The Gecko and Sticky: Sinister Substitute

by VAN DRAANEN, WENDELINGILPIN, STEPHEN

• ISBN13: 9780375843785
• ISBN10: 0375843787
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-12
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Summary

Dave's most despised teacher, a gleeful frog dissector named Ms. Veronica Krockle, is absent. Her students are psyched! But Sticky is suspicious. Especially when the substitute teacher turns out to be strangely interested in geckos. Or rather, boys withpetgeckos. That's no substitute! That's Damien Black, dastardly treasure hunter and master of disguise! If Damien Black is in school, does that meanhe'sbehind Ms. Krockle's absence? Could she have been kidnapped? And does that mean Dave has to rescue her? Ay chihuahua! The capped crusader is (reluctantly) on the case.

Author Biography

Wendelin Van Draanen spent many years as a teacher before devoting herself to writing full-time. She lives in central California.

Stephen Gilpin graduated from the School of Visual Arts. He lives in Kansas.

Excerpts

Chapter 1

A Doozy of a Day

The day did not start well for Dave Sanchez.

First, his alarm didn't go off.

Then his little sister, Evie, stubbornly stayed locked inside the bathroom (because she knew that Dave really, really, really needed to use it).

This was followed by several mishaps (including a frantic search for gym shorts, a stubbed toe, and a broken plate of scrambled eggs).

And (as if he wasn't running late enough already) his gecko lizard decided at the last minute to stay home.

"Come on, Sticky!" Dave whispered into the crack behind his bookshelf.

"I don't think so, se–or," the gecko replied. "That scary se–orita is making you slice and dice frogs today, remember?"

Allow me to pause here a moment to clarify something:

Yes, the gecko talks.

Let me also make clear right off the bat that this is not some silly story where make-believe animals act all cutesy-wootsy and talk to each other.

No, this story is quite true.

This gecko is quite real.

And don't worry--I won't be springing talking cats or dogs or cows or burros (or monkeys, for that matter) on you. The gecko and only the gecko talks, and that's because . . .

Well, nobody's really sure. Some people believe Sticky is bewitched or cursed or possessed or a shape-shifting evil entity who's plotting to ruin lives, but people are often fearful of things they can't explain. So let's get on with Dave's manic morning, shall we? It is, after all, in the middle of going from bad to worse.

"You're still here?" his mother gasped when she saw Dave crouched beside his bookcase. "You're going to be late for school!"

"I know, Mom!" Dave snapped, and since the fact that Sticky could talk was top-secret (because Sticky had vowed to never speak again if Dave spilled the beans to anyone), he simply gave up on the lizard, grabbed his backpack and bike, and left for school.

Unfortunately, his neighbor Lily was also running late for school, and she was in no mood to follow Dave and his dorky bike down seven flights of stairs.

"Out of my way, delivery boy!" she said, trying to squeeze past him.

So Dave (who had his bike hoisted onto his shoulder) swung to the left at the next landing in an effort to get out of her way. But Lily had been trying to squeeze past him on the right (a no-no maneuver in any traffic situation, be it highway or stairway) and got smacked against the shoulder by the rear tire.

"Ow!" she cried as she stumbled into the wall.

Dave apologized, but Lily Espinoza was not the sort of girl who accepted apologies from dorky boys who hoisted their bikes up and down stairs. And after she was done using language that made Dave want to retreat like a turtle inside his bike helmet, she stormed past him and charged off to school.

It was, I'm sure you'll agree, a doozy of a day already, but then a new wave of misfortune began:

As fate would have it, Dave got a flat tire and had to lock his bike to a streetlight and run the last three blocks to school. He was, of course, late. And late at Geronimo Middle School meant lunchtime detention.

"Here you go, Mr. Sanchez," the attendance secretary said, handing Dave a slip that would allow him to get into his first-period class.

"Thanks," Dave sighed, and shuffled off to pre-algebra, where, to his dismay, he couldn't find his math homework. Unfortunately, his teacher, Mr. Vye, did not believe in late homework. He believed in zeroes and detentions and parent conferences, but late homework? Oh no.

In his next class, he could find his homework, but he'd done the wrong questions. (Right numbers, wrong page.) Ms. DeWitt was sympathetic, but her allowing him to make up the assignment (and, consequently, doubling the social studies homework that night) was almost worse than receiving a zero.

Then in language, Dave sat in his seat and discovered

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Excerpted from The Gecko and Sticky: Sinister Substitute by Wendelin Van Draanen
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