Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Someone is stealing shopping bags!
Cam and Eric moved aside as a man walked past. He was carrying a big pile of school supplies. And he was reading from a list. “Crayons,” he read, “not a big box, but not a small box. Tape, paste, and colored pipe cleaners.”
The man looked on the floor near the notebook tower. He walked around the tower and then stopped. “Someone took my shopping bag,” he said.
Cam looked at the man and said, “Click.”
“Help! Help!” the man called. “Someone stole my shopping bag.”
The man dropped what he was carrying and said, “Now don’t anybody move until I get back that shopping bag.”
The Cam Jansen Adventure Series
#1 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds
#2 Cam Jansen andthe Mystery of the U.F.O.
#3 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones
#4 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Television Dog
#5 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Gold Coins
#6 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball
#7 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Circus Clown
#8 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie
#9 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Carnival Prize
#10 Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Monkey House
#11 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper
#12 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of Flight 54
#13 Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Haunted House
#14 Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Fudge Mystery
#15 Cam Jansen and the Triceratops Pops Mystery
#16 Cam Jansen and the Ghostly Mystery
#17 Cam Jansen and the Scary Snake Mystery
#18 Cam Jansen and the Catnapping Mystery
#19 Cam Jansen and the Barking Treasure Mystery
#20 Cam Jansen and the Birthday Mystery
#21 Cam Jansen and the School Play Mystery
#22 Cam Jansen and the First Day of School Mystery
#23 Cam Jansen and the Tennis Trophy Mystery
#24 Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day Mystery
DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE YOUNG CAM JANSEN
SERIES FOR YOUNGER READERS!
To Lydia Eeva and
Katherine Eliina
PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group,
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, 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
First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin Inc., 1986
Published by Puffin Books, 1992
Reissued, 1999, 2004
Text copyright © David A. Adler, 1986
Illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 1986
All rights reserved
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE 1992 PUFFIN EDITION AS FOLLOWS:
Adler,David A.
Cam Jansen and the mystery of the stolen corn popper / by David A. Adler;illustrated by
Susanna Natti.
p. cm.—(A Cam Jansen adventure; 11)
First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin, Inc., 1986—T.p. verso.
Summary: Fifth-grade sleuth Cam Jansen uses her photographic memory
to catch a thief during a department store sale.
eISBN : 978-1-101-07593-7
[1. Mystery and detective stories.] I.Natti, Susanna, ill. II. Title.
III. Series: Adler,David A. Cam Jansen adventure; 11.
[PZ7.A2615Calt 1992] [Fic]—dc20 92-4791
RL: 2.4
http://us.penguingroup.com
Chapter One
“Don’t push. Don’t rush. There’s plenty for everyone,” a guard at the front of Binky’s Department Store called out.
A crowd of shoppers was trying to get into Binky’s. And shoppers carrying large, full, green Binky’s shopping bags were trying to get out. Cam Jansen and her friend Eric Shelton were a part of the crowd going in.
“Maybe we should come back tomorrow,” Eric said.
“We can’t come back,” Cam told him. “We need notebooks and other things for school.”
BINKY’S BACK-TO-SCHOOL SALE was written in large letters on a sign in the store window. SMART STUDENTS AND THEIR PARENTS BUY AT BINKY’S. Below it was a long list of things on sale.
It was late afternoon. Cam and Eric had just finished their first day of school. They were in the same fifth-grade class.
They squeezed through the front door. They walked down a wide aisle in the Household Helpers department. People were crowded around tables covered with aprons, pot holders, light bulbs, and can openers.
“Can you tell us where to find school supplies?” Eric asked a guard. The guard was wearing a bright green uniform.
“Walk straight down this aisle until you come to a big gumdrop display. They’re on sale, you know. Make a left turn after the gumdrops. Walk past chewing gum and taffy, and you’ll see a tower of notebooks. That’s School Supplies.”
Cam and Eric began to walk away.
“Oh, and don’t take a notebook from the bottom of the tower,” the guard said. “If you can’t reach the top, ask someone for help.”
Cam and Eric walked toward a table piled high with bags of gumdrops. People were crowded around the table. As Cam and Eric walked past the table, they heard a woman counting.
“Eleven, twelve, thirteen ...”
“I wonder what she’s counting,” Eric whispered to Cam.
“I’m counting red gumdrops,” the woman said. “They’re my favorites. Some packages have more than others.”
Cam and Eric turned left. They walked through the candy department, past the chewing gum and taffy.
“There’s the notebook tower. It’s not so high,” Cam said.
“But look at that long line of people waiting to pay for school supplies,” Eric said.
Eric reached into his shirt pocket. It was empty. He reached into both pockets of his pants. “Did you bring the list?” he asked Cam. “I left mine at home.”
“It’s right up here,” Cam said, and she pointed to her head.
Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click.” Cam always says “Click” when she wants to remember something. “It’s the sound a camera makes,” she explains to people who wonder why she says it so often. “And my mind is a mental camera.”
“We each need two notebooks,” Cam said, with her eyes still closed, “a memo pad, four pencils, a large eraser, two blue pens, a ruler, index cards, and a large box of colored paper clips.”
Adults say that Cam has a photographic memory. They mean that Cam remembers just about everything she sees. It’s as if she has photographs stored in her brain.
Cam’s real name is Jennifer Jansen. When she was very young, people called her “Red” because she has red hair. But when they found out about her amazing memory, they began calling her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” was shortened to “Cam.”
Cam opened her eyes. She and Eric took tw
o notebooks from the top of the tower. Then they looked for memo pads.
“Excuse me,” someone said. “Sorry.”
Cam and Eric moved aside as a man walked past. He was carrying a big pile of school supplies. And he was reading from a list. “Crayons,” he read, “not a big box, but not a small box. Tape, paste, and colored pipe cleaners.”
The man looked on the floor near the notebook tower. He walked around the tower and then stopped. “Someone took my shopping bag,” he said.
Cam looked at the man and said, “Click. ”
“Help! Help!” the man called. “Someone stole my shopping bag.”
The man dropped what he was carrying and said, “Now don’t anybody move until I get back that shopping bag.”
Chapter Two
People turned to look at the man. Two guards wearing bright green uniforms came running through the crowd.
Cam wanted to remember everyone who was nearby when the man’s shopping bag was taken. She looked toward the candy department, closed her eyes, and said, “Click.” Then Cam turned around, closed her eyes, and said “Click” again.
“What happened? What was taken?” one of the guards asked the man.
“Everything. Just everything. I’ve been shopping for two hours. I bought two pairs of socks, blue and brown. A sweater, a flowerpot, and a present for the Morgans’ fiftieth anniversary. I bought them a Binky’s corn popper. Do you think that’s a good present?”
“I don’t know,” one of the guards answered. The other guard was writing on a notepad.
“The Morgans like old movies. Whenever a good one is on TV, they stay up to watch it,” the man said. “I thought they might want to eat popcorn while they watch. The corn popper was right on top. It was wrapped in gold paper with a big green bow.”
The guard stopped writing. He took a walkie-talkie off his belt and spoke into it. “Attention, all exit guards. Attention. Stop anyone carrying a box wrapped in gold with a green bow.”
“Now you’ll have to come with us and fill out a report,” the guard told the man.
“I’m not shopping for those things all over again,” the man said as he followed the guards. “Do you know how long the lines are? And I still need school supplies.”
Eric whispered to Cam, “I think he lost that shopping bag.”
“No,” Cam said. “With all the noise he made, someone would have found it.”
Cam watched as the man followed the guards. Then she looked for index cards. Eric was already looking for pens, pencils, and erasers.
Eric was reaching for a pack of pencils when Cam tapped him on his shoulder. She pointed to a woman in the candy department and whispered, “She’s been looking over here for a long time.”
“So?” “I remember her. She was here when the man’s shopping bag was stolen.”
Eric took a pack of pencils from the display. Then he found the pens and erasers.
“Put those things down,” Cam told him. “That woman is holding a shopping bag, and I’ll bet she has a corn popper in there.”
Eric put down the school supplies. He followed Cam past the notebook tower.
They stopped at a display of candy canes and lollipops.
“She was right here,” Cam said.
Eric pointed. “There she is.”
The woman was looking at boxes of iced cookies and cakes. Cam and Eric watched her. Then the woman walked through the Care for Your Hair department, and Cam and Eric followed her.
Cam and Eric were careful not to get too close to the woman. There were always a few shoppers between them and her.
They followed the woman to the baby department. The woman looked at bottles, baby spoons, and diaper sets. Then she stopped in front of a rack of very small dresses. She put the shopping bag down and took one of the dresses off the rack. She looked at the dress and put it back. Then the woman walked down the aisle to look at other baby clothes.
“Let’s go,” Cam whispered. “She left the shopping bag. Now’s our chance to look inside.”
Chapter Three
Cam and Eric walked toward the shopping bag.
“Can I help you?” someone asked.
Cam and Eric looked up. A woman wearing a bright green dress with a large white button was standing in front of them. HELLO. MY NAME IS ANN. I’M A BINKY’S HELPER was printed on the button.
“We don’t need any help,” Cam told Ann.
Cam and Eric started to walk toward the shopping bag again.
“We have some charming rattles,” Ann said. “They make wonderful gifts. And we have some very pretty diaper sets.”
“No, thank you. We don’t need help,” Cam said.
“Maybe you’d like to buy the baby a stuffed animal. We have teddy bears, giraffes, monkeys, turtles, parrots, cats, and elephants.”
“I’ll look at the stuffed animals,” Eric told Ann.
“And I’ll look at the baby dresses,” Cam said.
Eric walked with Ann to the stuffed-animal display. She showed him a large pink elephant wearing blue overalls, and a green monkey in a bathing suit.
Cam took a dress off the rack and pretended to look at it. She was really looking into the shopping bag. There were two scarves in the bag and a pair of gloves. There was nothing wrapped in gold paper.
“Hey!” someone called out. “Who stole my things?”
Cam ran to Eric. “Did you hear that?” she asked. “It came from the toy department.”
Cam ran off. Eric smiled at Ann and said, “No, I don’t think I’ll buy a stuffed animal.” Then he followed Cam.
The toy department was crowded with large displays of toys on sale. A great many people were there. Some were carrying shopping bags. Cam looked at them all and said, “Click.”
A teenage girl, dressed in purple, was near the electric train display. A long toy train was riding in a circle through the display. And each time, before the train went through the tunnel, the whistle sounded.
The girl dressed in purple was walking in circles, too, and she was talking very fast.
“Someone took my shopping bag. I know someone took it,” she said. “It was right here. There was a puzzle book in that bag and some records. And I paid for all of it with my own money. I did baby-sitting so I could buy those things. I want them back.”
“Toot, toot,” the train whistle sounded.
“I called for one of the guards,” a Binky’s Helper told the girl.
“You tell him that I want my things back,” the girl said. “You just tell him.”
A few of the people standing nearby were waiting to see what would happen. Others walked away.
Cam looked at all the people walking away and told Eric, “One of those people stole her shopping bag. I’m sure of it. I just don’t know which one.”
“Toot, toot.”
A Binky’s guard rushed past Cam and Eric. She asked the girl some questions.
“I don’t know who took the bag,” the girl said. She was still walking in circles. “I just know it’s mine. And I want it back.”
Cam whispered to Eric, “I have pictures stored in my head of all the people who were nearby when the corn popper was taken. And I have pictures of the people who were here.”
“So?”
“Whoever stole the girl’s bag probably took the other one, too. And I think I can find out who it was. I just have to look at my pictures and see who was in both places.”
“Then do it!” Eric said.
Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click.”
“Toot, toot.”
Cam opened her eyes and said, “I can’t think here. It’s too noisy.”
Eric said, “Let’s go to the snack bar. You can think there. And I’m thirsty.”
Cam and Eric walked through the store. They saw long lines of people waiting to pay for things. In the clothing department, people were trying on hats and sweaters and looking in mirrors.
At the snack bar, Cam and Eric sat on stools. “I’ll have a small cup of gi
nger ale,” Eric told the waitress.
“What does your friend want?”
Cam’s eyes were closed. She said, “Click.” She said “Click” again.
“What’s a ‘Click’?” the waitress asked. “I don’t think we have that kind of soda.”
“Then just bring her some ginger ale,” Eric told her.
Cam’s eyes were still closed when the waitress brought the cups of soda. Eric paid for the drinks. He drank his.
Cam said “Click” again. Then she opened her eyes and said, “I know who it is. I know who stole those shopping bags.”
Chapter Four
Cam got off her stool and walked quickly through the clothing department. She was looking for a guard. Eric ran after her.
“Who is it? What does he look like?” Eric asked her.
“It’s a her,” Cam said as she walked up to a guard in the men’s shirt department.
“I know who stole the shopping bags,” Cam told the guard. “It’s a woman with long, curly brown hair, glasses, and a blue dress with flowers on it.”
The guard was a very tall man. He looked down at Cam.
“Didn’t anyone call and tell you about the stolen shopping bags?” Cam asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, I know who stole them. It was a woman with long, curly brown hair, glasses, and a blue dress with flowers on it.”
The man smiled.
Eric said, “I think you should call the other guards and tell them. Cam has an amazing memory. She has used it to solve mysteries just like this one.”
“Guard! Guard!” someone called. “Come over here, please.”
The guard ran to the men’s shirt display. Cam and Eric followed him. A Binky’s Helper was holding a small boy. The boy was crying.
“He’s lost,” the Binky’s Helper said.
The guard smiled at the child and asked, “Is your mother or father here?”
“Mama,” the boy said.
“Where is she? What is she buying?”
The Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper Page 1