Horrible Harry at Halloween Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  What’s Harry Going to Be?

  Water, Water Everywhere!

  Halloween Day

  Harry Arrives!

  “The Case of the Missing Pixie Dust”

  No one can imagine what Harry will be this Halloween ...

  “What are you wearing Harry?” Mary asked.

  “Ahhhhhhhh,” he replied lying back on the couch. His head was propped up on the little cushion.

  ‘Huh?” Mary nagged. ”I’m going to be Tinker Bell.”

  “Well Tink, you’ll never guess what I’m gonna be in a thousand years,” Harry said putting his arms behind his head.

  “A Komodo dragon?” Song Lee asked.

  “Nope. ”

  “T-Rex?” I asked.

  “Nope.”

  “A ghost? A ghoul? A vampire?” Mary persisted.

  “Nope. Nope. Nope.”

  “Harry!” we all groaned. “Tell us!”

  But Harry didn’t. He just shook his head and changed the subject.

  PUFFIN BOOKS ABOUT HORRIBLE HARRY AND SONG LEE

  Horrible Harry and the Ant Invasion

  Horrible Harry and the Christmas Surprise

  Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom

  Horrible Harry and the Dungeon

  Horrible Harry at Halloween

  Horrible Harry Goes to the Moon

  Horrible Harry and the Green Slime

  Horrible Harry and the Kickball Wedding

  Horrible Harry and the Purple People

  Horrible Harry in Room 2B

  Horrible Harry Moves Up to Third Grade

  Horrible Harry’s Secret

  Song Lee and the “I Hate You” Notes

  Song Lee and the Hamster Hunt

  Song Lee and the Leech Man

  Song Lee in Room 2B

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers,

  345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

  Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

  Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2

  Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

  First published in the United States of America by Viking,

  a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2000

  Published by Puffin Books,

  a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2002

  10

  Text copyright © Suzy Kline, 2000

  Illustrations copyright © Frank Remkiewicz, 2000

  All rights reserved

  THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE VIKING EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

  Kline, Suzy.

  Horrible Harry at Halloween / by Suzy Kline;

  illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz.

  p. cm.

  Summary: The students in Miss Mackle’s third-grade class enjoy a day

  of Halloween surprises, including Harry’s unusual costume.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-12784-1

  [1. Schools—Fiction. 2. Halloween—Fiction.] I. Remkiewicz, Frank, ill.

  II.Title PZ7.K6797 Hnt 2000 [Fic]—dc21 00-028995

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  Dedicated with love to my third grade class:

  Thanks for a wonderful year,

  and ... a special week at Halloween!

  Kayci Bessette

  Joseph Carey

  Amanda Cavagnero

  Mark Dalla Valle

  Joseph Fagnand

  Thomas Filippini

  Anthony Flint

  Nathan Goulet

  Joshua Gyuricsko

  Danielle Hale

  Randy Huxley

  Kyle Lucas

  Daniel Mohlenhoff

  Vincent Obregon

  David Pashley

  Amy Rice

  Kevin Robinson

  Cassandra Rosa

  Matthew Ross

  Timmy Strahan

  Gary Synott

  Whitney Troy

  Keegan Zygmont

  Special appreciation to ... my editor, Cathy Hennessy, for her helpful insight, my husband, Rufus, for his valuable comments, and love for old TV shows, and my former student Heath Jenkins, who drenched the front row with his water experiment.

  What’s Harry Going to Be?

  Every Halloween we wear costumes to South School. The biggest question the week before is ...

  What’s Harry going to be?

  My name is Doug. I’m in third grade. My best friend is Harry. He loves horrible things. His name is even spooky, Harry Spooger. When it’s Halloween, Harry always plays a few tricks on us. And each year his costumes get scarier and scarier.

  The day before Halloween we were sitting on the rug in the library corner. The second morning bell hadn’t rung yet, so we were just talking about the big question ... What’s Harry going to be?

  “Remember last year in second grade?” Sidney said. “Harry wore a snake costume. All you could see was his white teeth. He was so scary!”

  “He was late,” Mary groaned. “It took him ten extra minutes to slither across the playground. I remember he had to stay after school that day.”

  As Mary thought about it more, she smiled.

  “I remember what costume Harry wore in the first grade,” Song Lee said. “He was the Loch Ness Monster.”

  Sidney’s teeth began to chatter. “He was all slimy and green.”

  “Yeah, even in kindergarten Harry was scary,” I said. “Remember? He was Count Dracula. He chewed on strawberries and let the red juice drip down his chin like blood.”

  Mary shivered. “Well, I’m going to be Tinker Bell. I found a fancy gold dress with gold sequins at the thrift shop for five dollars. Mom is taking up the hem, and making me a wand and a special box with magic powder in it. It’s called pixie dust.”

  “Oooh! You’ll have magical powers!” Song Lee exclaimed.

  No one else ooohed.

  “Hey, what are you wearing?” I asked Dexter.

  “The usual. My Elvis costume. I’m bringing a guitar, too.”

  “Cool,” I said. “What are you gonna be Sid?”

  “A squid,” a voice said from the doorway.

  “Harry!” we all replied as he ran into the room and took a flying leap onto the space couch. It was finally his turn to sit on it. We go in ABC order. Spooger is last. It was his day.

  “What are you wearing Harry?” Mary asked.

  “Ahhhhhhhh,” he replied lying back on the couch. His head was propped up on the little cushion.

  “Huh?” Mary nagged. “I’m going to be Tinker Bell.”

  “Well Tink, you’ll never guess what I’m gonna be in a thousand years,” Harry said putting his arms behind his head.

  “A Komodo dragon?” Song Lee asked.

  “Nope.”

  “T-Rex?” I asked.

  “Nope.”

  “A ghost? A ghoul? A vampire?” Mary persisted.

  “Nope. Nope. Nope.”

  “Harry!” we all groaned. “Tell us!”

  But Harry didn’t. He just shook his head and changed the subject. “I thought of a new game we can play for recess today.”

  “What?” we replied.

  “Tombstone kickball. We get some chalk and draw a tombstone on first base, second base, third base, and home plate.”

  “Neat-o!” Dexter and I said.
Suddenly, Sidney leaped in the air. “Now I know what you’re gonna be for Halloween... a walking corpse! That’s why you’ve got graveyards on the brain.”

  “Wrong again, Squid. You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow.” And then Harry closed his eyes and pretended to snore.

  Water, Water Everywhere!

  That morning we did science experiments with water. Everybody paid attention except for Sidney. He kept bugging Harry about his Halloween costume.

  “Are you going to be a mummy?”

  Harry laughed. “Nope.”

  “Give it up, Sid,” Mary scolded. “It’s my turn now to go up and do an experiment. I don’t want you to distract anyone. So ... shhhh!”

  We watched Mary take a big brown bag to the front of the room. Two big words were written in cursive on the blackboard:Water Experiments

  Miss Mackle had an empty aquarium, plastic containers, and four jugs of water set up on a side table. Mary set her bag down on a desktop.

  “These are the materials you need to do my experiment,” she explained as she pointed to each one. “A glass, oil, food coloring, and a spoon. Now I will tell you about each step.

  “First, you fill the glass with water. I’m adding orange coloring for Halloween.

  “Then you drop a spoonful of oil in the glass.

  “See what happens?”

  “I can’t see,” Sidney complained.

  “Me either,” Ida said.

  Mary held the glass up in the air. “The oil and water do not mix. The oil is just floating around the top like beads.”

  “Cool,” Dexter said.

  “I knew that already,” Harry said.

  Mary shot Harry a look.

  “Wonderful job, Mary!” Miss Mackle exclaimed as she recorded a grade in her red book.

  Suddenly, Harry sneezed.

  Right on the back of Mary’s head.

  Mary turned around. “Aaaugh!” she complained. “Why don’t you use a tissue ?”

  “Don’t need to,” Harry said. Then he pulled a white hankie out of his back pocket. “See?”

  It had two big boogers on it.

  “You’re so gross!” Mary groaned.

  When she turned around, Harry showed me the boogers up close. They were just raisins.

  “It’s an old joke,” he whispered. “But Mary fell for it.”

  Harry and his Halloween tricks! They were just beginning....

  “Harry Spooger?” Miss Mackle called. “You’re next.”

  Mary folded her arms.

  Harry took his backpack with him to the front of the room. Carefully he put the aquarium tank on Mary’s desk and started filling it with water.

  After we watched him empty three jugs into the tank, Harry opened up his backpack.

  “See if you can guess which things will sink or float,” he said.

  First he pulled out a pumpkin. “Who thinks this will sink?”

  Everybody raised their hands.

  Harry dropped the pumpkin into the water. It made a big splash, dipped under the water, and then popped back up!

  “It floats!” everyone shouted.

  “Tricked ya!” Harry grinned. Next, he held up a potato. Harry had drawn a face on it with a black marker. It looked like a shrunken head. “Do you think this will sink or float?”

  “Float!” everyone replied.

  Harry dropped the potato into the tank.

  It sank to the bottom.

  “Tricked ya again!” Harry snorted.

  Mary started to pout. “I’ll get the next one!” she said. “For sure!”

  Harry cackled as he held up one purple grape. I noticed there was a black dot colored in the middle. It looked like an eyeball. “Sink or float?”

  This time no one called out anything. People were still thinking.

  “Float,” Mary said first.

  “Float!” some other people agreed.

  “Sink,” said Song Lee.

  Harry dropped the purple grape into the tank. It sank to the bottom next to the potato.

  Mary made a face.

  Harry explained everything like he was a professor. “If something has air pockets, like a pumpkin or lemon, it floats. If it’s solid, like a potato or grape, it sinks. I tricked ya today in science. I’ll trick ya some more on Halloween!”

  Most people groaned, but Song Lee and I smiled. Miss Mackle clapped. “Great job, Harry.”

  Song Lee went last. She filled a plastic jack-o’-lantern with water. It had a short rope tied to the handle. “I will show you how centrifugal force works.”

  First she stepped as far as she could away from the blackboard. “Will the people in the front row please put their heads down?”

  They did, but their eyes looked up.

  Then Song Lee twirled the bucket over her head. We gasped as she swung it around and around.

  Miss Mackle’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. The water stayed in the bucket! Not one drop fell out.

  When Song Lee stopped, everyone shouted, “Do it again!”

  “Please do! I’ll get my camera this time,” Miss Mackle said running to her desk.

  Song Lee began her experiment again. But this time, just as she brought the bucket up, she accidentally hit the corner of Mary’s desk, and waves of water splashed everywhere!

  Everyone laughed but Mary.

  She got drenched.

  “Hey Mare,” Harry snickered. “You should be a sprite for Halloween. That’s a water fairy.”

  Mary blew her wet bangs in the air. “Harry Spooger, one of these days I’m going to get you back!”

  Halloween Day

  The next morning, I galloped into the classroom. I was the first one there on Halloween! Dad had to drop me off ten minutes early. He had some kind of meeting.

  Miss Mackle was dressed as a witch. She was at the science table cutting the tops off two pumpkins. A very big pumpkin sat on one cookie tray, and a small one sat on another.

  I whinnied like a horse. “Nnneeyehaa!”

  Miss Mackle jumped. “Oh! You scared me, Doug!” she said. “I love your centaur costume! Half man and half horse!”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’ve been reading a book about myths from the library.”

  The teacher beamed. “Wonderful! I think you’ll like the story I’m reading this morning. There’s a horse in it and it’s spooky.”

  “Cool,” I said. Then I galloped over to the pumpkin table.

  “Can I help scoop out the seeds?”

  “You sure can, Doug. I’d appreciate your help. It’s slimy stuff! I listed the seed estimates we made yesterday on this chart. We’ll see how it turns out today when the class actually counts the seeds.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Everyone thinks there’s lots more seeds in the big pumpkin than in the little pumpkin.”

  Ten minutes later, I had all the seeds out on the trays ready for counting. Just as I was washing the orange slime from my hands, the first bell rang. I quickly dried my hands and raced over to the doorway and waited for the kids.

  Mary danced into the room waving a silver wand. Tiny bells were sewed on her hem so she tinkled as she moved. “Make a wish!” she exclaimed.

  Miss Mackle closed her eyes. “I wish ... that everyone would get 100 percent on their spelling test.”

  Mary opened her gold satin box and sprinkled some pixie dust on her wand. Then she touched Miss Mackle’s head three times with the wand. “Your wish is granted!”

  Just as the teacher clapped her green hands, Ida leaped into the room. “Meow!” she said as she clawed the air. She was wearing a black cat costume.

  Song Lee came in wearing blue pants and a blue shirt. Her hair was completely tucked inside a white cap. She wore latex gloves and a stethoscope around her neck. She went over to Mary and listened to her chest. “Good heartbeat,” she said.

  “Thank you Dr. Park,” Mary replied. “Did you scrub your hands for surgery?”

  “Of course,” Song Lee answered.

  When
we heard someone singing, “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog,” in the hallway, we knew who was coming next.

  Dexter dressed like Elvis.

  “So where’s Harry?” Mary asked. I could tell she was curious about his costume.

  We all looked around.

  “He hasn’t showed up yet,” I said.

  “Someone’s coming now,” Mary said pointing to the door with her wand.

  It was a big brown Kodiak bear.

  “Harry?” we all called.

  The mystery person took off his bear head.

  “It’s me ... Sidney!”

  “You’re one hairy dude,” Dexter said.

  “Cool, huh? Mom made it from a fake fur coat.” Then he growled in Mary’s face. “Grrrrr!”

  “Don’t growl at me!” Mary snapped. “I might change you into a frog with my magic wand! It just needs a little more pixie dust.”

  Everyone watched Mary take a pinch of pixie dust out of her gold satin box and sprinkle it over her wand.

  Sidney made a face. “That stuff looks like baby powder. My aunt uses it on my little cousin. It keeps his bottom dry.”

  “It’s magic pixie dust for Halloween,” Mary insisted.

  Sidney sniffed the air. “It smells just like baby powder.” Then he put his bear head back on. “Where’s Harry?” he asked in a muffled voice.

  “The second bell is about to ring,” Miss Mackle said. “It’s time to return to your seats, boys and girls. You’ll find a Halloween search-a-word on your desk.”

  Mary was the first to sit down. “I bet we won’t be able to tell Harry’s disguise,” she said. “But the next person . in the room has got to be Harry. He’s the only one not here.”

  The red second hand kept hopping closer to the twelve. Everyone moved their eyes from the wall clock to the doorway, then from the doorway back to the clock.