The Hamster of the Baskervilles

by Hale, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780152025090
• ISBN10: 015202509X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

Chet Gecko doesn't believe in the supernatural. His idea of voodoo is his mom's cockroach ripple ice cream. But when a teacher reports seeing a monster by the light of a full moon, it falls to Chet and his sleek-winged partner, Natalie Attired, to answer the burning question: Is this the work of a vicious, supernatural werehamster on the loose? Or just another science fair project gone wrong?

Author Biography

BRUCE HALE is the author of five picture books as well as the Chet Gecko mysteries. A popular speaker, teacher, and storyteller for children and adults, he lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Excerpts

1A Heck of a WreckSome Mondays drag in like a wet dog, dripping puddles of gloom and trailing a funky stink. (Actually, at my school most Mondays are like that.)But this Monday opened with a bang, like a fat frog fired from a circus cannon. And, like that frog, it turned into an ugly mess quicker than you can say ribbet-ribbet-splat.No clue tipped me off as I trotted through the gates of Emerson Hicky Elementary mere minutes before the morning bell. One more tardy slip and I'd win a one-way trip to detention with the Beast of Room 3-not my idea of a dream vacation.I dodged and darted down the halls past other stragglers, trying to beat the clock.A sleepy second grader wandered into my path. Dazed as a meerkat on a merry-go-round, she stumbled along toward her classroom.Za-yoomp!I planted my hands on her shoulders and vaulted over the little shrew easy as slurping a gypsy-moth milk shake. My feet pounded onward.Rounding the last corner, I was running full tilt-only seconds to go!Mr. Ratnose's classroom loomed ahead. I bounced off the bright-orange door and skidded for my seat just as the bell went rrriinnnng!And I would've made it, too, if not for Bitty Chu, the gopher.Whomp!Like a crazy cue ball, I hit her at top speed, ricocheted into Waldo the furball, and sprawled across Shirley Chameleon's desk. Private eye in the corner pocket.Shirley blinked down at me. I tipped my hat."Hey, green eyes," I said suavely, "did you get the answer to that second homework problem?"Shirley snorted and tossed her head."What's up, buttercup?" I said. "You've gone all yellow around the edges."And she had. One thing about chameleons, there's never a dull-colored moment."Use your private eye, wise guy," she said.Since when would Shirley skip a chance to flirt like the cootie machine she was? Something was rotten in the state of Ratnose.I raised my head and checked out my fourth-grade classroom.My jaw dropped. I didn't pick it up.Mr. Ratnose's room was a mess. No-more than a mess, it was the Cadillac of cruddiness, the Titanic of trash, the Grand Canyon of chaos. If that mess were a monument, it'd be the Statue of Litterty.Desks lay tumbled around the room like blocks in a cranky preschooler's playpen. Half-eaten papers covered the floor. Deep gashes raked the walls. A handful of seeds was scattered by the door. The seeds of destruction, maybe?Most of my classmates stood gaping, saucer eyed in amazement.Bitty Chu tearfully fingered a wad of shredded paper. "Somebody's been munching on my math quiz."Waldo the furball ran a finger along his toppled chair. "Somebody's been slobbering on my seat."I noticed a jagged cut on the wall had mutilated my latest masterpiece, a safety poster. Somebody'd been slashing up my artwork-and I guessed it wasn't Goldilocks.What twisted hoodlum was responsible?Mr. Ratnose stood knee-deep in the mess. His eyes were round as doughnuts, with a dollop of bitter chocolate in the middle.

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Excerpted from The Hamster of the Baskervilles by Bruce Hale
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