Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
A Cam Jansen Memory Game
The Cam Jansen Series
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the U.F.O.
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Television Dog
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Gold Coins
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Circus Clown
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Carnival Prize
Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Monkey House
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of Flight 54
Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Haunted House
Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Fudge Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Triceratops Pops Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Ghostly Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Scary Snake Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Catnapping Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Barking Treasure Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Birthday Mystery
Cam Jansen and the School Play Mystery
Cam Jansen and the First Day of School Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Tennis Trophy Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Valentine Baby Mystery—25th Anniversary Special
Cam Jansen and the Secret Service Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Summer Camp Mysteries—A Super Special
Cam Jansen and the Mystery Writer Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Green School Mystery
Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries—A Super Special
Cam Jansen and the Basketball Mystery
DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE YOUNG CAM JANSEN SERIES FOR YOUNGER READERS!
VIKING
Published by Penguin Group
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First published in 2009 by Viking, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group
Text copyright © David Adler, 2009
Illustrations copyright © Penguin Young Readers Group, 2009 All rights reserved
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Adler, David A.
Cam Jansen and the basketball mystery / by David A. Adler ; illustrated by Joy Allen. p. cm.
Summary: When a special autographed basketball is stolen, Cam Jansen uses her photographic memory to identify the thief.
eISBN : 978-1-101-16273-6
[1. Basketball—Fiction. 2. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Allen, Joy, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.A2615Caabd 2009 [E]—dc22 2008046694
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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To my adorable grandson
Jonathan “Yoni” Alex
—D.A.
To Jeff and his bouncing basketball
coming home each day from the park
—J.A.
Chapter One
“Wow!” Mr. Shelton said. “I look so young!”
Cam, her friend Eric Shelton, and Eric’s family were on their way to Hamilton High School. They were going there to watch the last basketball game of the season. It was also the last game for Coach Oscar Jenkins. Eric’s parents were sitting on the front seat of the SUV. The children were sitting in the back.
Cam looked at Mr. Shelton. The hair around his ears was mostly gray. His face had lots of wrinkles. Cam didn’t think he looked young.
Mr. Shelton turned and said, “Look at how young I am in this picture.”
He gave Cam his high school yearbook. It was open to a picture of the basketball team.
“There’s Dad,” Eric said, and pointed.
Mr. Shelton was wearing a basketball uniform, and he did look young.
Eric said, “Look at the player next to Dad, the one at the end of the bench. That’s Danny’s father. The man standing in the tie and suit is Coach Jenkins.”
“This is a great picture,” Cam said.
“Look on the next page,” Mr. Shelton said. “There are pictures of us playing basketball.”
Cam wanted to remember the pictures. She looked at them. Then she blinked her eyes and said, “Click!”
Cam has what people call a photographic memory. It’s as if she has pictures in her head of everything she’s seen. She always says “Click!”when she wants to remember something. Cam says Click!is the sound her mental camera makes when it takes a picture.
“Here we are,” Mrs. Shelton said.
Mrs. Shelton parked the SUV in the school lot. Cam, Eric, and Eric’s twin sisters, Donna and Diane, got out. Mr. Shelton took Eric’s brother Howie out of the baby seat. Mrs. Shelton took out a large bag filled with baby things. Mr. Shelton carried Howie and they all walked toward the school.
“Hi!” Danny called to Cam and Eric.
Danny Pace and his father were near the end of a long line of people waiting to get into the school.
“Guess what?” Danny’s father asked Mr. Shelton.
Mr. Shelton shook his head. He didn’t know what to guess.
“No, really,” Mr. Pace said. “Guess what I’m wearing.”
“I know,” Diane Shelton said. “You’re wearing a jacket and shoes and pants.”
“No. That’s not it.”
“Yes,” Diane said. “You are wearing all that!”
“Yes, but look what else I’m wearing.”
Danny’s father opened the top few buttons of his shirt. Beneath it he had on something orange. “I’m wearing the top from my old basketball uniform. It’s t
ight, but I can still get it on.”
“It’s real tight,” Danny whispered.
“I’m wearing it for luck,” Danny’s father said. “I want Coach Jenkins to win his last game.”
People ahead showed their tickets to the student at the door. They entered the gym. Cam and the others moved up.
Danny’s father said to Mr. Shelton, “I bet you don’t remember the number on my uniform.”
Mr. Shelton thought for a moment. Then he shook his head. He didn’t remember it.
Cam said, “I bet I know it.”
Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click!” Then she said, “I’m looking at the pictures in the yearbook. Mr. Pace’s number was twenty-four. Mr. Shelton’s number was eighteen.”
“That’s right,” Danny’s father said. “You really have an amazing memory.”
Cam’s real name is Jennifer, but because of her photographic memory people started calling her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” became just “Cam.”
“Open your eyes,” Eric told Cam. “It’s almost our turn to go in.”
Cam opened her eyes. She and the others moved up.
A student was standing by the door. She wore a paper orange Hamilton Helper sash.
“I played for Coach Jenkins,” Danny’s father told the helper. “Look, I’m wearing my uniform.”
He gave her two tickets.
The girl smiled. “I hope you’ll stay after the game for the party,” she said. “It’s for Coach, and it’s in the cafeteria.”
Mr. Shelton gave her a bunch of tickets. Then Cam and all the Sheltons entered the gym. The game was about to begin.
Chapter Two
“Look up,” Diane said. “Look at all those balloons.”
Two large nets filled with colorful balloons were tied to the ceiling of the gym.
Ten players, five from each team, stood on the court. The Hamilton players wore orange and black uniforms; the players from the other team, Franklin High School, wore green and yellow uniforms. Two players, one from each team, stood in the middle of the court. A referee in a black and white striped shirt stood between them. He held a basketball.
Trill! Trill!
The referee blew his whistle. He tossed the basketball up. The two players jumped. The one from Hamilton got to it first and tapped it to a teammate.
“Hurry! Let’s find seats,” Mr. Shelton said.
Hundreds of people had come to the game. Almost every seat in the bleachers was taken.
Cam looked up. She saw someone in the last row waving. It was Danny. There were empty seats in his row.
Hamilton scored and the crowd cheered.
Cam and the Sheltons climbed to the last row. They were just below the balloons.
Donna told Danny, “We’re winning!”
“No we’re not,” Danny said. “Franklin just scored. We’re tied, two to two.”
“Oh, I want Hamilton to win,” Donna said.
“Me, too,” Diane said. “Go Hamilton!” she shouted.
The players ran from one end of the court to the other. They passed the ball. They carefully threw it toward the basket.
“They go so fast,” Donna said. “Sometimes I can’t tell who has the ball.”
“Watch our number twelve,” Mr. Shelton said. “That’s Jordan Gold. He’s the best player on the team.”
The score kept changing. First Hamilton was winning. Then Franklin was ahead.
Bzzz!
A buzzer sounded.
Eric’s baby brother Howie cried.
“The noise scared him,” Mrs. Shelton said.
She gave Howie a pacifier.
“Is the game over?” Diane asked. “Did we lose?”
“No,” Mrs. Shelton answered. “Franklin is ahead, but it’s just the end of the first half.”
“It’s like recess at school,” Danny explained. “It’s a good time for some jokes.”
Danny pointed to the balloons and asked, “Do you know what the balloon said when it met the pin?”
“I think Howie is hungry,” Mr. Shelton said.
Donna took a bottle from the bag and gave it to her father.
“We’re behind by three,” Mr. Pace told Danny. “But don’t worry. When I played on the team we were behind lots of times by more than that and we still won.”
“Hey,” Danny said. “What about my balloon joke?”
“Look!” Diane shouted. “They’re back!”
“Go Hamilton!” people shouted.
Danny said, “I’ll tell you what the balloon said when it met the pin. It said ‘Hi, Buster.’ And do you know what you call a crate full of ducks? It’s a box of quackers.”
Diane said, “Those jokes aren’t funny.”
“How about this one?” Danny asked. “Do you know what part of a tree scares cats? It’s the bark.”
Diane shook her head. She didn’t think Danny’s jokes were funny.
“Don’t you get it?” Danny asked. “Dogs bark and a tree has bark.”
“Stop telling me jokes,” Diane said. “I’m watching the game.”
It was an exciting game. There were lots of short passes between players. There were a few long passes, too, from one end of the court to the other.
Players tried to get close to the basket before they took a shot. But near the end of the game, Jordan Gold took a shot from almost the middle of the court. He got it in. Then he missed a shot from just a few feet away.
“This is it,” Mr. Shelton said. “There’s less than one minute to go.”
Cam looked at the scoreboard. The score was fifty-two to fifty-one. Franklin was winning.
“Franklin has the ball,” Danny’s father said sadly. “They just have to hold on to it to win the game.”
The Franklin player with the ball bounced it a few times. Then he passed it to another Franklin player. The other player bounced the ball a few times and passed it back.
This time the ball never reached his teammate!
Jordan Gold jumped in and grabbed it. He threw the ball all the way down the court to Hamilton’s number eight, who was standing near the basket. Number eight took the easy shot and scored.
Bzzz!
The buzzer sounded. The game was over. Hamilton had won!
Fans stood. They cheered.
Two of the Hamilton players lifted Coach Jenkins onto their shoulders. They carried him to one of the baskets. He cut off the net as a souvenir of his last game.
The players carried Coach Jenkins to a microphone set in the middle of the court. They put the coach down. He stood before the microphone ready to speak. The cheering crowd was suddenly quiet.
“Thank you,” Coach Jenkins said. “Thanks for thirty happy years.”
People cheered.
“Thank you for letting me stay in high school for so long with so many great young people. It’s helped me feel young, too.”
A Hamilton Helper climbed up the bleachers past Cam and Eric. He was holding a pair of scissors. He was about to cut the net and release the balloons.
“Not yet,” Jordan Gold called out.
Jordan Gold stepped up to the microphone. “This is the game ball,” he said, and gave the coach a basketball. “We’ve all signed it.”
“Thank you again,” Coach Jenkins said.
The crowd cheered.
Jordan Gold held up his hands.
“We have another surprise for you.”
“I know what it is,” Diane said. “That boy will cut the net and all the balloons will fall out.”
“That’s not it,” Mr. Shelton told her. “I heard the sports news this afternoon. One of Coach’s old players is coming here. He has a special gift for Coach.”
“Is it you?” Donna asked her father. “Did you bring something?”
“Oh, I bet it’s you,” Diane said to Mr.
Pace. “I bet you’re going to show everyone that you’re wearing your orange shirt.”
“No,” Mr. Shelton answered. “It’s someone real famous.”
“Shh,” Mrs. Shelton told him. “Don’t tell them. Let the children be surprised.”
The side doors of the gym opened. Four guards walked in. They looked around. Then they turned to the open doors and waved.
“Here he comes,” Mr. Shelton said. “Here he comes!”
Chapter Three
A tall man walked into the gym. He was followed by a man and a woman. The tall man raised both his hands over his head and waved. People cheered.
“Who is he?” Diane asked.
“That’s Governor Zellner,” Mr. Shelton said. “He went to Hamilton High School. He was on the basketball team.”
“Who are the man and woman who walked in after him?” Donna asked.
“They must be his assistants, his helpers,” Mrs. Shelton said.
Governor Zellner and Coach Jenkins hugged. Then the governor stepped up to the microphone.
Players from both teams got close to the governor and the coach. The governor’s four guards got close, too.
“It is a joy for me to be here to honor Coach Jenkins,” Governor Zellner said. “I played for Coach. He is one of the finest men in our state. I was proud to wear a Hamilton orange and black uniform.”
People cheered.
Governor Zellner held up his hands again and they were quiet.
He turned to Coach Jenkins and told him, “I have a special gift for you.”
“This will be great,” Mr. Shelton said.
One of the governor’s assistants went outside. She came back carrying a large box.
“I bet it’s a car,” Diane said.
“No,” Donna told her. “A car wouldn’t fit in that box.”
“But car keys would,” Diane said.
The assistant gave the box to Governor Zellner. The governor opened it and took out a basketball.
“For the past year I have taken this basketball with me as I traveled throughout the state. It was signed by more than one hundred of your former players.”
Cam Jansen and the Basketball Mystery Page 1
