.

  .

  JUDY

  M

  O

  O

  DY

  AND

  FRIENDS

  .

  To my wife, Hoài

  E. M.

  For the helpful crew at California Carnivores

  M. M.

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, places,

  and incidents are either products

  of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2015 by Megan McDonald

  Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Peter H. Reynolds

  Judy Moody font copyright © 2003 by Peter H. Reynolds

  Judy Moody®. Judy Moody is a registered trademark of Candlewick Press, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted,

  or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means,

  graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording,

  without prior written permission from the publisher.

  First electronic edition 2015

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014955349

  ISBN 978-0-7636-7443-4 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-7636-7615-5 (paperback)

  ISBN 978-0-7636-8210-1 (electronic)

  This book was typeset in ITC Stone Informal.

  The illustrations were created digitally.

  Candlewick Press

  99 Dover Street

  Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

  visit us at www.candlewick.com

  CONTENTS

  CONTENTS

  CHA

  CHA

  p

  p

  TER

  TER

  1

  1

  CHA

  CHA

  p

  p

  TER

  TER

  2

  2

  CHA

  CHA

  p

  p

  TER

  TER

  3

  3

  Jaws in Love 7

  Mystic Mouse 23

  Toady and the Vampire 45

  .

  CHA

  CHA

  p

  p

  TER

  TER

  1

  1

  7

  Jaws in Love

  Jaws looked droopy. Jaws looked

  mopey. Jaws looked wilty. Jaws was

  Judy Moody’s Venus flytrap. Two of

  his leaves were turning black. One of

  his traps was turning dead.

  Judy Moody stuck her Grouchy

  pencil in one of his traps and . . .

  snap . . . trap . . . NOT! Jaws did not

  snap his trap. Not even when she tried

  an ant, a tiny cricket, or a roly-poly.

  .

  Stink’s jaw dropped when he saw

  Judy’s pet. “What’s wrong with Jaws?

  He looks like moldy old bread.”

  “He’s sick,” said Judy.

  “Ooh. Maybe he has the measles.”

  “I don’t get it,” said Judy. “I feed

  him earwigs from Dad’s garden. I

  take him outside in winter. I snip

  off his dead leaves when they turn

  black.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t like his new

  haircut,” said Stink.

  .

  10

  “I know,” said Judy. “Dr. Judy, Pet

  Vet, to the rescue!”

  Dr. Judy gave Jaws a bath — with

  rainwater.

  She sang him the

  Baby Bumble Bee song.

  She read

  to him from

  Charlotte’s Web.

  11

  “Don’t read him a sad book!” said

  Stink.

  “It’s his favorite,” said Judy. But

  Jaws looked as droopy as ever.

  Judy looked stuff up in her Big Head

  Book of Bug-Eating Plants. “It says here

  that there’s only one place in the

  world where Venus flytraps grow in

  nature.”

  “Where?”

  “A place called Cape Fear,” said

  Judy, “in North Carolina.”

  Stink shivered. The Moodys’ cat,

  Mouse, pulled her toy mouse in closer.

  “Maybe Jaws is homesick,” said Stink.

  “Maybe Jaws is just lonely,” Judy

  said.

  .

  12

  “Aha! Jaws needs a friend,” said Stink.

  He ran downstairs and came back

  carrying a fishbowl. A goldfish was

  floating on top of the sloshing water.

  Stink set the bowl down next to

  Jaws. “Jaws, meet your new friend,

  Goldilocks.”

  Judy peered into the bowl. “Stink.

  That’s no goldfish. That’s a cracker. A

  goldfish-shaped cracker.”

  “Jaws doesn’t know that,” whispered

  Stink.

  “He’d probably rather eat than meet

  his new friend,” Judy whispered back.

  Jaws did not perk up one bit.

  “It’s not working,” said Stink.

  “Making friends takes time,” said

  Judy.

  .

  14

  Judy and Stink gave it time.

  One day. Two days. Three days.

  Judy peered into the goldfish bowl.

  “Goldilocks looks puffy,” said Judy,

  “and pale.”

  “Let me see,” said Stink, pulling the

  fishbowl toward him. The cracker fell

  to pieces. “Argh! Jaws’s new friend

  just became five friends!” cried Stink.

  “Jaws looks worse,” said Judy.

  “You’d look bad, too, if your best

  friend just turned into Cream of

  Goldfish,” said Stink.

  “Let’s move Jaws over to the

  window,” said Judy. “I think he needs

  more light.”

  They set Jaws down on the window

  seat next to Mouse and a pile of

  papers and junk. “Move over, Mouse,”

  said Judy. “Make way for Jaws.”

  .

  16

  Mouse leaped to the floor, but a

  piece of paper got stuck to her paw.
r />   Junk mail! Mouse shook her paw,

  trying to get rid of it.

  “Mouse is trying to show us

  something,” said Stink.

  Judy unstuck the piece of junk mail

  from Mouse’s paw. On the flyer were

  pictures of a Venus flytrap, a pitcher

  plant, a sundew, and a cobra lily.

  Carnivore city!

  The flyer said GRAND

  OPENING!

  The

  flyer said that a store called Cape Fear

  Carnivores was opening right there in

  Frog Neck Lake!

  Judy kissed her cat on the nose.

  She, Dr. Judy Moody, knew just what

  to do to save Jaws.

  .

  18

  Judy and her dad took Jaws to Cape

  Fear Carnivores. Judy talked to the

  owner, Peter Tomato. Peter Tomato

  knew everything in the world about

  bug-eating plants.

  Peter Tomato helped Judy start her

  very own bog. First she picked out a

  pot that looked like a mini bathtub.

  Next she filled it with sand and peat

  moss. Then she planted Jaws in

  the bog next to a brand-new, way-

  tall, red-and-green North American

  pitcher plant.

  “Jaws,” said Judy, “meet Petunia,

  your new bug-eating buddy!”

  When Judy and Jaws and Petunia

  got home, Stink peered into one of the

  pitcher plant’s long tubes.

  .

  20

  “There’s water in there,” said Stink,

  “and a dead fly.”

  “That’s how a pitcher plant traps

  its food,” said Judy. “An insect smells

  nectar, lands on the mouth of the

  plant, and —

  zoom

  — falls right down

  into the tube.”

  “Cool,” said Stink.

  “Did you know some pitcher plants

  eat animal poop? They like shrew poo.”

  “Hardee-har-har,” said Stink. “You

  made that up.”

  “Did not!” said Judy. “Peter Tomato

  at Cape Fear Carnivores told me. Peter

  Tomato would not lie.”

  Judy sat back to admire her bog.

  Jaws did not look droopy or mopey or

  wilty. Jaws looked positively perky.

  21

  At last, Jaws had company. He

  curled a leaf around Petunia, the

  pitcher plant.

  “Look,” said Judy. “I think Jaws is

  in love!”

  “Love at first sight,” said Stink.

  “Love at first bite,” said Judy.

  .

  23

  Mystic Mouse

  CHA

  CHA

  p

  p

  TER

  TER

  2

  2

  Judy was reading to Mouse from her

  Big Head Book of Pets. She was reading

  all about parrots and potbellied pigs

  and pocket pets — pets that can fit in

  a pocket.

  Then she looked out the window.

  “Check it out, Mouse. Stink has a

  lemonade stand. And his lemonade

  stand has a big long line.”

  .

  Jingle-jangle. “I can already hear

  the jingle of all the quarters in Stink’s

  pockets.”

  All of a sudden, she, Judy Moody,

  had an idea. A pockets-full-of-

  quarters idea.

  25

  She set up a table down the sidewalk

  from Stink. She hung up a sign. She put

  out an empty jar. She hid her Big Head

  Book of Pets under the table, just in case.

  “Hey!” said Stink. “This is my corner.”

  “It’s a free country, Stink.”

  “Why is Mouse wearing a turban

  and sitting on your mood pillow like a

  queen?”

  .

  26

  Judy pointed to her sign.

  PET PSYCHIC

  :

  MOUSE

  THE MIND

  READER

  . “Mouse

  knows what other pets are thinking.

  She knew Jaws needed a friend,

  remember?”

  “What’s the jar for?”

  “The jar is for when all the quarters

  start to roll in. Twenty-five cents a

  reading.”

  P

  PE

  E

  E

  E

  E

  ET

  T

  T

  T

  T

  T

  P

  P

  P

  P

  PS

  S

  S

  S

  S

  SY

  Y

  Y

  Y

  Y

  YC

  C

  C

  CH

  H

  H

  H

  H

  H

  HI

  I

  I

  I

  I

  IC

  C

  C

  C

  C

  C

  C:

  :

  :

  M

  M

  M

  M

  M

  M

  Mo

  o

  o

  o

  ou

  u

  u

  u

  u

  us

  s

  s

  s

  se

  e

  e

  e

  e

  e

  e

  t

  t

  t

  t

  th

  h

  h

  h

  he

  e

  e

  M

  M

  M

  M

  M

  Mi

  i

  i

  i

  i

  in

  n

  n

  n

  n

  nd

  d

  d

  d

  d
br />
  d

  R

  R

  R

  R

  R

  Re

  e

  e

  ea

  a

  a

  a

  a

  ad

  d

  de

  e

  er

  r

  r

  27

  Stink went back to

  his table. “Ice-cold

  lemonade!” cried Stink.

  “Hand-stirred. Only

  twenty-five cents!”

  “Meet pet psychic

  Mouse Moody!”

  called Judy. “Got a

  pet problem? Mouse

  can solve it!”

  Kids gawked at Mouse on their way

  to get lemonade but didn’t stop. Judy

  put up more signs.

  FREE TUMMY RUBS!

  FREE HEAD SCRATCHES!

  .

  28

  Rocky was first in line. “Hi, Rock,”

  said Judy. “What’s your pet problem?”

  Rocky held out his pet iguana. “It’s

  Houdini. He turned a weird color. And

  his skin is peeling.”

  Judy ducked under the table to

  peek at her Big Head book in secret.

  She sprang back up and leaned over

  her cat. “Mouse the Mind Reader

  29

  has spoken. She says Houdini is just

  growing. That’s why he’s shedding his

  skin.” Judy scratched the back of the

  iguana’s head. “Give him a nice bath,

  mist him every morning, and he’ll

  feel better.”

  “Thanks!” said Rocky.

  “Twenty-five cents, please,” said

  Judy. Ka-ching!

  .

  Behind Rocky was Frank Pearl. His

  parrot, Cookie, sat on his shoulder.

  Judy gave Cookie a free tummy rub