by Tom Watson
And everybody did.
THE END.
EXCERPT FROM STICK CAT: TWO CATCH A THIEF
Satisfy your cravings for more fun with the next Stick Cat adventure!
Chapter 1
THE SWEETHEART DANCE
Umm, okay.
You’re not going to believe this. I’m not even sure I believe it myself.
It’s Sweetheart Dance time at my school. Do you know what that means? It’s February and the gym gets transformed into a red, white, and pink lovey-dovey romance-a-torium.
It’s gross.
Totally sickening.
But do you know who’s not gross?
Mary Cunningham.
And do you know what’s not sickening?
I’m pretty sure she’s into me.
Well, maybe not into me.
But she doesn’t ignore me. And she does talk to me. She even sat down by me at lunch in the cafeteria a couple of days ago.
I’m not making that up. It wasn’t a dream. It definitely happened.
I was there.
You remember who she is, right? Mary?
How can I put this?
Umm.
She’s cute.
There. I said it. As long as she doesn’t find out I think that, everything’s cool.
So don’t tell her.
She also likes cats. And I don’t mean she just has a cat for a pet. She actually has two. But I don’t mean she just has two cats either.
What I mean is Mary is crazy about cats. You know, obsessed. She has cats all over the place. On folders, book covers, pencils, sweaters, everything.
This combination—Mary being, you know, cute combined with her cat obsession—made me want to write the first Stick Cat story.
I usually write Stick Dog stories in my English class, but then the whole suddenly-I’m-noticing-Mary thing happened. That’s when I wrote a Stick Cat story to get her attention.
And I got it—her attention.
She liked that first story about Stick Cat and his best friend, Edith, a lot. In that story, they went on a rescue mission to save Mr. Music.
Mary liked the second story even more. In that one, Stick Cat and Edith helped Hazel, an old woman who made bagels.
And now, just today, she sat down next to me at lunch.
I know, right?
Unbelievable.
This is what happened.
First, she opened her lunchbox. Guess what? It had a cat on it. Shocking, right?
She unwrapped her PB&J and said, “Did you hear about the Sweetheart Dance?”
After almost gagging on a gulp of chocolate milk, I answered, “I saw the posters in the hallway.”
Mary, after deciding that my milk drinking did not, in fact, demand the Heimlich maneuver, added, “It’s where the girls ask the boys instead of the other way around.”
When she said this, I made the brilliant decision to not eat or drink anything for the rest of lunch. This, I knew, would keep my choking to death to a minimum.
Do you know what an “awkward silence” is?
It’s what happens when there’s a totally obvious subject between two people who are both thinking the same thing—but neither one of them has the courage to say anything.
That kind of silence happened today at the lunch table with me and Mary. She took a few nibbles of her PB&J. And I continued to not eat and not choke in a very macho and natural way.
Mary finally broke the silence.
She asked, “Are you working on another Stick Cat story?”
This was a brilliant move on her part. She had brought up the whole Sweetheart Dance subject but hadn’t asked me or anything.
Not yet.
“I’m thinking about writing another one.”
“Can I be the first to read it?”
I nodded.
Mary smiled.
And I was totally thankful for three things.
1. Mary sat by me at lunch today.
2. I didn’t choke to death.
3. English class was right after lunch.
CHAPTER 2
LESS STUCK THAN USUAL
Stick Cat’s roommate, Goose, had already left for work. And Stick Cat rested on the windowsill of their apartment on the twenty-third floor.
The big city was wide-awake now. Stick Cat had already watched the sun’s reflection brighten thousands of windows among the dozens of buildings he could see.
It was the time of day that Stick Cat enjoyed most. And it was not just because he loved how the city slowly illuminated as the morning progressed.
It was also because he knew it was simply a matter of time before his best friend, Edith, would call for him.
He closed his eyes and waited.
For six seconds.
“Stick Cat!”
It was Edith.
Stick Cat opened his eyes, hopped down to the living room floor, and began to pad his way across the soft, plush carpet toward the bathroom.
“Stick Cat!”
“Coming,” he called back.
He was nearly to the bathroom now. It was where he met Edith almost every day. They had scratched a hole in the wall that separated their two apartments from each other.
The hole was concealed in their respective bathroom cabinets. It had never been discovered by Goose or by Edith’s roommate, Tiffany.
“Stick Cat!”
“Almost there,” he said. He was in the bathroom now.
“I’ve got great news!” called Edith. Stick Cat could hear true excitement in her voice.
Stick Cat opened the cabinet door and saw exactly what he expected.
Edith was stuck in the wall.
He didn’t comment about her predicament at all. He knew better than to do that. Instead, he asked, “What’s your good news?”
“I’m less stuck than usual!” exclaimed Edith. “Isn’t that terrific?”
“I suppose,” answered Stick Cat. Something seemed to bother him though—like something didn’t make sense to him. Stick Cat hesitated a moment before asking, “But aren’t you either stuck or not stuck? I’m not sure there can be degrees of stuck-ness.”
“Of course there can,” Edith said. She seemed almost offended at Stick Cat’s suggestion. “Yesterday, I was totally jammed in here. Remember? I seemed to get caught right at my tummy for some reason. I’m not sure why. My midsection is one of my most attractive and elegant feline features.”
Edith stopped speaking then and just stared at Stick Cat. She appeared to be waiting for something. After several seconds, she added, “Wouldn’t you agree?”
Will Edith get out of the wall? What crazy thing will happen next?
BACK AD
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TOM WATSON lives in Chicago with his wife, daughter, and son. He also has a dog, as you could probably guess. The dog is a Labrador-Newfoundland mix. Tom says he looks like a Labrador with a bad perm. He wanted to name the dog “Put Your Shirt On” (please don’t ask why), but he was outvoted by his family. The dog’s name is Shadow. Early in his career Tom worked in politics, including a stint as the chief speechwriter for the governor of Ohio. This experience helped him develop the unique storytelling narrative style of the Stick Dog books. Tom’s time in politics also made him realize a very important thing: kids are way smarter than adults. And it’s a lot more fun and rewarding to write stories for them than to write speeches for grown-ups.
Visit www.stickdogbooks.com for more fun stuff.
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CREDITS
Cover design by Jeff Shake
COPYRIGHT
STICK DOG CRAVES CANDY. Copyright © 2017 by Tom Watson. Illustrations by Charles Grosvenor based on original sketches by Tom Watson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be
reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
* * *
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016960408
ISBN 978-0-06-241094-8
EPub Edition © July 2017 ISBN 9780062410955
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17 18 19 20 21 CG/LSCH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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