Read Cam Jansen and the Valentine Baby Mystery Online
Authors: David A. Adler,Susanna Natti
Cam Jansen and the Valentine Baby Mystery
There’s a thief in the hospital!
“Please Dr. Berger,” Mrs. Shelton said, “can you tell us about Jane Jansen? How is she? Did she have her baby?”
Dr. Berger smiled. “I was just with Mrs. Jansen,” she said, “and she’s doing very well. It will be a while before I can tell you any more than that.”
Dr. Berger went to the coffee machine.
Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Shelton went back to their seats.
“It’s your turn,” Cam told Eric. “I said ‘Naomi’ and that ends with an ‘I.’”
“Ian.”
“Nellie.”
“I’m getting a cup of coffee,” Mrs. Shelton told Cam and Eric. “Are you thirsty? Would you like some juice?”
Cam and Eric wanted orange juice.
Mrs. Shelton looked on the couch. She lifted her coat. Then she lifted Cam’s and Eric’s coats. “Hey,” she said. “Where’s my purse?”
The Valentine Baby Mystery
David A. Adler
Illustrated by
Susanna Natti
PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
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Registered Offices: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in the United States of America by Viking,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2005
Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2006
This edition published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2011
Text copyright © David A. Adler, 2005
Interior illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 2005
Logo illustration copyright © Penguin Young Readers Group, 2010
All rights reserved
CIP DATA IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Puffin Books ISBN 978-1-101-66162-8
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
For Anne R. G.
with thanks
—D. A.
To Lydia
—S. N.
HAPTER
O
NE
“Hey, look at this,” Danny said.
Cam Jansen and her friends Eric and Beth looked.
Danny put a straw into his milk container. He blew milk bubbles that spilled onto the lunchroom table.
“That’s not funny,” Eric said.
“Well, this will be funny,” Danny said.
His cream cheese and jelly sandwich, a large heart-shaped cookie, and an apple were on the table. Danny unwrapped the sandwich, took off the top piece of bread, and put it on his nose. It stuck.
Cam and Eric started talking about math. Their teacher, Ms. Benson, had just taught a lesson on different kinds of triangles. Beth ate her sandwich.
“You’re not looking. You’re not laughing,” Danny said.
“I’m eating,” Beth told him. “That’s why I’m here.”
Danny took the bread off his nose and put it on his chin.
“Look now,” he said. “I have a beard. I’m Abraham Lincoln.”
“Danny, why don’t you just eat your lunch,” Beth said. She showed Danny his heart-shaped cookie. “Look at what your mother wrote on your dessert.”
I Love You
was written in red icing across the front of the cookie.
“That’s because it’s Valentine’s Day,” Danny said. “She always gives me heart cookies on Valentine’s Day.”
Beth told him, “Your mother wants you to eat your lunch.”
“And I want to
wear
my lunch,” Danny said.
When Danny spoke, the bread on his chin went up and down. Children at the next table laughed.
“Don’t laugh,” Beth told them. “If you laugh when he’s silly, he gets sillier.”
Danny did get sillier. He stood on his chair and made chicken noises.
“Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!”
He held up his apple and said, “I laid a red egg.” He hugged it and said, “My little baby.”
The children at the next table didn’t laugh.
“You’re right,” a boy said. “He did get sillier.”
Danny looked at the children at the next table. They were eating. He looked at Cam, Eric, and Beth. They were eating, too. Danny sat down. He took the bread off his chin and bit into it.
“Your mother is nice,” Eric said to Danny. “She’s a reading teacher,” he told Cam and Beth. “In first grade, when I was having trouble learning to read, she helped me.”
“Cam,” Beth said. “How is
your
mother? When will she have the baby?”
“Soon, I think,” Cam answered. “Maybe in a few weeks. She said I’ll be surprised.”
“What’s the surprise?” Eric asked. “You know you’re getting a sister.”
“Maybe the surprise is, she’ll be like Cam,”
Danny said. “She’ll have a picture memory, too. She’ll be born holding a camera. Instead of crying
‘Boo hoo,’
she’ll cry,
‘Click! Click!’
”