Read Return to Howliday Inn Online
Authors: James Howe
Return to Howliday Inn
“As scrumptiously silly as his critters' earlier adventures.”
âPublishers Weekly
PRAISE FOR THE BUNNICULA SERIES
*
“A clever tale abounding with puns, wild chases, and slapstick humor.”
âSCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review
“A treat for all ages.”
“âPUBLISHERS WEEKLY”
Don't miss any of the adventures of Bunnicula, the vampire
rabbit, and his pals Harold, Chester, and Howie!
H
ow did Rosebud check out from Howliday Inn?
The Monroes have gone on vacation, once again leaving Harold, Chester, and Howie at Chateau Bow-Wow, which Chester aptly dubbed “Howliday Inn” during their last stay there. The motley crew of boarders may have changed, but the creepy goings-on at Howliday Inn have not. A ghostly voice, buried bones, and a collar with the name “Rosebud” on it suggest that murder may have been added to the services offered at the kennel.
A pair of yuppie puppies from posh Upper Centerville, two cat burglars (sisters-in-crime) named Felony and Miss Demeanor, a melancholy Great Dane named Hamlet, and a weasel named, well, The Weasel, join the Monroe pets in getting to the bottom of the mysterious happenings. But will they be able to escape the fate that may have befallen Rosebud?
JAMES HOWE
wrote the award-winning bestseller
Bunnicula
with his late wife, Deborah Howe, in 1977. The couple went on to write one other children's book,
Teddy Bear's Scrapbook
, before Deborah's untimely death from cancer in 1978.
After
Bunnicula
's publication in 1979, James Howe quit his job as a literary agent to pursue writing full-time. His many other popular books for children include the six sequels to
Bunnicula
; the Tales from the House of Bunnicula series; the Bunnicula and Friends Ready-to-Read series; the Sebastian Barth mysteries; the Pinky and Rex series; and the picture books
Horace and Morris But Mostly Dolores
and
Horace and Morris Join the Chorus (but what about Dolores?)
. He is also the author of several acclaimed novels for older readers, such as
The Misfits
,
Totally Joe
,
Addie on the Inside
, and
The Watcher
, and is the editor of the anthologies
The Color of Absence: 12 Stories About Loss and Hope
and
13: Thirteen Stories That Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen
. James Howe lives in New York State with his partner Mark Davis.
Jacket design by Russell Gordon
Jacket illustration copyright © 2007 by C. F. Payne
ATHENEUM
BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Simon and Schuster · New York
RETURN TO
Howliday Inn
Other Atheneum Books by James Howe
Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery
(with Deborah Howe)
Howliday Inn
The Celery Stalks at Midnight
Nighty-Nightmare
A Night without Stars
Morgan's Zoo
Teddy Bear's Scrapbook
(with Deborah Howe)
There's a Monster under My Bed
Pinky and Rex
Pinky and Rex Get Married
Pinky and Rex and the Mean Old Witch
Pinky and Rex and the Spelling Bee
Pinky and Rex Go to Camp
Sebastian Barth Mysteries
What Eric Knew
Stage Fright
Eat Your Poison, Dear
Dew Drop Dead
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Atheneum Books for Young Readers An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 1992 by James How
Illustrations copyright © 1992 by Alan Daniel
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part or in any form.
Manufactured in the United States of America
20Â Â 19Â Â 18Â Â 17Â Â 16Â Â 15Â Â 14Â Â 13Â Â 12Â Â 11
The text of this book is set in Garamond #3.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Howe, James, 1946-
                    Return to Howliday Inn / by James Howe.â1st ed.
                        p. cm.
              Summary: In this sequel to “Howliday Inn,” the Monroe family pets are again boarded at Chateau Bow-Wow, where some spooky goings-on serve as a distraction from the kennel's poor food.
                   ISBN-13 : 978-0-689-31661-6   (ISBN-10: 0-689-31661-5)
                   [1. DogsâFiction. 2. CatsâFiction. 3. AnimalsâFiction.
                   4. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title
                   PZ7.H83727Re         1992
[Fic]-dc20Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 91-29505
ISBN 978-0-6893-1661-6 (print)
ISBN 978-1-4424-5250-3 (eBook)
To Zoe
I
T was summer and I was getting ready for a three-day weekend at the shore. Looking around my office for something to read, I picked up a manuscript that had come in earlier that week from one of my authors:
Pickling for Profit and Pleasure.
It was clear a title change would be in order, but that aside it just didn't strike me as beach material. I debated between two other manuscriptsâa book by a country veterinarian called
Just a Little Hoarse and What to Do about It
and a seven-hundred-page first novel entitled
Ah, Life!
Thoroughly discouraged, I told myself I'd pick up a couple of Agatha Christie mysteries at the train station. But then there came a scratching at the door and my weekend reading dilemma was solved.
For there on the other side stood my old friend and valued author, Harold X., an enticing manila envelope gripped between his teeth. Gently, he laid it into my hands and before I could so much as ask if he'd join me for a bowl of cappuccino at the trendy little cafe that had just opened across the street, he was gone.
With eager anticipation, I opened the envelope and read the letter clipped to his manuscript.
My dear editor and friend,
Enclosed, please find my latest effort. As in the past, it is based on real events from my life and the lives of my family, the Monroes, and my friends, Chester and Howie. Bunnicula was staying with a neighbor at the time these particular
episodes occurred. He was fortunate to have been elsewhere, for this was a terrifying adventure indeed. As an old and tired dog, I could well do without such adventures. But as an author, how can I be anything but thankful for them? After all, I doubt your readers would be terribly interested in a mystery called
Why Is My Food Dish Empty?
And so, here is the story of my fateful return to the place Chester once dubbed “Howliday Inn.” As always, I look forward to your response to my work and, I hope, its eventual publication.
Yours sincerely,
Harold X.
I tucked Harold's manuscript between the sun block and bug spray in my tote bag. I was ready for my weekendâor so I thought.
If only Td packed a night-light.
I
T was the third straight day of rain. The third day of listening to Mr. Monroe whistle the score of
The Phantom of the Opera
through his teeth while indexing his collection of meatless soup recipes. The third day of Mrs. Monroe's saying, increasingly less cheerfully, “Channel Six says it's going to clear by morning.” The third day of Pete whining about what a rotten summer
it
had been and Toby asking When was
it
going to stop because how could he try his new skateboard? and Were they going to go on vacation even if it kept
raining? and Why couldn't they ever rent the movies
he
wanted at the video store?
Not that the Monroes were the only ones getting, shall we say, edgy. No, even we petsâwe who ordinarily exemplify a calm acceptance of fate to which humans can merely aspireâeven we were losing it. My first inkling of this came when I found Howie racing around the basement on his little dachshund legs going, “Vroom, vroom.”
“Uh, Howie, what are you doing?” I asked.
“It's the challenge of my career, Uncle Harold,” Howie panted excitedly. “I'm chasing hubcaps at the Indianapolis Five Hundred.”
I would have had a little reality chat with Howie then and there if I hadn't caught myself that very morning gazing into the mirror on Mrs. Monroe's closet door and wondering if the time hadn't come for me to try something different with my hair.