Adventures in Reading for Kids 8 – 12
By
Debra Chapoton
Copyright 2011 by Debra Chapoton
All rights reserved www.bigpinelodgebooks.com
The samples are from the following books:
THE SECRET IN THE HIDDEN CAVE
A TICK IN TIME
BULLIES AND BEARS
BIGFOOT DAY, NINJA NIGHT
NICK BAZEBAHL AND THE FORBIDDEN TUNNELS
CHAPTER 1 The Giant Dryer
I don’t know how I got into this building. Sometimes that happens to me in this place. I don’t think it’s memory loss or anything magical. It just is. When I say “I suddenly found myself outside”, well, that’s really what happens.
My name is Nick Bazebahl. Yup, you’re right, it sounds like a sport and I can live up to my name, no problem. My dad thinks I’m the star of Little League.
But back to the building I found myself in.
There were a lot of kids, mostly older than me. Taller, for sure. They were busily moving around. I saw a couple of guys step out of the giant round openings of what looked like room-sized washing machines.
Front loaders. I peered into one after some middle school kids turned the corner. Clothing was stuck to the far inside wall of the machine and had to be peeled off like Velcro. I know because that’s what I did. I peeled off some nice jeans and a dark blue tee-shirt.
I needed a new disguise. Stealing someone’s freshly washed laundry would have to do. After all, I was pretty noticeable in this bright orange shirt and torn jeans.
But before I could change I suddenly found myself outside.
I walked around the building looking for an entrance and finally found one at the walk-out basement level. A line of people stretched twenty feet or so with each person pushing a wheeled laundry basket. You know the kind – prisoners escape in them all the time on shows I watch when the babysitter is over.
Just so you know, the babysitter is watching my younger sister, Gracie.
Anyway, I didn’t think this was the way I had entered the first time. Darn, I knew there would be challenges when I came here.
I cut in line behind a woman with a skirt the size of my uncle’s pole barn. No one complained that I took cuts. They probably couldn’t see me.
I took the first set of stairs up two flights and followed the woman as she went to the right. It was habit, I guess, from following my mom (not that my mom has a big butt, she doesn’t).
This lady I was following went into a room with a swimming pool. It was HUGE! As she went to the changing room I took off the orange shirt and holey jeans right there. I was glad to see I was wearing some fairly new underwear. I wrapped myself in one of the softest white towels I had ever felt. Then I went looking for the giant washing machines again. A towel disguise wouldn’t be the smartest thing to run in, I know, but . . . well, at least I wouldn’t stand out. Strange as it seems almost everyone I passed was wearing a white towel.
I followed the winding hallway. A hint of dryer lint and fabric softener in the air was guiding me.
Then suddenly an announcement blared from speakers in the ceilings. The Monitors were here! I didn’t just need clothes now. I needed a really quick escape route.