Monsters, Inc. Junior Novel

by Disney Book Group

  Copyright © 2010 Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney Press, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011-5690.

  ISBN 978-1-4231-8500-0

  For more Disney Press fun, visit www.disneybooks.com

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Photos from the Film

  Moonlight streamed through the bedroom window, making spooky shadows on the bed. Tucked beneath the covers, a little boy was sound asleep.

  Creeeeak. The boy’s closet door slowly opened.

  The sound startled the boy awake. He sat up and glanced nervously around. But the room was empty. The boy lay back down and snuggled into his pillow.

  Creeeeak. The floorboards groaned as something moved across the room.

  The boy peered into the darkness. Suddenly his eyes grew round with fright. A monstrous tentacle was slithering out the door of his closet! Terrified, the boy squeezed his eyes shut. But when he looked again, he saw there was no tentacle after all. It was just the sleeve of his shirt hanging out of the closet door. Sighing with relief, the boy settled back under the covers.

  Just then a menacing shadow slipped across the room.

  Beneath the boy’s bed, two evil eyes peered out of the darkness.

  The boy was wide awake now, huddled under the bedcovers and shaking with fear. From under the bed a monster rose. Its dark, hulking form blocked the moonlight as it loomed over the small child. Raising two ghastly arms, the monster opened its mouth. But before it could let out its bloodcurdling roar, the terrified boy released a piercing scream.

  The startled monster yelled and stepped on a soccer ball. It shot out from under the monster’s foot, hit the wall, and flew back at the monster’s head. “Oomph!” it grunted. Then the monster tripped on some toys and ran into a dresser, which fell over and landed on its foot.

  Suddenly the lights in the room came on, and the little boy flopped forward on the bed like a puppet.

  “Simulation terminated. Simulation terminated,” said a computerized voice. One of the walls of the bedroom began to rise into the air. The bedroom wasn’t really a bedroom at all—it was a practice room made to look like a real bedroom!

  The little boy actually was a puppet. The simulated bedroom was part of a training program at the Monsters, Inc. factory. Bile, the monster in the bedroom, was being tested on his ability to scare.

  Blinking in the bright lights, Bile growled awkwardly at the limp puppet a few more times.

  Just beyond the bedroom set, a dragonlike monster named Ms. Flint watched this action being replayed on several TV monitors. The monitors showed the now uncomfortable Bile from different angles.

  Ms. Flint sighed. “All right, Mr. Bile,” she said.

  Bile stopped growling. “Uh, my friends call me Phlegm,” he told her.

  “Mr. Bile, can you tell me what you did wrong?” she asked.

  “Fell down?” Bile said uncertainly.

  “Can anyone tell me what Mr. Bile did wrong?” Ms. Flint demanded, turning to look at a row of monsters who had been watching Bile practice his scaring technique.

  The monsters shifted uneasily in their seats. None of them had any idea what the answer to the question might be. Finally one monster opened his mouth as if to answer Ms. Flint’s question, but then he only coughed.

  Ms. Flint put her scaly head down on her desk and sighed with frustration. Turning this group of pathetic recruits into Scarers was no easy task.

  “Let’s take a look at the tape.” She pointed to one of the TV monitors. On the screen, Bile sneaked once again into the bedroom. But this time the image froze on the closet door.

  “There! See?” said Ms. Flint. “The door. You left it wide open.”

  “Ohhhh,” said the monster recruits.

  “Leaving a door open is the worst mistake any employee can make because…” Ms. Flint paused to wait for the answer.

  “It could let in a draft?” Bile answered hesitantly.

  “It could let in a child!” boomed a voice from the back of the room.

  “Oh, Mr. Waternoose!” Ms. Flint cried in surprise as a stout, crablike monster in a waistcoat and bow tie scuttled forward.

  Bile and the other recruits gasped. They hadn’t known that Henry J. Waternoose, the CEO of Monsters, Inc., was watching!

  Waternoose glared at the wimpy recruits with all five of his beady eyes.

  “There is nothing more toxic or deadly than a human child,” he said dramatically. “A single touch could kill you! Leave a door open, and a child could walk right into this factory—right into the monster world.” The monsters gulped. Children’s screams powered most of the city of Monstropolis, but they were considered a very dangerous source of energy.

  One terrified recruit jumped into the lap of the monster sitting next to him. “I won’t go in a kid’s room. You can’t make me!”

  Waternoose held up a yellow canister. “You’re going in there because we need this.” He uncorked the canister and an earsplitting scream pierced the air. As it did, the lights in the room glowed white- hot, lit up by the power of the scream. The recruits cringed.

  Waternoose looked around the room in frustration. Human children were getting harder and harder to scare. Monstropolis was in the middle of an energy crisis. Right now, Monsters, Inc. supplied most of the scream energy for the city. But if he didn’t get some good Scarers soon, his company might go out of business!

  “Our city is counting on you to collect those children’s screams—without screams we have no power,” he told the recruits. “I need Scarers who are confident, tenacious, tough, intimidating. I need Scarers like…James P. Sullivan!”

  A giant foot hit the floor with a thud. Huge hairy blue hands cracked their knuckles. A fierce pair of eyes squinted. Two sets of sharp, gleaming teeth parted to release a ferocious roar. James P. Sullivan was ready to start his day.

  Eight feet tall, blue with purple spots and sharp horns, James P. Sullivan was also known as Sulley—and he was the best Scarer in the business. There was hardly a child in the world he couldn’t scare. But even the scariest monster in the world had to stay in shape.

  He dropped to the floor and began to do push-ups. Next to him, a small, round, green monster with a single large eye in the middle of his face cheered him on.

  Mike Wazowski was Sulley’s best friend and roommate. He was also the personal assistant to the top Scarer at Monsters, Inc. Mike coached his big friend through his monster workout. “Scary feet! Scary feet!” he cried as Sulley ran in place. “The kid’s awake!” Sulley dropped to the floor. “Scary feet! Scar—the kid’s asleep!” Sulley popped back up.

  In their living room, Sulley pushed a huge pile of furniture across the floor.

  “GRRR,” Sulley growled.

  In the bathroom, Sulley brushed his giant teeth. Mike stood on Sulley’s arm, coaching away. “Fight that plaque! Fight that plaque! Scary monsters don’t
have plaque!” he cried. Mike wanted to be sure his friend was in tip-top shape for a day of scaring. They hoped Sulley would break the all-time scare record that day.

  Soon the two friends were ready for a day on the job at Monsters, Inc. They stepped out of their apartment building, and Mike walked straight over to a shiny new convertible parked at the curb.

  “Okay, Sulley, hop on in!” he said cheerfully.

  But Sulley knew all about the energy crisis. He didn’t want to waste any scream energy by driving. “Nope. Uh-uh,” he told Mike, grabbing his friend’s skinny arm and starting to drag him along the street. “There’s a scream shortage. We’re walking.”

  “Walking? No, no, no! My car needs to be driven!” Mike cried. But he was no match for his big blue friend, who continued to pull him down the sidewalk.

  “Hey, genius, you want to know why I bought the car?” Mike asked sarcastically as they walked along.

  “Not really,” Sulley said.

  “To drive it!” Mike answered anyway.

  “Give it a rest, will ya, butterball? C’mon, you could use the exercise,” Sulley teased his round pal.

  “I could use the exercise? Look at you! You have your own climate,” Mike shot back.

  The two passed a group of monster kids who were jumping rope—using one kid’s tongue as the rope!

  “Morning, Mike! Morning, Sulley!” a monster kid called.

  “Morning, kids. How’re you doing?” Sulley replied, waving.

  “Bye, Mike. Bye, Thulley,” the kid with a jump rope for a tongue called after them.

  Even though it was early in the morning, the streets of Monstropolis were bustling. A street-cleaning monster swept trash into a small pile. Opening his large mouth, he dumped the garbage inside and began to chew.

  Nearby, a monster reading a newspaper ambled along the street. Suddenly he sneezed. “Ah-CHOO!” Fire shot from his nose and mouth. The newspaper quickly went up in flames. “Aw, nuts,” he said.

  A monster grocer used his many tentacles to arrange his fruit stand. “Hey, fellas! I hear somebody’s close to breaking the all-time scare record,” he said to Mike and Sulley as they walked past.

  “Just trying to make sure there’s enough scream to go around,” Sulley replied with a smile.

  As Mike and Sulley continued down the street, a large, bloblike monster oozed by them on the sidewalk and accidentally crossed a sewer grate. “Ayyyy!” he cried as his body began to pour through the many little holes.

  At the crosswalk, Mike and Sulley paused to wait for the light. A giant monster with legs the size of tree trunks stood next to them.

  “Hey, Ted! Good morning,” Sulley said to the giant monster.

  “ROARRRRR!” Ted replied.

  The traffic sign changed from don’t STALK to STALK, and the three monsters crossed the street.

  “See that, Mikey? Ted’s walking to work,” Sulley cheerfully pointed out.

  “Big deal,” Mike grumbled. “The guy takes five steps and he’s there.”

  The lobby of the Monsters, Inc. headquarters was a whirlwind of activity. Tall, small, scaly, furry, slippery, and slimy—monsters of every shape and size scurried this way and that. Several called out greetings as Sulley and Mike walked through the door.

  “Morning, Sulley!”

  “Hey, it’s the Sullster!”

  “How are you doing, big guy?”

  Sulley was popular at Monsters, Inc. And no wonder! Along one wall of the lobby, a line of framed photographs featured the Scarer of the Month. Sulley’s picture was in every frame. He’d won the award every month for the past three years!

  At the reception desk, Mike paused. “Oh, Schmoopsie-Poo,” he called sweetly to the receptionist.

  Celia, the receptionist, turned around—and so did the writhing snakes growing out of her head! When Celia saw that it was Mike, she smiled and batted the lashes of her one eye.

  “Happy birthday,” Mike told her.

  “Oh, Googly-Woogly, you remembered!” Celia cried. She leaned forward and rubbed Mike’s round head. Her snakes sighed happily. Sulley stood there awkwardly, watching the couple flirt.

  “So, are we going anywhere special tonight?” Celia asked Mike.

  “I just got us into a little place called Harryhausen’s,” Mike told her. Celia and her snakes gasped in delight. Harryhausen’s was one of the fanciest restaurants in Monstropolis! “I’ll see you at 5:01, and not a minute later,” Mike said, waving good-bye to his sweetheart as he and Sulley headed off to work.

  In the locker room at Monsters, Inc., Scarers and their assistants were getting ready for a day on the job. Sulley polished his horns, while Mike popped a contact lens the size of a hubcap into his eye.

  Without warning, the door of Mike’s locker suddenly slammed shut. Mike gasped in surprise.

  He opened the locker door. Again it shut with a bang. “What the…?”

  Suddenly a large, purple, lizardlike monster appeared, seemingly out of nowhere! “Wazowski!” he hissed, showing rows of sharp teeth.

  “Ahhhhhh!” Mike screamed, leaping back from the locker.

  The scaly monster, Randall, chuckled. He’d been blending in with Mike’s locker like a chameleon. “Whaddya know?” he said nastily. “It scares little kids and little monsters.”

  “Hey, Randall. Save it for the Scare Floor, will ya?” Sulley said, coming to his friend’s rescue.

  Randall fixed Sulley with an evil stare. He began to wave his arms like a karate fighter. “I’m in the zone today, Sullivan—going to be doing some serious scaring,” he said threateningly, “putting up some big numbers.” At Monsters, Inc., Randall was the second-best Scarer, next to Sulley. He was determined to be the best.

  But not if Mike and Sulley could help it. Mike put a thin green arm around his pal. “Wow, Randall, that’s great,” he said. “That should make it even more humiliating when we break the record first.”

  Randall put a hand to his ear. “Shhh,” he said. “Do you hear that?” He paused. “It’s the winds of change.” Snickering to himself, he sauntered out of the room.

  “What a creep!” Mike snapped as soon as Randall was gone. He turned to Sulley. “One of these days, I am really…gonna let you teach that guy a lesson.”

  On his way to the station where he and Sulley worked, Mike stopped to pick up his paperwork. “Good morning, Roz, my succulent little garden snail, and who would we be scaring today?” he said to the dispatch manager.

  “Wazowski,” the sluglike monster replied, “you didn’t file your paperwork last night.”

  “Oh, that darn paperwork,” Mike said. “Wouldn’t it be easier if it all just blew away?”

  Roz leaned in close to Mike. “Don’t let it happen again,” she said threateningly.

  “Yes, well, I’ll try to be less careless,” Mike answered as he backed away nervously.

  “I’m watching you, Wazowski—always watching.”

  “Ooh, she’s nuts,” Mike muttered to himself as he walked toward the Scare Floor. “Slug.”

  “All Scare Floors are now active,” Celia announced over the loudspeaker. “Assistants, please report to your stations.”

  Mike and the other assistants got to work preparing their stations. The Scare Floor was the most important part of Monsters, Inc. It was where the Scarers did their work. When an assistant inserted a special card key into a slot, a door dropped into the station. These doors opened to the human world—right into children’s closets. Monsters, Inc. had one door for every child in the world. A Scarer’s job was to pop through one of these doors, frighten a child, and exit through the door back into the monster world. Meanwhile, special mechanisms attached to the closet doors collected the kids’ screams in yellow canisters.

  “Okay, people,” a floor manager announced. “We got Scarers coming out!”

  From the end of the hall, a line of scary monsters slowly emerged out of the shadows. They lined up in front of their doors. Their assistants lined up behind them. On t
he wall above them, a large scoreboard showed the scream totals: Sulley was in first place, Randall in second.

  The Scarers geared up. Sulley cracked his knuckles. Another monster flexed his claws like a cat. An assistant handed a ferocious set of teeth to a monster with a shrunken, toothless mouth. The monster slid the choppers into place, then snapped his mouth open and closed.

  Fungus, Randall’s assistant, yanked a patterned backdrop down behind Randall. Randall suddenly changed colors, blending in with the wood pattern. Fungus pulled down a second background, this time decorated with a sky pattern. Randall quickly turned bright blue to match.

  A bald-headed monster put a finger in his mouth and blew hard. A line of spikes popped out of his head. An assistant brushed another monster’s sharp teeth with a giant toothbrush. A monster with no eyes grabbed a bunch of eyeballs and popped them into his face.

  Then the floor manager began the countdown. The Scarers took their places.

  Sulley looked over at Randall. “Hey,” he said, trying to be a good sport, “may the best monster win.”

  “I plan to,” Randall sneered, and crouched into a starting position.

  “Five…four…three…two…one.”

  A horn blared. A sign suddenly flashed on: SCARE.

  All down the line, monsters sprang forward. Sulley shot through his door. With a tremendous growl, Randall did the same. The scaring had begun.

  From behind the doors came the shrill sound of children screaming. The yellow scream canisters began to fill up. As soon as one can was full, an assistant replaced it.

  Sulley popped back through the door and checked the scoreboard. He was still in the lead. He grinned. “Oh, I’m feeling good today, Mikey!” he said.

  As Mike and Sulley watched, Sulley’s score grew higher.

  “Attaboy!” Mike cheered. “Another door coming right up!” He quickly inserted a card key, and another child’s door dropped into Sulley’s slot.

  Just then Randall emerged from his door. He looked at the tally board and growled angrily when he saw that Sulley was still ahead.

  “You’re still behind, Randall,” Fungus said. “Perhaps I should realign the scream intake valve—”