FOR ANDY
—DHB
GROSSET & DUNLAP
Penguin Young Readers Group
An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
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Text copyright © 2015 by Dori Hillestad Butler. Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Aurore Damant. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-698-41214-9
Version_1
Contents
DEDICATION
COPYRIGHT
TITLE PAGE
GHOSTLY GLOSSARY
1. TOP SECRET
2. A PROBLEM WITH THE GHOST DOLL
3. LITTLE JOHN’S GHOST FRIENDS
4. SOLID OR GHOSTLY?
5. FIELD TRIP
6. WHO ELSE LIVED AT THE LIBRARY?
7. MORE GHOSTS!
8. FAMILY TROUBLES
9. CLAIRE’S MOM’S SECRET
10. TRANSFORMATION
GHOSTLY GLOSSARY
EXPAND
When ghosts make themselves larger
GLOW
What ghosts do so humans can see them
HAUNT
Where ghosts live
PASS THROUGH
When ghosts travel through walls, doors, and other solid objects
SHRINK
When ghosts make themselves smaller
SKIZZY
When ghosts feel sick to their stomachs
SOLIDS
What ghosts call humans
SPEW
Ghostly vomit
SWIM
When ghosts move freely through the air
TRANSFORMATION
When a ghost takes a solid object and turns it into a ghostly object
WAIL
What ghosts do so humans can hear them
Kaz!” Little John called from behind the wall of books. “Kaz, you’ve got to see this!”
Kaz and Little John were brothers. Ghost brothers. They used to live in an old schoolhouse with the rest of their family. Now they lived in a library with their ghost dog, Cosmo, another ghost named Beckett, a solid girl named Claire, and Claire’s family.
Claire could see the ghosts, but no one else could. Not unless the ghosts were glowing.
“What’s back there?” Kaz called to Little John. He knew there was a secret room behind that wall. Beckett often went back there to get away from the solids. But Kaz had never passed through the wall himself.
“Come and see,” Little John called back.
“In a minute,” Kaz said.
Little John poked his head through the wall of books. “Why ‘in a minute’?” he asked. “Why not now?”
Beckett snorted. “Because, Little John, your big brother is still scared to pass through a wall.”
“I am not!” Kaz protested. He had passed through walls four times already today. He was getting used to it. Sort of. “I just want to wait for Claire. Otherwise she won’t know where I went.”
“I don’t think Claire will be looking for you anytime soon,” Beckett said.
He was probably right. Claire’s parents had been away all week at a conference for private detectives. The family had some catching up to do.
“Fine,” Kaz said. “I’ll show you I’m not scared!”
“Hooray!” Little John cried. His face disappeared from the wall of books.
Kaz’s heart went thumpety-thump. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and swam into the bookshelf. As the books, the shelf, and the back wall passed through his body, Kaz started to feel skizzy. He pumped his arms and kicked his legs harder and harder . . . until he finally felt himself floating freely in the air again.
Little John giggled. “Open your eyes, Kaz. You’re here!”
“Woof! Woof!” Cosmo barked cheerfully.
Kaz opened one eye, then the other. “I did it!” he said with a short laugh. “I passed all the way through to the secret room!”
Beckett drifted through the wall behind Kaz. “I never would’ve believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” he said.
Kaz was pretty amazed himself.
“See what I mean about this place?” Little John said as he waved his hand around.
The room was small. And dark. It didn’t have any doors or windows. But the most interesting thing about it was that it was full of ghostly objects! A doll . . . several sets of keys . . . a catcher’s mitt . . . four balls . . . some socks . . . a strange-looking statue . . . two teddy bears . . . an old shoe . . . a yo-yo . . . some books . . . They all floated there in the air with Kaz, Little John, Beckett, and Cosmo.
“Where did all this stuff come from?” Kaz gazed around the room in wonder.
“Different places,” Beckett replied. “A lot of it was here when I moved in. The rest was left by various ghosts who have come and gone.”
“This looks fun,” Little John said as he picked up a ghostly box. A little crank stuck through one of the sides.
Little John turned the crank, and music began to play. All of a sudden, the top of the box opened and a clown popped up.
“Ahhh!” Little John and Kaz shrieked.
Beckett laughed. “Are you scaredy-ghosts afraid of a little jack-in-the-box?”
“No!” Little John said, puffing up his chest. “I’m not afraid of anything!”
Cosmo swam over to Kaz and Little John with a ghostly shoe. There was something familiar about that shoe.
“Hey! Is this—” Kaz began.
“It’s Finn’s shoe!” Little John cried, plucking it from Cosmo’s mouth. Finn was Kaz and Little John’s big brother. He had accidentally passed through the wall of the old schoolhouse into the Outside about a year ago. Kaz’s grandmom and grandpop went after him, but they ended up in the Outside, too.
Then a couple of months ago, some solids came and tore down the old schoolhouse. Kaz, Little John, Mom, Pops, and Cosmo all ended up in the Outside. Kaz found Cosmo when he and Claire were investigating their second case. Little John had just arrived few days ago. He traveled inside a library book. Neither one knew what had happened to the rest of their family.
“Is this our brother’s shoe?” Kaz asked Beckett. He knew Finn had been at the library for a while. But that was long before Kaz got there.
“Could be,” Beckett said. “It’s hard to remember where each thing came from.”
“I miss Finn,” Little John said. “And I miss Grandmom and Grandpop.”
“I miss our whole family,” Kaz said. He wondered if he and Little John would ever see any of them again. But he didn’t want to think too much about that. It made him too sad.
“Look at this,” Little John said, reaching for a ghostly rag doll.
Kaz could tell by the doll’s dress that it was old. It had red yarn for hair, and its eyes, nose, and mouth were sewn on in black thread.
“Remember I told you about that other ghost family I lived with before I came here?” Little John said. “The girl, Kiley, had a doll that blew away. She said it had r
ed hair. And KL could be her initials. Maybe it’s hers?”
“I don’t know,” Beckett said. “That doll has been here a long time.”
“Well, she said her doll’s been gone for a long time, too,” Little John said. He turned to Kaz. “I think I can find their haunt again. Would Claire take us there so we can ask her?”
“Maybe,” Kaz said. “But she’s busy with her parents right now. Let’s look around a little more in here.”
Kaz noticed some solid shelves at the back of the room. Each one was crammed full of old wooden crates. They were the only solid things in the whole room. Kaz wafted over to see what was inside the crates.
Not much. Just some old papers and glass bottles. A layer of dirt and spiderwebs covered everything.
As Kaz floated up along the shelving, he noticed an old solid brown envelope lying flat on the top shelf. The words TOP SECRET were scrawled across the front.
“Did you guys see this?” Kaz asked Little John and Beckett as he reached for the envelope. “It says ‘Top Secret.’”
“Top Secret?” Little John swam over with the ghost doll.
Holding on to a solid object was still a new skill for Kaz. He couldn’t hold the envelope for long. After a few seconds, it slipped through his hands and fell to the floor.
“Do you know what’s in there?” Kaz asked Beckett.
“Nope,” Beckett said.
“Let’s find out!” Little John said as he dived to the floor and grabbed the envelope. He tried to open it, but his hand passed right through it. He tried again, but this time he dropped it.
Kaz tried, too. He couldn’t open it, either.
Even Beckett tried.
None of them could do it. Their hands either passed through the envelope or they dropped it. Every single time.
“Maybe Claire can open it for us,” Little John suggested.
“How?” Kaz asked. “It’s solid. We can’t take solid objects through the wall. And there’s no door to this room, so Claire can’t come in and open it.”
“If you turned it ghostly, you could take it through the wall,” Beckett suggested.
Kaz had turned a solid lamp ghostly a few weeks ago, but he had no idea how he’d done it. He’d never been able to turn another solid object ghostly since. And Beckett didn’t know how Kaz had done it, either. He’d never seen a ghost turn an object ghostly before.
“I’ll try,” Kaz said. He swam down and pressed his hand against the envelope.
Nothing happened.
Don’t think about it. Just do it, he told himself as he laid his hand on the envelope again.
Still nothing.
Kaz stared at the envelope and concentrated as hard as he could. Ghostly . . . ghostly . . . ghostly, he said inside his head. He even tried closing his eyes and whispering, “Ghostly . . . ghostly . . . ghostly . . .”
No matter what Kaz did, the envelope remained solid.
Was it Kaz’s imagination or was someone calling his name? He pressed his ear to the wall that led back to the library craft room and listened.
There it was again. A soft, muffled voice on the other side of the wall. “Kaz? Where are you?”
“Claire?” Kaz called back. “I’m in here.”
“You’re in the secret room?” Claire’s voice was louder now. She’d clearly moved over to the wall. But her voice still sounded muffled.
Kaz took a deep breath, then swam back through the wall and the bookcase, kicking hard, hard, hard until he was back in the library craft room. Paper cranes dangled from the ceiling above his head.
“Good for you, Kaz!” Claire clapped her hands together. “You passed through the bookshelf! Your ghost skills are getting better every day.”
Kaz beamed.
Claire peered at the bookshelf as though she were trying to see through it. “So, what’s back there anyway?”
“A whole bunch of ghostly objects,” Kaz said as Little John, Cosmo, and Beckett passed through the bookshelf behind him. Little John’s arms overflowed with ghostly objects.
“We found our brother Finn’s shoe,” Little John said, holding it up. “And we found this doll.” He held the doll up next. “I think it belongs to my friend Kiley. Will you take Kaz and me to her haunt so we can return it to her?”
“Sure,” Claire said as she wandered the length of the bookshelf.
Little John let go of all the ghostly objects, except for the doll. “Will you take us there now?” he asked. He expanded to giant size and placed himself right in front of Claire.
“In a little bit,” Claire said, walking around him.
“Why does everyone always say, ‘in a little bit’?” Little John moaned.
“Was there any solid stuff back there?” Claire asked Kaz. It was the first time he’d ever heard Claire talk about solid stuff. She normally didn’t like that word.
Kaz tried to hide his surprise. “Not much,” he said. “Just some old papers and bottles. Oh! And an envelope that says TOP SECRET on it.”
“What was in it?” Claire asked.
“We don’t know,” Kaz said. “We couldn’t get it open.”
“Kaz tried to turn it ghostly so we could bring it through the wall, but it didn’t work,” Little John said.
“I wish I could go back there and open it myself,” Claire said.
“Can we go find Kiley’s haunt now?” Little John asked. “Please? It’s not far from here.”
“Where is it?” Claire asked.
“You have to walk to the end of the street and through the park. Then turn a corner. It’s a big purple house with pink around the windows,” Little John said.
“Oh, I know that house,” Claire said with a grin. She glanced up at the clock. “It’s getting late. My mom might not let me go now. But let’s try. Are you guys ready to shrink?” She twisted the top off her water bottle.
“You don’t have to take the top off your bottle anymore,” Little John said. “Kaz can pass through now.”
“Yes, but as long as you’ve already taken it off . . . ,” Kaz said. He still preferred entering the bottle through an open top rather than passing through the side.
Kaz and Little John shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . but Little John had a problem. He grew smaller, but the doll in his hand did not.
“Hey!” Little John cried as he dangled from the large ghost doll. “Why didn’t this doll shrink with me?”
“That’s odd,” Beckett said, rubbing his chin.
Cosmo sniffed the doll. Then he sniffed the tiny Little John. “Careful, Cosmo,” Kaz said, pulling the ghost dog back. “Don’t eat Little John.”
Little John expanded to full size with the doll, then tried shrinking again. The same thing happened. Little John got small. The doll did not.
“Let me try it,” Beckett said.
Little John let go of the giant ghost doll and floated over to Kaz. Beckett snatched the doll and shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . until he was the same size as Kaz and Little John.
The doll did not shrink with him.
“Huh. I’ve never seen that happen before,” Beckett said as all three ghosts expanded back to their normal size. Beckett swam around the doll and examined it from all sides.
Little John moaned. “The doll’s not going to fit inside your bottle, Claire,” he said. “How will we get it back to Kiley?”
Kaz didn’t think the doll would fit inside Claire’s backpack, either.
Claire bit her lip. Kaz knew that meant she was thinking . . . thinking . . . thinking . . .
All of a sudden, Claire’s face lit up. “I have an idea,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
She ran from the craft room, then returned a few minutes later with a large cardboard box. “We can put the doll in here,” she said as the box dropped to the floor with a plop.<
br />
“That’ll work,” Little John said. “Kaz and I can ride in there, too.”
Kaz wasn’t sure he wanted to ride inside a cardboard box.
“I’ll set the box down right next to the house,” Claire said. “Then you guys can pass through the box and into the house like you did when you tried to find the five o’clock ghost.”
“What if someone sees you?” Kaz asked Claire. “What if they want to know what’s inside the box? Or what if they make you leave, and they want you to take the box with you while we’re still inside the house?”
Little John slapped his hand to his head. “Kaz! Do you always have to worry about Every. Little. Thing?”
“Yes,” Kaz said. Because no one else ever worried enough.
Little John shrank down . . . just a bit. Just until he was about the same size as the ghostly rag doll. Then, holding the doll in one arm, he swam inside the box. “Come on, Kaz!” He motioned with his other arm.
Kaz couldn’t help but notice that no one had answered his questions. But since no one else was worried, Kaz tried not to worry, either. He shrank down and joined Little John inside the box. Claire closed the flaps over their heads.
Kaz felt the box jolt from side to side as Claire picked it up and started walking across to the library entryway. He heard the door to the Outside open and then Claire yell, “I’m going for a walk!”
“Wait, Claire,” her mom called back.
Kaz heard footsteps click-click-clicking toward them. “What do you have in that box?” Claire’s mom asked.
Kaz couldn’t tell whether Claire was still standing inside the library or outside on the front steps.
“Uhhhh . . . ,” Claire said.
Kaz and Little John held their breath. If Claire’s mom opened the box, she’d see . . . well, nothing. And if they were outside the library, Kaz, Little John, and the doll would all blow away in the wind!
“It’s a science experiment,” Claire said finally. Claire’s mom liked logic and science. She did NOT like talk about ghosts.
“What kind of science experiment?” Claire’s mom asked.
The Secret Room Page 1