Heidi Heckelbeck and the Magic Puppy

by Wanda Coven

  She lost her grip on the sudsy puppy. He leaped out of the tub and ran into her room. Heidi jumped up to chase him. She found the wet dog on her bed . . . only, it wasn’t her bed anymore. It had turned into a giant DOG bed! And her stuffed animals had all turned into CHEW toys!

  “Oh no!” Heidi cried. “The spell has gone haywire!”

  All of a sudden, the tiny puppy floated off the ground! He flew past Heidi and out of the bedroom. She thundered downstairs after him. Everything in the house had turned into dog supplies. All the furniture had become giant dog toys. The chairs had turned into huge shoes—the grown-up kinds that puppies love to chew on. Even the fireplace had changed—into a doghouse.

  Heidi dashed into the kitchen. The table had turned into a gigantic bone, and the magic puppy happily gnawed on it.

  Heidi looked at the open cupboards. All the food had turned into DOG food. And all of Mom’s fine china had been replaced by dog bowls. This was big-time puppy trouble! Heidi grabbed the phone and hit speed dial. “Pick up! PICK UP!” she pleaded.

  “Hello?” There was a cheery voice on the other end of the line.

  “AUNT TRUDY!” Heidi shouted into the phone. “It’s me, HEIDI! Help! I have a Heidi-mergency, if you know what I mean! Please come right away!”

  Her Aunt Trudy did not ask any questions. “I’m on my way!” she said.

  Aunt Trudy arrived before Heidi had even hung up.

  “How did you DO that?” Heidi asked with a startled jump.

  “Tell you later,” Aunt Trudy said, looking around. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Heidi bit her lip and explained everything.

  “And then the puppy jumped into the mix—right when I was casting the spell!”

  Aunt Trudy nodded thoughtfully. “The magic went straight to the puppy,” she said. “But this sure is a lot of magic. I wonder if this puppy was already enchanted.”

  Heidi shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said.

  Aunt Trudy looked around. “Where is everybody?” she asked.

  Heidi pointed at her dad’s lab. “They’re cleaning up another mess the puppy made,” she said. “Do you think we can fix this disaster before they’re done?”

  Aunt Trudy nodded. Then she began to chant a spell: “Shoo wa ditty ditty dum ditty dee! Reverse this puppy spell on the count of three. One! Two! Three!”

  Aunt Trudy waved her hand, and a great gust of magical sparkles swirled all through the whole house. Zap! Everything was returned to normal—even the water had disappeared from the puppy’s fur.

  Then Henry came bursting into the kitchen from the laboratory.

  “We’re done!” he said triumphantly. “Wow! Are you finished cleaning in here?”

  Heidi shrugged. “Yup,” she said. “Aunt Trudy helped me.”

  Then Mom and Dad walked into the kitchen.

  “Hi, Trudy,” Mom said. “When did you get here?”

  “A little while ago,” she said, pulling a Found Puppy poster from her pocket. “I saw this sign in the neighborhood and recognized your phone number. I just had to meet this sweet puppy you found.”

  Dad rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t exactly call him sweet,” he said.

  “Yeah, more like destructive,” Henry added. “Where is that guy, anyway?”

  The family looked at the wide-open back door.

  “Oh no!” Heidi howled. “I think the puppy ESCAPED!”

  “We have to rescue the puppy!” Heidi cried. “What if the owners call? Or worse—what if the puppy gets picked up by Animal Control?”

  Henry grabbed a rope from his backpack. “We can use this rope to capture him,” he offered.

  Dad sighed and jammed on a baseball cap. “All right, gang. Let’s finish what we started,” he said, heading for the door. Everyone followed.

  “So, how DO we find the puppy?” asked Henry as he looked up and down the street.

  “We have to look for clues,” Heidi said. She inspected a fire hydrant beside the sidewalk. “See? It’s wet,” she said. “That means the puppy probably marked it. Let’s go this way.”

  Henry bent over and looked at the hydrant. “Wow,” he said. “You’re a good detective.”

  Mom, Dad, and Aunt Trudy spread out and looked for clues too.

  Then Detective Heidi noticed a dug-up garden. “Broken tulip stems,” she observed. “And notice how the dirt has been kicked onto the grass.”

  Henry studied the garden too. “We’re definitely on the right track.”

  They ran down the sidewalk in search of more clues. The grown-ups trailed behind. Henry pointed to a garden hose spurting a fountain of water.

  “There’s a hole in that hose!” he shouted. “Could the puppy have done it?”

  Heidi ran onto the lawn and picked up the hose. As she inspected it, water sprayed all over her.

  “I’d know those cute little teeth marks anywhere!” she declared, wiping the water from her face with the back of her hand.

  “Aha!” Henry cried. “We’re still hot on the puppy’s trail!”

  Heidi noticed the park entrance up ahead and cheered. “I’ve solved this puppy mystery! To the park!”

  Heidi and Henry ran to the corner and pushed the crosswalk signal. Mom, Dad, and Aunt Trudy caught up by the time the light changed. Heidi explained that she thought the puppy might have gone back to the park. “I’ll show you where we found him in the first place,” Heidi said, leading the way.

  Everyone followed Heidi to the grassy spot where they had been playing Frisbee. Heidi kneeled beside the bushes and pulled apart the branches. The bush began to tremble, and the puppy pounced from his hiding place.

  “Awwww!” Heidi cried. “We found you!” Then she hugged him as if she were the puppy’s long-lost owner.

  “Can we keep him?” Heidi asked her parents. “Please?”

  Her parents shook their heads.

  “He isn’t ours,” Mom said. “And for another thing, the puppy almost destroyed our house in two hours!”

  “That’s right. Can you imagine if we had him for a full day?” added Dad.

  Heidi and Henry both turned on their own sad, puppy-dog eyes.

  Aunt Trudy laughed.

  “But he NEEDS us,” Heidi said, picking up a stick and dangling it in front of the puppy. The puppy clamped his teeth on the stick and pulled. A tug-of-war followed.

  “No,” said Mom and Dad firmly.

  “But we could train him!” Henry argued.

  “No,” they said again.

  Then Mom’s phone rang. Everyone froze. They all listened as Mom checked the number and answered the call.

  “Hello? Yes?” she said. “Oh, really? Uh-huh. Oh, we’re in Charmed Court Park now. You’re welcome. Yes, we’ll be right over.”

  Heidi and Henry slumped into a heap on the grass.

  “The owners?” Heidi asked as the puppy climbed into her lap.

  Mom nodded. “Actually, they live right around the corner,” she said.

  Heidi hugged the puppy and let out a heavy sigh. Henry hung his head.

  “I guess we have to take him back to his rightful owners,” Heidi said.

  Mom, Dad, and Aunt Trudy all nodded this time.

  The house looked like a fairy-tale cottage. It had a foundation made of stones and a little turret roof. The gray-blue shutters matched the gray-blue front door, and all the windows had window boxes filled with flowers spilling over the sides.

  Heidi and Henry climbed the steps to the stoop and knocked on the door. Aunt Trudy followed. Heidi’s parents waited at the edge of the sidewalk. The door unlatched and clicked open.

  Heidi’s and Henry’s eyes grew very wide.

  “What? Principal Pennypacker?” Heidi said in surprise.

  He smiled and nodded warmly. “Hello, Heidi and Henry!” he said as if he was expecting them.

  The principal had on shorts and a polo shirt—not a suit like he usually wore to school. A little girl with blond hair peeked out from behind him.r />
  “WIZARD!” she cried happily when she saw the puppy. Heidi let go of the dog, and he ran to the little girl. She held him close. “I thought I’d lost you FOREVER!”

  The puppy licked her cheeks and happily wagged his tail.

  “This is my niece, Anna,” said Principal Pennypacker. “She is visiting and just got Wizard a few days ago. He’s quite a little rascal and keeps sneaking away.”

  Heidi and Aunt Trudy laughed.

  “Well, Wizard is a perfect name for him,” Aunt Trudy said.

  Principal Pennypacker shook his head. “You’re not kidding,” he said. “He’s like having a furry toddler with magical powers.”

  Heidi and Aunt Trudy looked at each other in surprise. It seemed odd that the principal would use the word “magical” to describe the puppy after the crazy day they’d had.

  “Thank you for making the signs,” Anna said. “We never would have found Wizard without your help. He didn’t have his dog tag on because he’d pulled it off!”

  Anna kneeled down and attached Wizard’s missing dog tag.

  Heidi did a double take when she saw it. Whoa, she thought. Wizard’s dog tag looks like a miniature version of my Witches of Westwick medallion!

  “Yes, well, thank you, Heidi,” said Principal Pennypacker. “And thank you, Henry. And the rest of the Heckelbeck family too! We really appreciate what you’ve done for us.”

  Heidi forced herself to stop staring at the puzzling dog tag. Maybe it’s just a weird coincidence, she thought. But she wasn’t sure.

  She nuzzled Wizard one last time, and even though she wished he were her puppy, she was very happy that Wizard was finally back with his proper family.

  “Good-bye, Anna,” she said. “Good-bye, Wizard.”

  Then she caught Aunt Trudy’s eye on the way out the door. Had she noticed the dog tag too?

  Hmm, Heidi thought. Very mysterious. Very mysterious indeed. And she could tell that her aunt was thinking the exact same thing.

  “Are you going to be okay without Wizard, Heidi?” Aunt Trudy asked.

  “Definitely,” Heidi said with a smile. “Something tells me Wizard is exactly where he belongs.”

  About the Author and Illustrator

  has always loved magic. When she was little, she used to make secret potions from smooshed shells and acorns. Then she would pretend to transport herself and her friends to enchanted places. Now she’s able to visit other worlds through writing. Wanda lives in San Jose, California, with her husband and son. They have three cats: Hilda, Agnes, and Claw-dia.

  has illustrated numerous books and materials for children, parents, and teachers. She enjoys painting cakes and creating art for products, which include murals, greeting cards, and rubber stamps! Priscilla lives with her family in Southern California.

  Little Simon

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  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Priscilla-Burris

  HeidiHeckelbeckBooks.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  LITTLE SIMON

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  First Little Simon paperback edition June 2017

  Copyright © 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Also available in a Little Simon hardcover edition.

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  Designed by Ciara Gay

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Coven, Wanda, author. | Burris, Priscilla, illustrator.

  Title: Heidi Heckelbeck and the magic puppy / by Wanda Coven ; illustrated by Priscilla Burris.

  Description: First Little Simon paperback edition. | New York : Little Simon, 2017. | Series: Heidi Heckelbeck ; 20 | Summary: Unable to find the owners of a lost puppy, Heidi decides to use just a teensy-weensy pinch of magic that sets off a mega-gigantic case of magic puppy trouble.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016034665 | ISBN 9781481495219 (pbk) | ISBN 9781481495226 (hc) | ISBN 9781481495233 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Dogs—Fiction. | Animals—Infancy—Fiction. | Lost and found possessions—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Witches—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.C83393 Hbm 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016034665