by Debbie Dadey
SHIPWORM: This clam looks more like a worm. It can actually cut into a wooden ship and damage it.
SPECTACULAR SEAWEED: This purple seaweed usually grows in deep water.
TARPON: This fish is related to eels. A single female tarpon can produce twelve million eggs! Tarpon can live for about fifty-five years.
FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NEXT . . .
Sea Horses
GREAT JOB ON YOUR KELP reports,” Mrs. Karp told her class of third graders. “I’m so glad you enjoyed ‘My Side of the Ocean.’ It is one of my favorite stories.”
Echo tried to pay attention to the lesson, but she couldn’t keep her pink tail from tapping the ocean floor. She couldn’t wait until school was over! When the final conch shell sounded, Echo soared out of her seat and down the hallway of Trident Academy.
Her best friend, Shelly, followed Echo and patted her shoulder. “Do you have Tail Flippers practice today, or can you come over?”
Echo loved being part of the Tail Flippers dance team, and since the big Poseidon City Dance Competition was coming up next week, Coach Barnacle had been making them practice almost every day after school. Echo’s fins ached from all the hard work.
Echo had been working especially hard because she had a big job to do. She was going to perform a very difficult flip called a Scale Dropper. And she was going to do it from the top of a mer-pyramid formed by the other team members! It would be their big finale.
Normally, Echo would have spent her free afternoon at Shelly’s home, especially since Shelly lived right above the Trident City People Museum. Echo loved learning about the human world. But there was something else she liked just as much: sea horses!
Echo shook her head. “We don’t have practice today, but Rocky invited me to ride one of his sea horses this afternoon.”
Shelly smiled. “That sounds fun.”
Just then, Coach Barnacle swam by the mergirls. “Well, if it isn’t our star Tail Flipper herself! Tell me, Echo, how is your Scale Dropper coming along?”
“Fin-tastic!” Echo told him. “I’ve even been waking up early to practice it every day before breakfast!”
“Mervelous!” Coach Barnacle boomed. “After all, you’re our secret weapon! If you keep practicing, I think our team has a great chance of winning first place.”
Coach Barnacle zoomed down the hall just as Rocky burst out of their classroom. He took one look at Echo and grinned. “Shake your tail! It’s sea horse time!”
Echo squealed in delight. She waved good-bye to Shelly and sped out of Trident Academy after Rocky. As they swam past the Big Rock Café, Echo’s mouth watered at the smell of boxfish burgers. She’d love to have a snack, but she wanted to ride Pinky more.
Pinky was one of Rocky’s two sea horses. Zollie was his first sea horse. Rocky’s uncle had rescued Zollie from a human’s net. Pinky was Zollie’s mate, who’d come to stay at Rocky’s house too. Echo couldn’t help being a tiny bit jealous of Rocky. After all, he had two sea horses and she didn’t have any. But at least Rocky was nice enough to let Echo ride Pinky.
The two merkids swam around Rocky’s big house and a storage shell to find the two sea horses feeding on small shrimp. When the pets saw Echo and Rocky, they raced over to them. Echo laughed and hugged Pinky while Rocky petted Zollie’s head. Soon the merkids were riding on the backs of Pinky and Zollie.
“This is shelltacular!” Rocky yelled. He leaned down over Zollie’s orange neck, urging him to go faster.
Echo did the same to Pinky and yelled, “Giddyup!”
This is what it must be like to be a sailfish, Echo thought. She loved the feeling of water whipping through her curly black hair.
Pinky sprinted through MerPark. Echo waved when she passed Pearl, a girl from her class. Pearl frowned as the two sea horses charged past. “Echo Reef! You’d better slow that thing down!” she snapped.
Echo laughed and shook her head at Pearl. “No wavy way!” she yelled. “This is too much fun!”
But just as Echo turned her head, something horrible happened!
Debbie Dadey is the author and coauthor of more than one hundred and sixty children’s books, including the series The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids. A former teacher and librarian, Debbie and her family live in Sevierville, Tennessee. She hopes you’ll visit www.debbiedadey.com for lots of mermaid fun.
Aladdin
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
Visit us at
simonandschuster.com/kids
authors.simonandschuster.com/Debbie-Dadey
Also by
Debbie Dadey
MERMAID TALES
BOOK 1: TROUBLE AT TRIDENT ACADEMY
BOOK 2: BATTLE OF THE BEST FRIENDS
BOOK 3: A WHALE OF A TALE
BOOK 4: DANGER IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA
BOOK 5: THE LOST PRINCESS
BOOK 6: THE SECRET SEA HORSE
BOOK 7: DREAM OF THE BLUE TURTLE
BOOK 8: TREASURE IN TRIDENT CITY
BOOK 9: A ROYAL TEA
BOOK 10: A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
BOOK 11: THE POLAR BEAR EXPRESS
BOOK 12: WISH UPON A STARFISH
Coming Soon
BOOK 14: TWIST AND SHOUT
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This Aladdin hardcover edition December 2015
Text copyright © 2015 by Debbie Dadey
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Tatevik Avakyan
Also available in an Aladdin paperback edition.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Series designed by Karin Paprocki
Cover designed by Karina Granda
The text of this book was set in Belucian Book.
Library of Congress Control Number 2015939108
ISBN 978-1-4814-4076-9 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-4075-2 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-4077-6 (eBook)
