.
.
JUDY MO
O
DY
AND FRIENDS
April Fools’,
Mr. Todd!
Megan McDonald
illustrated by
Erwin Madrid
based on the characters
created by Peter H. Reynolds
.
For Merlin Vaughan
M. M.
For Silvano Madrid
E. M.
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places,
and incidents are either products
of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2017 by Megan McDonald
Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Peter H. Reynolds
Judy Moody font copyright © 2003 by Peter H. Reynolds
Judy Moody®. Judy Moody is a registered trademark of Candlewick Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted,
or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means,
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2017
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2017930916
ISBN 978-0-7636-8200-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7636-8201-9 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7636-9830-0 (electronic)
This book was typeset in ITC Stone Informal.
The illustrations were created digitally.
Candlewick Press
99 Dover Street
Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
visit us at www.candlewick.com
Mystery of the Missing Birthday 43
Oodles of Moodles 21
April Fish and Spaghetti Trees 7
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CONTENTS
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7
April Fish and Spaghetti Trees
Mr. Todd was the boss of Class 3T.
As in, WBT: World’s Best Teacher.
He wore wacky ties (penguins). He
made up goofy songs on the guitar
(“Guinea Pigs Are Not Pigs”). He liked
treasure hunts (for spelling words).
The inchworm crayon was his favorite
color (spring green). And he had the
best sticker collection in all of Virginia
Dare School (Hot Dog with Awesome
Sauce!).
.
APRIL
Today Mr. Todd was changing his
bulletin board. Down with snowflakes.
Up with spring!
“Who knows what special days are
coming up in April?” Mr. Todd asked.
Hands shot up. “Earth Day!” “Tax
Day!” “Peanut-Butter-and-Jelly Day!”
“Blah-Blah-Blah Day,” said Frank
Pearl. The class got quiet.
“What?” said Frank. “It’s a real
thing. April seventeenth. Look it up.”
Mr. Todd checked his calendar and
read out, “Blah-Blah-Blah Day is a
day to get things done that you’ve put
off.”
“Blah,” said Judy. Class 3T cracked
up.
.
10
“I’m thinking of another special
day,” said Mr. Todd, “that falls on
the first of the month.”
“My birthday!” Judy squealed,
but nobody heard her. They were all
shouting, “April Fools’ Day!”
“And what happens on April
Fools’ Day?” asked Mr. Todd.
“Funny stuff!” “Pranks!” “Jokes!”
“That’s right,” said Mr. Todd. “Has
anybody ever heard of spaghetti
trees?”
“Spaghetti doesn’t grow on trees,”
said Jessica Finch.
“True, but one April Fools’ Day
years ago, a news program in
England reported that it was a
good year for growing spaghetti.
11
“No way!” “Cuckoo!” “For real?”
“People believed the report. They
called the TV station to find out where
they could get spaghetti-tree seeds.
Everybody wanted one.”
Class 3T laughed their pants off.
They even showed pictures of trees
with spaghetti hanging from the
branches.”
.
“Nobody really knows how April
Fools’ Day started,” said Mr. Todd,
“but it’s been around for hundreds of
years. In France and Italy, they call it
April Fish Day.”
“April Fish Day? Is that when you
skip school to go fishing?” asked
Rocky.
“No,” said Mr. Todd. “That’s when
you tape a picture of a fish onto
somebody’s back, and see how long it
takes them to figure it out.”
“Rare!” said Judy.
“In India, each spring
they hold a festival
called Holi. During
Holi, people paint
13
their faces bright colors
to welcome spring.
And in Portugal,
they throw flour on
someone for an April
Fools’ joke. Iran may
have the oldest joke day
ever. They go on picnics, then throw
away all the green vegetables to keep
away bad luck.”
“No more spinach,”
said Frank, pretend-
tossing it over his
shoulder.
“In Scotland,
they have Hunt-the-
Cuckoo Day.”
.
14
“That’s cuckoo!” said Judy.
“On that day, you send somebody
on a fool’s errand.”
“What’s a fool’s errand?” asked
Frank.
“It’s like a pr
etend trip or a wild-
goose chase. Say I sent you down to
fourth grade to deliver a message, but
there was no real message.”
Jessica Finch raised her hand.
“Question?” asked Mr. Todd.
“Comment,” said Jessica. “My dad
played an April Fools’ joke on me.
You know how I like pink? And pigs?
While I was asleep, he took all the
pink stuff out of my room. And all the
pigs, too. When I woke up, my whole
room was green and full of frogs.”
15
“That’s a good one,” said Mr. Todd.
Frank told about the time his sister
drew an April Fools’ mustache on
him while he was sleeping. And Judy
laughed about putting a fake ice cube
(with a dead fly in the middle of it) in
Stink’s glass of water.
“Did you ever have an April Fools’
joke played on you, Mr. Todd?” Judy
asked.
“Stor-y! Stor-y!” chanted Class 3T.
.
Mr. Todd glanced at the clock. “We
have time for one story before we
leave for Library class. Let’s see. There
was one time when I was a student
teacher . . .”
“Tell us!”
“My sixth-graders played a prank
on me, and got me good.”
“Did they put gummy worms in
your apple?”
“It was something worse than
gummy worms,” said Mr. Todd.
“Did they make you toothpaste
Oreos?” somebody asked.
“Something worse,” said Mr. Todd.
“Did they face their desks
backward?”
“No, no, and nope. Ready for this?
17
During recess, they phoned to have
a bunch of pizzas delivered to our
class!”
Class 3T let out a
gasp.
“The pizza guy
showed up with
a stack of pizza
boxes as tall as
the Leaning Tower
of Pisa. I told
him it had to be
a mistake. That’s
when the whole
class yelled, ‘April
Fools’!’
”
“What did you
do?”
.
“What could I do? I paid for the
pizzas . . . and we had an April Fools’
pizza party!”
“Can we do that?” asked Frank.
19
“I think not,” said Mr. Todd.
But Mr. Todd’s story gave Judy an
idea. A best-ever brainstorm. She,
Judy Moody, would play an April
Fools’ joke on Mr. Todd.
After all, they were learning about
April Fools’ Day. Thinking up a
joke to play on Mr. Todd would be
like homework. And
pranking him on
April Fools’ Day
would be extra
credit!
.
21
Oodles of Moodles
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After school, Judy was making a
WORLD’S BEST TEACHER poster for
Mr. Todd’s new bulletin board.
“Stink,” said Judy, “help me think
up a joke. I want to play an April
Fools’ joke on Mr. Todd.”
“No way can you play an April
Fools’ joke on your teacher,” said
Stink. “Your teacher makes your report
card, remember?”
.
22
“Then help me think up a way-
funny, A-plus joke.”
“Whoopee cushion?” asked Stink.
“Too embarrassing,” said Judy.
“Fake hand?” asked Stink. “You could
put it in his desk.”
Judy chewed on her pencil. “What
else have you got?”
“Exploding gum?” said Stink.
“No gum in school.”
“I got it!” Stink pointed to Judy’s
poster. “Cross out World’s BEST Teacher
and change it to World’s WORST
Teacher.” He cracked himself up.
“That joke gets a D-minus, Stink,”
said Judy. “An April Fools’ joke has
to make you laugh, not hurt your
feelings.”
23
“For real?” said
“Did it hurt
your feelings when
I put blue milk
in your cereal?
Or hid a plastic
cockroach in your
sandwich? Or got
you to believe that
our mailman, Jack
Frost, was from the
North Pole?”
“That was
funny!” said Stink.
“I rest my case,”
said Judy.
.
24
Judy ran downstairs. Sitting on
the table was a lumpy present from
Stink. Hel-lo! She, Judy Moody, had a
birthday today. No fooling.
The next morning, Judy woke up
in a good mood, even though she still
did not have a joke to play on Mr.
Todd.
“Happy April Fools’ Day, Mouse!”
“Happy Birthday, Jelly Bean,” said
Dad.
Mom kissed Judy right on top of her
messy hair. “Happy Birthday!”
.
26
“Wait for me!” said Stink, sliding
into the room on sock feet. “I want
to watch you open your present from
me. It’s something you want really
bad.”
“It’s pretty small for a puppy,” said
Judy.
“Guess again!” said Stink. “But it is
from Fur & Fangs.”
“A two-toed sloth? A sugar glider?”
“Open it!”
Judy tore off the paper. It was not
a two-toed sloth. It was not a sugar
glider. It was . . . nothing but a stick.
An ugly, skinny, brown stick inside a
plastic critter case.
Wait just a creepy-crawly second!
.
28
“It’s an Indian walking stick.
Nickname: Franken-stickie,” said
Stink. “I wanted to get you a Goliath
walking stick. A Goliath is almost as
long as two rulers, but it cost twenty-
two dollars. This one was on sale
because it’s missing a leg. But it’ll
grow back. You’ll see.”
The stick had legs! Skinny brown
toothpick legs. And the stick moved!
“Ooh. A bug that looks exactly like
a stick!”
29
Judy nodded. “Thanks, Stinkbug. I
think I’m going to name it Twiggy!
I can’t wait to show Rocky and Frank
and Mr. Todd
—”
Mr. Todd! Wait just a stick-bug-not-
stink-bug minute! She, Judy Moody,
Birthday Girl, had just come up with
the best April Fools’ joke ever!
At the bus stop, Judy collected sticks
and put them in the critter case with
Twiggy. She had pencils that looked
like twigs and she added those, too.
.
As soon as she got to school, Judy
set the critter case with her new pet on
Mr. Todd’s desk. Now all she had to do
was wait.
Let the April Fooling begin!
.
32
“Good morning, class. Happy April
Fools’ Day,” said Mr. Todd. He spied
the critter case. “Ho! What’s this?
Sticks?”
“It’s Judy Moody’s,” said Jessica.
“You know how I collect Band-
Aids and scabs and junk?” said Judy.
“Sticks are my new thing.”