by Alan Katz
“This is getting upsetting,” said Mr. Wohlfardt, quite aware that the rhyme wasn’t up to his usual high standards.
As time went on, the boys eventually fell into their old patterns. They started to bicker and fight. They turned their room into an awful mess. Their homework didn’t come home, or if it did, it often went unworked. Their whole lives were going back to exactly what they’d been before Martin!
After about a month of Martinlessness, Mrs. Wohlfardt got on the phone one Friday night and, as luck would have it, she managed to book a new nanny on her very first call.
Early the next morning, while the boys were in bed, the winds blew and rattled the windows. The house shook. The boys jumped out of bed and ran to the window. Could it be? They even thought they saw a giant mustache swirling through the air, which actually could have been two identical long brown birds flying side by side.
Hurricane winds screeched and screamed. Thunder crashed and lightning forked. A torrential rain poured.
And as the chandeliers began to clash and shake, the doorbell rang.
Mrs. Wohlfardt opened the door and someone stepped inside.
“Good day, I’m here from the Myron Hyron Dyron Childcare Agency of Monaco,” the boys heard a booming voice echo all the way up the stairs, down the hallway, and into their room.
“Here,” the booming voice continued. “I would like to present you with my letters of recommendation, for I feel, with all my heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, and left knee, that a quality childcare provider provides written letters of recommendation immediately upon entering the home in which she, or in this case, he, will be nannyinginging.”
After hearing that, David looked at Nathan. Nathan looked at David. And for the first time in weeks, they were both thinking the exact same thing:
Was the new nanny not really a new nanny at all?
Was it . . . Martin? Was he back?
There was only one way to find out. The boys stomped down the stairs to see who was there.
Nathan reached the bottom of the stairs first.
He stopped and gasped.
David was right behind him.
He, too, was so surprised that he fell off the last step. Then they tumbled onto the floor in a heap.
It sure looked like Martin Healey Discount, though this guy didn’t have a mustache. But, as David pointed out, Myron Hyron Dyron has the initials MHD!
“Hello, gents,” the nanny said. “Are you perhaps interested at all in taking a ski trip?”
“You’re hired!” said Nathan and David.
“Indeed you are!” said Mr. and Mrs. Wohlfardt.
“And Myron Hyron Dyron is a wonderful, rhyming name!” added Mr. Wohlfardt.
The parents—and their boys—were overjoyed at meeting this “new” nanny. Somehow they knew, they just knew, that things would be all right again in the Wohlfardt household.
It’s possible that Nathan spoke for the whole family when he whispered to David, “I think we got the exact nanny we want!”
And David, without a moment of hesitation, whispered back, “I’ll go order another spy detector kit.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As a print and television writer, Alan Katz has majored in silliness for more than thirty years. He’s written for a whole bunch of Emmy-nominated TV shows, animated series, award shows, and a slew of Nickelodeon projects. He is also the author of many illustrated books of poems for kids, such as Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs. He lives in Connecticut with his family, including his twin sons.
www.alankatzbooks.com
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Kris Easler has a master’s degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design and lives in Chicago, Illinois.
www.kriseasler.wix.com/kriseasler
Text copyright © 2015 by Alan Katz
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Kris Easler
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published in the United States of America in September 2015
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
E-book edition published in September 2015
www.bloomsbury.com
Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 1385 Broadway, New York, New York 10018
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Katz, Alan.
The day the mustache took over / by Alan Katz; illustrated by Kris Easler.
pages cm
Summary: David and Nathan are twin brothers who just can’t seem to keep a babysitter around for long—they’ve had 347 after all. Or is it 734? Either way, there’s got to be someone who can handle these two. Enter Martin Healey Discount, or “Murray Poopins” as the boys dub him.
ISBN 978-1-61963-558-6 (hardcover) • ISBN 978-1-61963-559-3 (e-book)
[1. Babysitters—Fiction. 2. Behavior—Fiction. 3. Twins—Fiction. 4. Brothers—Fiction. 5. Humorous stories.] I. Easler, Kris, illustrator. II. Title.
PZ7.K15669Day 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014034289