Sam Wu Is Not Afraid of Sharks

by Katie Tsang

  “He’s not my friend,” said Ralph, glaring at me. “And I still think he’s a scaredy-cat.”

  “He’s my friend,” said Regina with a big smile. “Thank you for saving my grandpa.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said.

  Zoe and Bernard ran up to us. Bernard had cake on his face.

  “Sam! Sam! We just heard you saved someone from a shark! What happened?” he said.

  “Let me get some cake, too, and then I’ll tell you the WHOLE STORY,” I said.

  The shark-shaped cake was delicious. The magician was great. The piñata was full of candy. And everyone wanted to hear about my brave adventure.

  “I would have gone in, too,” said Ralph.

  And, because it was his birthday, I didn’t argue with him. I just nodded and said, “I know, I just got there first.”

  “Sam,” said Regina, who was sitting next to me, eating another piece of cake, “now that you’ve chased a ghost AND saved my grandpa from a shark, do you think you could come over sometime and get the zombie werewolf in our basement?”

  Ralph’s eyes got HUGE. “Regina! We don’t talk about the zombie werewolf.”

  I looked at Zoe and Bernard, who were both frantically shaking their heads and mouthing, “NO, NO, NO,” at me.

  “Of course I can check out the zombie werewolf,” I said in my bravest voice. “I’ll bring Zoe and Bernard with me.”

  Zoe and Bernard groaned.

  “Oh, no,” said Bernard.

  I grinned at them. “For the universe!” said, shooting my hand TOWARD the sky. Zoe and Bernard are my team, I thought, just like Captain Jane, Spaceman Jack, and Five-Eyed Frank are a team on . And teams stick together.

  Also, there wasno way I was going to face a zombie werewolf all alone.14

  14Even Spaceman Jack would be afraid of a zombie werewolf.

  Katie and Kevin are definitely NOT afraid of answering some author questions!!

  So, we’ve TOTALLY read the second of Sam’s adventures, Sam Wu Is NOT Afraid of Sharks. Do you think he is feeling any braver these days?

  Sam is ALWAYS as brave as he can be, but we think the more adventures he faces, the braver he gets.

  I love Sam’s shark facts—especially that they have 8 senses! If you could have an extra sense—or two!— what would it be?

  Kevin: I would like to sense when there are cupcakes nearby. A special cupcake sense.

  Katie: I grew up in California, so I would want to be able to sense earthquakes before they happen!

  Crazy Charlie might be the best name for a shark we have EVER heard! Did you have any pets with crazy names? Obviously, hopefully not sharks . . .

  Kevin: I once had a pet goldfish named Sebastian. But if I had a cat I’d name him Walter the Pagemaster.

  Katie: I had a dog named Daisy, which was funny because she was a HUGE dog. And my brother had a Rosy Boa named Rosie. Rosie the Rosy Boa was actually the inspiration for Fang!

  Have you ever swum with sharks?

  Kevin: Only in my dreams—and it was terrifying!

  Katie: Not that I know of . . . but sharks are sneaky so maybe I have and just didn’t see them! I would love to go swimming with Whale Sharks one day—they are gentle giants.

  We loved the sound of Ralph & Regina’s Beach Birthday Bash (a.k.a. shark attack take 2). Where would you have your ideal party?

  Katie: Just like Ralph and Regina, I love the beach! I had lots of my birthday parties at the beach growing up, and it is my favorite place for a party.

  Kevin: I would want to have my birthday party in a huge bouncy castle in outer space!!!

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  We love writing Sam Wu— but we couldn’t have made it into a real book that you can hold in your hands without the help and support of some amazing people!

  If we had our own spaceship on Space Blasters, our captain would be Claire Wilson, our fearless agent who always guides us in the right direction. Thank you for believing in us and believing in Sam Wu.

  We are tremendously grateful to everyone at our U.S. publisher, Sterling Publishing, and our U.K. publisher, Egmont, for supporting Sam Wu! Thank you to our whole team of brilliant editors—Christina Pulles, Brian Phair, Ali Dougal, Rachel Mann, Emily Sharratt, and Lindsey Heaven. We’ve loved working with all of you.

  Huge thank you to our incredibly talented illustrator, Nathan Reed, for bringing Sam and his friends to life on the page! The illustrations are our favorite part of the book.

  Thank you as well to genius designers, Sam Perrett and Lizzie Gardiner, who made the pages look so awesome. And thank you to the publicity, sales, and marketing teams on both sides of the pond, especially Sari Lampert Murray and Lauren Tambini at Sterling.

  We’d like to thank our families and friends for all their support and excitement. Special thank you to our grandparents: Mimi, Pop-Pop, Grandpa Bob, and Po-Po. And huge thanks and love to Katie’s siblings: Jack and Jane, Kevin’s sister, Stephanie, and our brother- and sister-in-law, Ben and Cat.

  And thank you to our parents, for everything.

  My name is Sam Wu, and I am NOT afraid of the dark. Or sharks. Or ghosts.

  You might be wondering why I’m listing out all the things I’m NOT afraid of.

  It’s because lately I’ve had to prove just how very brave I am.

  And let me tell you, proving how brave you are is HARD WORK.

  Only the bravest can do it, really.

  Most recently, I had to prove I wasn’t afraid of sharks. This is because Ralph Philip Zinkerman the Third, who is the WORST PERSON IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE, invited me to his birthday. At the beach. And as everybody knows, the beach is where the sharks are. Ralph was basically inviting me to Certain Doom.

  But Ralph underestimated just how brave I am (as usual). With the help of my two best friends, Zoe and Bernard, and a trusty chili-pepper belt (it made sense at the time), we were able to outsmart the sharks and Ralph. I even saved Ralph’s grandpa from getting eaten by a shark!1

  Before the sharks, well, there was this whole situation with a ghost in my house. And my pet snake, Fang, who is VERY dangerous, went missing. We still think that maybe the ghost and Fang were working together. At least I still think that. Bernard tells me that we have no evidence.

  Bernard might be the smartest kid I know, but he doesn’t know everything. He didn’t even know what was until I told him about it.

  And EVERYONE knows about ! It’s the very best show in the universe. It’s my favorite thing on TV. If I could do anything, I’d be a member of the crew on TUBS, which stands for The Universe’s Best Spaceship. It is led by Captain Jane and Spaceman Jack and their alien friend, Five-Eyed Frank. They go on all kinds of adventures and aren’t scared of anything.

  Anyway, the lessons I’ve learned from , ghosts, AND sharks were all just to prepare me for the scariest thing I’ll ever encounter. My greatest challenge yet.

  1.This may not be exactly what happened, but you get the idea. I was very brave and was the hero of the birthday party. I proved that sharks don’t scare me.

  It all started when my friend Bernard came up to me at school with a glum expression. It was the Friday before fall break, so he should have looked happy. (I know I was happy to have a week of NO SCHOOL!)

  “Guess what?” he said.

  “What?” I replied. “You look sadder than an alien zapped twice through a wormhole.”

  “It’s even worse than that,” he said, still frowning. I was glad that Bernard had started watching , so he TOTALLY got the wormhole reference.

  “Worse? What could be worse than that?”

  “Being zapped four times,” chimed in Zoe. She had also started watching the show. “And then being VAPORIZED!”

  “Okay, okay. Fine. There are worse things,” I said quickly. Zoe really liked the show. She had caught up on all the old episodes and had even gotten her brothers and sisters to watch it with her. “We can probably assume Bernard isn’t going to be zapped or vaporized.”

&n
bsp; “Or IS he?” Zoe said in a spooky voice. “Stranger things have happened in space!” Captain Jane always says that on .

  I gave her a high five for that one.

  “YOU GUYS. I HAVE TO GO CAMPING!” Bernard wailed. “In the WOODS!”

  Oh. That was worse than being zapped twice through a wormhole.

  We met again at lunch to strategize, in our usual meeting spot by the fence.

  “It won’t be that bad . . .” I said unconvincingly.

  “BEARS, SAM! BEARS! Just think of the bears!” Bernard said.

  “And the bugs,” added Zoe, wrinkling her nose. Then, as an afterthought. “I don’t mind bugs, actually.”

  “Maybe you’ll have fun?” I said, still trying to be enthusiastic for Bernard’s sake. “Think of it like an adventure.”

  “Remember all the research we did on sharks?” Bernard said.

  I nodded. “But there won’t be sharks in the woods, Bernard.”2

  “Well, bears are basically the sharks of the woods. They don’t have any natural predators. JUST. LIKE. SHARKS.”

  “Maybe they’ll be hibernating!” I said.

  “They hibernate in the winter. Does it LOOK like winter right now?” said Bernard, pointing at the sun.

  It is never a good idea to try to out-fact Bernard.

  “I think camping sounds kind of cool,” said Zoe. “I went once when I was little with my family.”

  “But you had your brothers and sisters to play with,” Bernard pointed out. “It’ll just be me and my dad. And the ‘great outdoors’ as he calls it.”

  Bernard lives with his dad. His mom lives somewhere else, and sometimes he goes to stay with her.

  I patted Bernard on the back. “You can do it,” I said. “I believe in you.”

  This is what Spaceman Jack always says to a crewmember when they have to do something they don’t want to do.

  “I’d go with you if I could,” I added, feeling especially Spaceman Jack-ish. He is my favorite character on .

  “I would go, too!” said Zoe.

  “You would?” Bernard’s eyes were huge. “Even with the risk of bears? And poison ivy?”

  I nodded. “Of course I would. That’s what friends are for.” I said this thinking that there was no way I’d have to go with him.3

  I WAS WRONG.

  2.I was pretty sure about this, but then again you can never be too careful.

  3.Not a lie, but a friendly fib to make my friend feel better. Like when your mom says that getting the flu shot won’t hurt, even though you both know that it will.

  When I got home from school that day, there was a surprise waiting for me.

  But NOT the fun kind, like a present. Or a surprise new episode of .

  It was my cousin Stanley from Hong Kong.

  And he was staying in MY ROOM. For TWO WEEKS!

  Stanley is only two years older than me, but he thinks he’s a teenager.

  “What’s happening, little cuz?” he said, sitting on MY bed.

  “I’m not little,” I said. “Please get off my bed.”

  “Your mom says it’s my bed while I’m here,” he said. “That’s your bed.” He pointed to a pillow and blankets on the floor.

  And then, just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, Stanley went across my room, opened Fang’s cage, AND PICKED FANG UP.

  “Who is this little guy?” he said.

  “Put Fang down! He’s VERY dangerous,” I said in my most serious voice, so that Stanley would understand the current danger he was in. “And he’s not little either!”

  “This baby snake’s dangerous? You should see the snakes in Hong Kong. Pythons that are bigger than you.”

  “Fang is NOT a baby,” I said. I wanted to grab Fang out of Stanley’s hands, but I wasn’t sure how to do that without making Fang angry. No matter what Stanley said, Fang is dangerous. Only the bravest people can handle him. Like me. And occasionally my sister, Lucy. “I’ve been to Hong Kong. And I never saw a snake bigger than me—or Fang!”

  I’ve never actually seen ANY snakes in Hong Kong, but I didn’t need to share that detail.

  I stormed out of my room and went to find my mom in the kitchen. She was on the phone speaking Cantonese.

  “Mom!” I knocked on the table in front of her to get her attention. “MOM!”

  She ignored me and carried on. “He arrived safe and sound,” she said into the phone. She must have been talking to Stanley’s parents in Hong Kong. “We’re so glad to have him here.”

  I stuck my tongue out.

  My mom gave me a mom glare, which is significantly worse than a normal glare. “Stop that!” she mouthed.

  I sat down next to her at the table and kicked the floor. I couldn’t believe that my mom was making me give up my bed for Stanley!

  My little sister, Lucy, came running in, her cat, Butterbutt, in her arms.

  “STANLEY’S HERE! Stanley’s here!” Lucy shouted, spinning around.

  “Why are you so excited about it?” I asked.

  “I like Stanley! And he brought me sweets from Hong Kong.”

  I thought it would take more than sweets to bribe Lucy, but apparently I was wrong.

  “What kind of sweets?” I asked grudgingly. Lucy held out a sticky hand with a small wrapped sweet in it.

  “Here!” she said.

  I popped it in my mouth. I hate to admit it, but it was delicious.

  It tasted like lychee. Which is my favorite fruit. It’s a fruit from Asia that tastes AMAZING. It’s sort of like a cherry, if a cherry had a shell. It has three layers—the bumpy red outside that you peel, the white fruit inside that you eat, and a big brown seed in the middle.

  “Thank you,” I said with my mouth full of lychee candy. I wondered if Stanley had any more. That would be the only good thing about him coming to stay with us.

  “Sam! What are you doing pouting and kicking the floor?” my mom said as she hung up the phone. “You know better than that.”

  “Why is Stanley here?” I demanded. “And why is he staying in my room? In my BED?”

  “He’s here because he has a new baby brother and sister, and his parents need some time to get the twins settled. And he’s here because he’s family, and family is always welcome.”

  Twins! I looked at Lucy and imagined if there were two of her.

  “But why is he in my room?”

  My mom sighed. “Because he’s your cousin, Sam. And you two will have fun! Why don’t you show him your cards or something?”

  “Why can’t he stay in the garage? Or on the roof?”

  “WU GABO!”1 Mom shouted. “Get upstairs and be nice to your cousin. Right now.”

  I marched up the stairs, back to my room. It wasn’t as if I had a choice in the matter.

  At least I didn’t have to go camping.

  1. Wu Gabo is my Chinese name and my mom only uses it when she’s being very serious.