by Katie Tsang
Lucy stamped her foot. “But I’m NOT afraid of the ghost!”
Here’s a secret about Lucy. She actually isn’t afraid of ANYTHING. I’ve seen her catch spiders and jump off the highest diving board at the pool. And she’s the only one in the family who Butterbutt listens to. Even Butterbutt knows not to mess with Lucy.
“Sam, we do need help,” said Zoe. “We’re all out of ideas.”
I frowned. I was supposed to be leading this ghost hunt. Not my little sister. But Zoe had a point.
“Okay, fine,” I said. “You can help.”
“Hooray!” said Lucy. “Can we have a cool name? Like a team?”
“This isn’t a game, Lucy!” I said. “This is very serious business. This isn’t pretend. It’s dangerous. We’re really going to catch a ghost, and I need you to be . . .”
But Lucy wasn’t listening. Her eyes grew wide as she went over to the wall and put her ear against it.
“Shh!
Listen!”
she said.
We all went very quiet.
There it was! The ghost! I could hear it scratching and clanking.
“It’s IN the wall!” Bernard said, his ear pressed to the wall now, too.
This was it. Time to get the ghost.
“The sound is getting quieter. The ghost must be escaping!” said Zoe.
“It sounds like . . . it’s going . . . in that direction!” said Bernard, pointing to the corner of my room. “What is on the other side of that wall?”
“My room!” said Lucy. We all ran into her bedroom. I didn’t have a plan, but I couldn’t let the ghost get away. A plan always comes to the at the very last minute. It would be the same for us.
There were dolls and toy cars and crayons all over Lucy’s floor. Bernard tripped on a car and fell.
“The ghost tripped me!” he yelled.
“No, you just tripped over a toy,” said Zoe, pulling him up.
“Is the ghost in here?”’ asked Lucy. “I don’t see it.”
“Here! I’ve been saving this just in case!” said Zoe. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a sandwich bag filled with flour from earlier and threw it into the air. Clouds of white floated all around us and landed on the floor. And in our hair.
“No ghost,” said Bernard, wiping flour off his glasses.
But the sound was getting louder.
“It’s getting closer!” I said. “I think it’s IN the wall!”
“How are we going to get inside the wall?” Zoe moaned.
“Like this!” said Lucy, and she went to the vent in her wall and pulled the cover off.
“Whoa!” said Bernard. “When did Lucy get super strength?”
Lucy grinned. “This is my secret space! I took out the screws forever ago. I hide all my money in here. I had to stop using my piggy bank because Mom kept going into it when she needed change.”
“What money?” I asked. How did Lucy have any money to hide?
“Christmas, birthday, tooth fairy money, and whatever Mom leaves on the kitchen counter,” she said, counting it all off on her fingers.
“This is NOT the time to be thinking about finances,” said Bernard.
Lucy peered into the vent. “Yep, the ghost has definitely been in here! And he’s knocked over all my coin towers!”
We all scrunched next to Lucy to look inside. The opening was small and square — the same shape as a shoebox. It was dark in the vent, but we could still see into it. And Lucy was right, her coins had all been knocked over.
Then we heard it again. The clanking sound. It was the ghost! And it was coming towards us!
“I SEE ITS
EYES!”
Bernard yelled.
“I SEE THE
GHOST’S
EYES!”
“That’s NOT the ghost,” I said. I knew what we were up against now. I recognized those beady eyes. “It’s Fang.”
Zoe screamed. “That’s even scarier! FANG IS GOING TO EAT US.”
“THE GHOST WANTS FANG TO EAT US!” shrieked Bernard. “I WAS WRONG! It’s NOT a pesky ghost! It’s an ANGRY GHOST. AN ANGRY GHOST AND A HUNGRY SNAKE. The worst possible combination!”
Now that we were facing both Fang AND the ghost, I didn’t know what to do. I was really glad Ralph and Regina weren’t there to witness how NOT brave we were being. Although the others seemed to be getting a bit out of control, if you asked me. We needed to work together.
“It’s only Fang!” Lucy said. “You just have to get him out.”
“I’m NOT getting him!” said Zoe. “What if he bites me?”
“He won’t bite you,” said Lucy. “He’s a boa. Mom said boas don’t have fangs.”
“His name is Fang,” said Zoe. “He’ll definitely bite me.”
Bernard scratched his head. “Lucy’s right, though — I don’t think he has actual fangs. I looked it up. He’s misnamed.”
“Who cares what his name is?” said Lucy. “We’ve got to get him out. Look! He’s already getting away!” As he slid away over the coins, we heard the scratchy ghost sound again. And then he knocked into another pile of coins, making the clanky ghost sound.
“The ghost sound! It’s just Fang on the coins!” I said, but nobody heard me.
“Get him, Sam! He’s your snake!” shouted Zoe.
Here it was. My chance to prove, once and for all, how brave I was. I took a deep breath. I was going to do it.
On the count of one, two . . .
“I’ve got him!” said Lucy, triumphantly yanking Fang back by the tail.
“I would have got him,” I muttered, but Lucy was already carrying him back into my room. We all ran after her.
She put Fang in his tank and slammed it shut. “There!”
“But what about the ghost?” asked Zoe.
I took a deep breath and looked at my friends. I was going to make a shocking revelation.
“I don’t think there is a ghost.”
“No ghost?” asked Zoe. “But . . . we heard it!”
I shook my head. “We heard Fang on the coins. That was what was making the scratching noise, and the clanking.”
“But what about the whistling? And the cupboard? And the lights going out?”
I didn’t have an answer to that. “I don’t know,” I said. “Some mysteries aren’t meant to be solved.” That’s what Captain Jane says whenever Spaceman Jack asks her a question about the universe she doesn’t know the answer to. “And,” said Bernard, “who let Fang out?”
“I don’t know,” I said again, putting my face in my hands. Not only was I NOT a ghost hunter, or a snake wrangler, but I was an awful detective. The would be so disappointed in me.
“Maybe the ghost let Fang out and then left,” suggested Zoe.
“Maybe,” I said. “But if there is a ghost in the house, I don’t know how we’ll ever catch it. Na-Na was right — we don’t know what we’re doing.”
Just then the door creaked open. But nobody appeared! Bernard gasped, and Zoe covered her eyes. I kept mine open. I wasn’t going to miss the ghost again.
Butterbutt sauntered in and pounced on me.
“Ugh,” I said, pushing him off. “It’s just Butterbutt. Get out of here, you evil cat.”
But Butterbutt wasn’t listening to me. He had his hunting face on. He crouched down low, his eyes alight.
“Maybe Butterbutt sees the ghost!” said Lucy. “Can’t cats see ghosts?”
Without warning, Butterbutt leaped up into the air and landed on my dresser.
We all watched as he went up to Fang’s tank and PULLED THE LID OPEN with his paws!
“Butterbutt is the ghost!” I said.
“I can’t decide if that’s the smartest cat I’ve ever seen, or the stupidest,” said Bernard.
Lucy stepped forwards and scooped up Butterbutt. “Bad kitty!” she said. She turned to me. “You should get a lock for the top of that.”
“You should watch your cat,” I muttered. But she was right — Fang was
already trying to slither up the side of the glass enclosure and escape . . . again!
“NOT today, buddy,” I said, closing the lid, careful NOT to touch Fang.
Although I had to admit, after all of this, Fang didn’t seem so scary any more.
“So what happened to your ghost?”
Zoe, Bernard, and I were minding our own business in our spot on the playground when Ralph swaggered over. Wearing his bow tie, of course.
“Why do you care?” asked Bernard.
Ralph shrugged. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you had a ghost or a snake in your house.”
“We chased the ghost out of the house,” said Zoe. (We’d decided that was our official story, and we were sticking to it.) “We’re certified ghost hunters now. We’ve even got these.” She handed him our official ghost-hunter certificates. She was the one who made them, but Ralph didn’t need to know that.
“What matters is that we were prepared,” she said when she gave them to us. “And if there HAD been a ghost, we would have been ready for it.”
“Would we have?” Bernard had asked, looking skeptically at the ghost-hunter certificate.
“Definitely,” said Zoe. She’d even made a certificate for Lucy, who had hung it up on her wall next to her karate trophies.
Ralph frowned at the certificates. “This doesn’t prove anything,” he said. “I still think Sam Wu-ser is a big scaredy-cat baby.”
I stepped forward. “I am NOT,” I said.
“Are too,” said Ralph.
“Just wait until tomorrow,” I said.
I knew what I had to do.
There was only one way to prove to Ralph, my class, and the whole world that I wasn’t Scaredy-Cat Sam.
After school that day, I went up to my room to put my plan in motion. It was a plan that required extreme bravery, but I was ready.
I went right up to Fang’s tank. “All right, Fang,” I said, staring him down. “It’s just you and me.”
“I’m here, too, you know,” said Lucy. I didn’t want to risk getting Fang out of his cage on my own, so Lucy was there just in case he decided to make another run for it.
I reached into the tank and picked him up the way the pet store owner had showed me. He wrapped around my arm. It was terrifying. But there were no incidents.
“I think he likes you!” said Lucy.
“I think he’d like to eat me,” I said, because I still wasn’t totally sure that Fang wouldn’t eat me if he had the chance.
I put him in the special travel container my parents had bought just for this very occasion.
“Make sure the lid is on!” said Lucy.
Butterbutt wandered in and started to attack my feet.
“Lucy! Get Butterbutt out of here!”
“Come on, Butterbutt,” she said.
I brought Fang’s special container up to my face so we were eye to eye. “I’m counting on you,” I said. “And if you are going to eat anyone, make sure it’s Ralph. NOT me, okay?”
Fang stuck his tongue out a couple of times.
I was pretty sure that meant yes.
“This is my pet snake. His name is Fang,” I said.
Ms. Winkleworth had given me special permission to bring Fang to school and give a presentation on him.
“He likes to sit in his tank, and he eats mice.”
“Does he bite?” someone asked.
I nodded. “He’s very ferocious. He just ate last night though, so we should be fine. But I wouldn’t get too close if I were you. I’m a snake wrangler, so I know what I’m doing.”
“Wow,” someone else said. It was Regina! “Can I pet him?”
“I don’t think we should open his tank in the classroom,” Ms. Winkleworth said.
“I like snakes,” said Regina. She looked over her shoulder. “But I think my brother is a little scared of them.”
Ralph was standing at the back of the classroom, as far away from me and Fang as possible.
“I’m NOT scared of that thing,” he said. “I just don’t like it, okay?” He didn’t even snort, so I knew he must have been scared.
“Since you and Zoe and Bernard caught your snake and chased away your ghost, can you come over to our house?” asked Regina. “I bet you could get rid of whatever is haunting our basement.”
“What?” cried Zoe.
“Are you crazy?” asked Bernard.
“Absolutely,” I said. I remembered what Spaceman Jack says whenever someone asks for his help. “Whatever it is, I’m sure we can handle it.”
Because I’m Sam Wu. And I am NOT afraid.10
10 I really, really, REALLY hope there isn’t actually a zombie werewolf in their basement.
THE END
Katie and Kevin are definitely NOT afraid of answering some author questions
We all love Sam Wu! Is he based on one of you guys?
Katie: Between the two of us, I’d have to say Sam is more based on Kevin than me! I was more of a Lucy.
Kevin: I’ll admit, I was a little bit of a scaredy-cat! But just like Sam, I always wanted to be brave. Some of Sam’s adventures might even be based on my own childhood.
Have you ever done anything so scary that it made you want to pee your pants?
Katie: I’m TERRIFIED of heights, and one time on a hike with Kevin in China, I had to climb a 90 foot ladder! I was shaking the whole time, but luckily I didn’t pee my pants.
Kevin: Unlike Sam, I AM afraid of sharks. I have never seen one in the wild, but if I did, I would probably pee my pants.
Spaceman Jack and Captain Jane from Space Blasters sound so cool! If you could be a famous TV show character, who would you be?
Katie: Sailor Moon from the Sailor Moon TV show! If you haven’t seen it, it is a Japanese anime show about a girl named Serena who can turn into a superhero named Sailor Moon. She’s been my favorite since I was seven and I still love her.
Kevin: My favorite is also from a Japanese anime show — Goku from Dragon Ball Z! He has the best super powers and isn’t afraid of anything. Plus, like Sam Wu, he has awesome hair.
Sam eats some super tasty Chinese meals. What is the most delicious thing you have EVER eaten?
Katie: The most delicious thing I’ve ever had to eat is a type of spicy Chinese noodles called DanDan noodles. They are so spicy they make your mouth go numb — I love them! I also have a huge sweet tooth and love ice cream.
Kevin: My favorite thing to eat is sashimi — which is raw fish! I think Sam and Na-Na would be impressed.
Ralph Philip Zinkerman the Third is NOT our favorite person. Were you tempted to let him be chased by a ghost or eaten by a shark?
Even Ralph Philip Zinkerman doesn’t deserve that
And finally, what do you think is scariest . . . ghosts, sharks, or the dark?
Katie: I’m NOT afraid of ghosts, sharks, or the dark.
Kevin: Sharks! Definitely sharks.
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 Laure
n 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 sharks. Or ghosts. Or anything else, no matter what a certain someone — that someone being Ralph Philip Zinkerman the Third — might tell you. And whatever anyone tells you, I am NOT Scaredy-Cat Sam.
You might have heard about my adventures with some ghosts. They started in the
and then everything snowballed from there.1
Anyway, I’ve established that I’m NOT afraid of ghosts. NOT even the Ghost King, who is the number-one bad guy in the entire universe. I know this from my favorite show,
There was a ghost in my house, and we — that’s me and my friends Zoe and Bernard — had to find it and chase it out of my house. True story.2 We even have the ghost-hunter certificates to prove it.
Back to me being brave. I’m so brave that my sidekick is an actual, genuine, man-eating snake named Fang.3
I thought that by proving I wasn’t afraid of ghosts nobody would call me Scaredy-Cat Sam anymore. I was wrong.
It was just the beginning of proving how NOT afraid I am.
1 I recently realized that when people say “snowballed” they don’t really mean an actual snowball like you’d throw at an enemy. They mean an AVALANCHE. Which sounds terrifying. NOT that I’m afraid of avalanches.