Pink Rabbit. It smelled salty and fresh.

  Mom used magic to set up the tents. The one Mom, Dad, and Honeyblossom were sharing was really huge. And not usual-looking.

  “You can always come into our tent if you get scared in the night,” said Mom.

  “I won’t be scared!” I laughed. “I am half-vampire. I love the night!”

  Dad was busy going through his suitcases. “I know I put that bat-patterned wallpaper somewhere,” he muttered. “And in which suitcase did I put my pop-up four-poster bed? And where on earth am I supposed to plug in my portable fridge?”

  By the time we were all unpacked, it was dark. Mom and I made a campfire, and we all sat around it toasting marshmallows on long sticks.

  “Isn’t this wonderful?” said Mom. “This is what camping is all about!”

  I nodded. My mouth was full of gooey marshmallow.

  Even Dad seemed to have perked up a bit since the sun had gone down. He sucked on the straw of his carton of red juice and stared up at the sky.

  “You can see more stars now that we’re in the countryside,” said Dad. He leapt up to go and find his special astronomer’s telescope from their tent.

  “I’m going to stargaze all night!” he said happily.

  “Not all night,” said Mom. “You need to get some sleep so we can have a day at the beach tomorrow.”

  “But vampires are awake at night and sleep in the day! It’s what we do,” he gasped.

  “Just try it,” said Mom.

  Dad sighed.

  “I’ll try,” he promised.

  When you are camping, you have to walk to a place called The Outhouse in your pajamas to brush your teeth and take a shower. I had to brush my teeth at a sink next to other people staying at the campsite. It felt a bit funny wearing my pajamas in public, but it didn’t matter because everyone else was wearing them too!

  We had to use Mom’s wand as a flashlight to walk back across the field after brushing our teeth. Then Pink Rabbit and I crawled into our striped tent and snuggled under our sleeping bags. It was very cozy. Dad zipped the door up tight for us.

  “Good night, Isadora,” he said. “Good night, Pink Rabbit.”

  I yawned. “Good night.”

  Then I lay there in the dark for a bit. There were strange noises all around. Things rustling, owls hooting, people talking. But I wasn’t scared. I love the dark!

  I woke up early the next morning because the sun was shining brightly on the roof of my tent. It was very hot.

  “Good morning,” Mom chirped when I poked my head outside. “We’re going to the beach as soon as you’re ready. We just need to find Dad first. He’s disappeared somewhere….”

  I had an idea of where Dad might be.

  Outside the one shower cubicle in The Outhouse was a long line of grumbling people. I skipped past all of them and knocked on the door.

  “Dad?” I said.

  “Yes?”

  “How long have you been in there?”

  “Only a couple of hours.”

  A cloud of warm steam rose up from under the door, and Dad started humming contentedly.

  “Dad,” I said again. “There’s a long line of people waiting, you know.”

  “Is there?” said Dad, sounding surprised.

  “Yes,” I said. “You need to hurry up. We’re going to the beach.”

  I heard the shower turn off.

  “All right,” he said. “I’m coming.” Dad appeared in his towel. He looked very refreshed.

  We walked back along the line of people, and I felt my cheeks turn pink with embarrassment. They were all staring at Dad, and they didn’t look very happy.

  “There you are!” said Mom when we got back to the tent. “Now we can go to the beach!”

  “I’m not ready yet,” said Dad. “Just give me five minutes.”

  Half an hour later, Dad emerged from the tent, wearing his black cape and sunglasses and holding a black umbrella tucked under his arm. He was also holding a jar of hair gel and his great-great-great-grandfather’s precious antique vampire comb.

  “I’m ready!” Dad grinned.

  We went through a little gate at the edge of the campsite and walked down a sandy path to the beach. Mom spread out a picnic blanket and sat down.

  “Isn’t it wonderful!” she said.

  It was pretty wonderful. The ocean was blue and sparkly, and the sand was warm and tickly between my toes.

  “Come and build a sand castle with me, Dad!” I said.

  “Okay! Just give me five minutes,” Dad said. He put up his big black umbrella and slathered himself with sunscreen. Then he wrapped himself in his black cape and got out his comb.

  “You must be hot, Dad,” I said to him as I started building a sand castle nearby.

  Dad shook his head.

  “I am not hot,” he insisted as sweat began to drip down his face. He started to do his hair, smoothing big gloops of gel into it.

  By the time Dad was done combing and smoothing his hair, I had finished building my sand castle. It was a very big one with lots of towers. Pink Rabbit and I walked along the beach, collecting shells. We poked them into the castle walls for decoration.

  “It needs something else,” I said to Pink Rabbit once we had placed all the shells. “It needs something on the top to just finish it off.”

  I glanced over to where Dad was now snoozing under the umbrella, and an idea crept into my head.

  “Dad won’t notice if we borrow the jeweled comb for just ten minutes,” I whisper
ed to Pink Rabbit. We tiptoed over, and I picked up the comb. It really was very beautiful. The rubies in the handle flashed in the sunlight. I pressed it down into the very top of the highest castle tower and stood back to admire my handiwork.

  I glanced at Dad, but he was still asleep.

  “Isadora,” Mom called over. “Do you want to go in the water with me and Honeyblossom?”

  “Yes, please!” I shouted excitedly.

  So we put Honeyblossom in her floaty and went down to the shore.

  “Come on, Dad!” I called. “It’s nice and cool in the water!”

  But Dad was still asleep under the umbrella and didn’t hear me. I thought it was a shame. I know Dad enjoys swimming. He is the one who takes me to my Little Vampires swimming lessons every week. We always have lots of fun in the pool together. He has been trying to teach me to swim underwater, but I haven’t managed it yet.

  “This is nice!” said Mom, splashing around in the water with Honeyblossom.

  Honeyblossom waved her little arms and kicked her little feet. She opened her mouth and squealed with happiness…

  …and her pacifier dropped into the water.

  “Oh no!” said Mom, trying to catch it.

  I watched as the pacifier began to sink slowly down to the bottom of the sea. Honeyblossom started to wail.