Sniff a Skunk! Read online

  OTHER CHAPTER BOOKS BY MARY AMATO

  GOOD CROOKS BOOK ONE

  Missing Monkey!

  GOOD CROOKS BOOK TWO

  Dog Gone!

  THE RIOT BROTHERS

  Snarf Attack, Underfoodle, and the Secret of Life:

  The Riot Brothers Tell All

  Drooling and Dangerous:

  The Riot Brothers Return!

  Stinky and Successful:

  The Riot Brothers Never Stop!

  Take the Mummy and Run:

  The Riot Brothers Are on a Roll!

  EGMONT

  We bring stories life

  First published by Egmont Publishing, 2015

  443 Park Avenue South, Suite 806

  New York, NY 10016

  Text copyright © Mary Amato, 2015

  Illustrations copyright © Ward Jenkins, 2015

  All rights reserved

  www.egmontusa.com

  www.maryamato.com

  www.wardjenkins.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Amato, Mary.

  Sniff a skunk! / Mary Amato ; illustrated by Ward Jenkins.

  1 online resource. – (Good Crooks ; book 3)

  Summary: Unlike their thieving parents, ten-year-old twins

  Billy and Jillian Crook like to do good deeds, including

  rescuing a baby skunk. Features activities.

  Description based on print version record and

  CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

  ISBN 978-1-60684-600-1 (ebook)

  ISBN 978-1-60684-598-1 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-60684-599-8 (paperback)

  [1. Conduct of life–Fiction. 2. Robbers and outlaws–Fiction.

  3. Brothers and sisters–Fiction. 4. Twins–Fiction.

  5. Skunks–Fiction.] I. Jenkins, Ward, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.A49165

  [Fic]–dc23 2014044362

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

  v3.1

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  1 Every Bootie Needs a Boost

  2 Yikes! Stripes!

  3 Knock, Knock!

  4 Goo, Goo, Goop!

  5 Bad Doctors

  6 The Skunk and the Punk

  7 Stinky Style

  8 Ready … Aim … Psssssst!

  9 Sneaking Out

  10 Faster than a Speeding Wheelchair

  11 Bear Hugs!

  12 Zoom!

  13 The Grand Finale

  Secret Extras

  Every Bootie Needs a Boost

  Tap! Tap! Tap!

  I was asleep when I felt a tap on my head.

  Then I smelled it. A horrible, stinky smell. Was a pig trying to kiss me? Did a fish fly through the window and die on my pillow? Did I forget to floss again?

  “Billy!”

  I opened my eyes.

  My twin sister Jillian’s face was close to mine. Her stinky morning breath was coming at me.

  She leaned closer. “What do you want to do today?”

  “I’m still sleeping.” I pushed her away. “Please go say hello to your toothbrush.”

  She pulled me out of bed. I landed on the floor with a thump.

  “What do you really, really, really want to do today?” she asked. She was serious.

  There was no use going back to sleep. I got up and looked out the window. Sunlight was streaming through the trees. Birds were chirping. The day was opening its eyes and smiling like a big cute baby.

  What did I really want to do today? The answer bubbled up from the bottom of my soul. I knew what I wanted to do. It was a mad, crazy thing.

  “Go ahead, Billy,” Jillian whispered. “Say it.”

  I spread my arms wide and said: “I want to do a good deed!”

  “Shh!” she whispered. “Don’t say it so loud! What if Mom and Dad hear you?”

  Our parents are Ron and Tanya Crook. Yep, the famous robbers. They want us to steal, lie, and cheat like them.

  “Mom wants us to find them a new store to rob,” I said.

  “I know,” Jillian said. “I don’t want to be a crook. I want to do good deeds, too.”

  “We’re not like Mom and Dad at all,” I said.

  Jillian nodded. “Do you think they’re our real parents?”

  “They steal a lot of stuff,” I said. “Maybe they stole us.”

  “Maybe they stole us from our real parents at the hospital when we were just born,” Jillian said.

  I looked at myself in the mirror. “I was such a cute baby, everybody probably wanted to steal me.”

  Jillian laughed. “Let’s go to the hospital and search for clues. Mom and Dad said we were born there. Maybe we can find out if we were stolen.”

  I gave her a thumbs-up.

  “Hey, I got us new disguises,” she said.

  Crooks always have to wear disguises when we leave the house. We have lots of costumes, wigs, masks, and even fake rear ends. Why fake rear ends? So nobody recognizes us from behind!

  “Tada!” Jillian said, and showed me our new outfits.

  PeeWee Patrol Club uniforms!

  We put them on.

  “I always wanted to be in the PeeWee Patrol Club!” I said. “PeeWees do good deeds, like help kids cross the street safely and visit sick people.”

  “I know! Come on. We need to get to the hospital and back before Mom and Dad wake up.”

  “Wait!” I grabbed one of my fake rear ends. It was called the Bootie Booster. I stuffed the Bootie Booster down the back of my pants. “Now I’m ready for action.”

  Jillian giggled.

  We tiptoed into the hallway.

  Urrr. The floor creaked.

  “Ssh! Be quiet,” Jillian whispered.

  Tip … tip … tip. We tiptoed past our parents’ bedroom door.

  Snore … snore … snore. Dad was snoring away.

  Tip … tip … urrr! Another creaky step.

  Uh-oh! The snoring stopped. We froze.

  A few seconds later: Snore … snore … snore.

  Whew.

  Jillian gave me a thumbs-up. Carefully we tiptoed down the stairs. We were going to make it!

  By the door, there was a mirror. I stopped to look at myself. My PeeWee Patrol uniform was awesome. And what a cutie bootie!

  I started dancing. I know all the moves.

  “Come on, Billy,” Jillian whispered.

  “I’m doing it PeeWee style.” I hopped around in a circle, shaking my bootie. “Check out how good I loo—”

  My arm knocked against a vase. The vase went flying—it was going to crash into a million pieces. I dove for it. “Whoa!” I caught it in midair! Then I fell right on my bootie.

  Thump!

  Our parents came flying down the stairs.

  I put the vase back.

  “What are you two doing up so early?” Mom asked.

  “And why are you dressed like that?” Dad added.

  I looked at Jillian. Jillian looked at me.

  “We … we …,” Jillian stammered.

  “I know what you’re doing,” Mom said.

  “You do?” I gulped.

  “You’re going to find us a new store to rob!” She smiled at Dad. “We have great kids, don’t we, Ron?”

  “We do!” Dad gave us each a pat on the back. “Okay, kids, have fun! We’re going back to sleep.”

  Our parents went back up the stairs. Jillian and I slipped out the door.

  “T
hat was close,” Jillian said. “Come on!”

  I stopped.

  “What are you doing now?” she asked.

  “I’m having a moment of thanks.”

  “For what?”

  “For the Bootie Booster.” I patted my fake rear end. “Thanks for the safe landing, Bootie. You’re the best.”

  Yikes! Stripes!

  We walked on our secret mission to the hospital. It was early. The street was quiet. Then …

  Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.

  Jillian and I stopped.

  “Shh,” Jillian whispered. “Did you hear something?”

  Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.

  I heard something. I just didn’t know what it was.

  “Footsteps?” I wondered.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I hope Mom and Dad aren’t following us.”

  “Me, too,” I whispered back.

  We both turned around to look. The sidewalk was empty, but somebody could have been hiding behind a tree.

  We had to be very careful. We kept walking.

  Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.

  It didn’t sound like footsteps. It sounded like something was dropping onto the ground.

  After a moment, we heard something else: “Oooch. Oooch. Oooch.” A sad sound.

  “Is that a dog crying?” my sister whispered.

  “We have to check it out,” I said.

  We followed the noise and peeked around a big tree. On a patch of grass, a small animal was crouched. She was a little ball of black fur. Both of her paws were covering her eyes.

  Nuts lay on the ground all around her. Acorns.

  Plunk!

  An acorn hit the little animal on her head.

  “Oooch!” she whimpered.

  “Check out the stripe on her back! She’s a skunk!” Jillian said.

  We stepped back.

  The skunk whimpered and covered her head with her paws.

  Plunk! Another acorn flew down and hit her back.

  “Oooch.” The skunk’s legs were shaking.

  We looked up. A squirrel was sitting on a branch in a tree.

  “Hee-hee-hee.” The squirrel laughed. He had a pile of nuts in his hands, ready to throw.

  Jillian took another step back.

  “Skunks use their stinky spray to defend themselves,” Jillian said. “That skunk is going to spray.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t know how,” I said. “She looks like a baby.”

  “Hee-hee-hee.” The squirrel threw another nut.

  “Stop that,” I said to the squirrel.

  “Hee-hee-hee,” he laughed.

  “Come on,” Jillian said. “I’m sure that skunk is going to spray. If we smell like skunk, they won’t let us in the hospital.”

  We kept walking. Then I heard a sound.

  Tip, tip, tip …

  I turned around. The skunk was following us. She looked at me with her big black eyes.

  “Stinkball wants us to protect her,” I said.

  “Stinkball?” Jillian turned around. “Oh, hi, Stinkball. You can’t come with us. They won’t let us come into the hospital with you.” She pointed her finger at Stinkball. “Stay!”

  Stinkball looked at me.

  “You’ve got to find your family, Stinkball,” I said. “I’m very cute, but I ain’t your daddy.”

  We walked a few steps.

  “Hee-hee-hee.”

  The squirrel threw another nut.

  I got mad. “We can’t let that squirrel bully poor Stinkball,” I said.

  “You’re right,” Jillian said. “We need to help.” She looked up at the squirrel. “I am using a firm but friendly voice. Go away.”

  The squirrel threw another nut.

  “Ooch, ooch.” Poor Stinkball was scared.

  “The problem is the squirrel isn’t scared of us,” Jillian said. “He sees humans all the time. He’s used to us.”

  That gave me an idea. I crouched down and took a deep breath.

  “What are you doing?” Jillian asked.

  “Shh! I’m getting into character.”

  I started pounding the ground with my fists. My face turned red.

  Jillian and Stinkball backed away.

  I growled. Then I jumped up and roared. I bellowed. I flexed my muscles and hopped from foot to foot like a mad, crazy baboon.

  The squirrel’s jaw dropped. He let go of all the nuts he was holding. Zoom! He was off, hopping from branch to branch until he was out of sight.

  Stinkball peered out from behind a tree.

  “That nut-chunking punk is gone now,” I said. “It’s okay.”

  Stinkball wiggled her rear end happily.

  “I’m glad you found a way to scare that squirrel,” Jillian said. “I don’t think he’s coming back! You did a good deed for Stinkball.”

  A warm, wonderful feeling filled me from the tip of my toes to the tip of my nose. “It feels good to do good,” I said to my sister.

  Jillian nodded. “I know! We can’t be Crooks. Come on, let’s find out if we were stolen from the hospital.”

  I pointed to a bush. “See, Stinkball? You can hide in there.” Stinkball scampered under the bush.

  “Come on, Billy.”

  “Bye, Stinkball!” I waved.

  In the shadows of the bush, I could see a tiny smile.

  Knock, Knock!

  We walked into the hospital. Mmmmn … a delicious smell drifted into my nostrils. It was coming from the gift shop. Chocolate … bubble gum …

  “Let’s stop and get some candy,” I said. I pulled Jillian in. The store was filled with teddy bears, flowers, balloons, cookies, and candy.

  “They’re only missing one thing,” I said.

  “Let me guess,” she said. “Bacon?”

  I fist-bumped her. Anybody who knows me, Billy Crook, knows I loves me my bacon.

  She tried to pull me out of the shop. “We don’t have time! Come on.”

  I pulled one way. She pulled the other. She won. That girl could win a tug-of-war with a crocodile.

  She marched us to the hospital’s information desk.

  “Hello, PeeWees,” the woman at the desk said. “We love how the PeeWees come on Saturdays to help out.”

  “Hello,” Jillian said. “We’re doing a project on hospital safety. We were wondering if any babies were ever stolen from this hospital.”

  “Oh, dear!” the woman said. “I hope not, but I don’t know. Ask one of the nurses who works in the nursery. That’s on the third floor.”

  “Thank you,” we both said. We walked back toward the elevator. We were excited.

  A man holding balloons and a teddy bear ran out of the gift shop. “There you are, PeeWees! Thank goodness you’re here! I’m Mr. Packard. I work here in the gift shop. Please take these to room 215.” He handed me the bear and Jillian the balloons. “When you’re done, come down to the shop. We have a lot of gifts to deliver today.”

  “Let’s do this good deed first,” Jillian whispered to me. “Then we’ll go up to the nursery and search for clues.”

  I nodded. “Wait, Mr. Packard. I have a question.”

  “Yes?”

  “You’ve got teddy bears. Why not teddy skunks?”

  Mr. Packard laughed. He thought I was joking!

  We found room 215 on the second floor and walked in. An old man was lying in bed looking out the window. He was alone and looked sick and sad.

  “We need to help him get his cheer on,” Jillian whispered to me.

  “No problemo,” I told Jillian. Then I called out to the man, “Happy birthday!”

  He turned to look at us. “It’s not my birthday,” he said.

  “Well, it should be!” I marched over to his bed with the bear. Jillian came with the balloons. A little card was taped to the balloons. It said:

  Get well, Mr. Henry.

  From Jenny and Frank.

  We could do better than that.

  “These come with a free song!” I said.

  “They d
o?” Mr. Henry asked.

  “They do?” Jillian asked.

  “Yep. Jillian, get a beat going for me with your feet.” I turned to Mr. Henry. “My sister makes loud beats because she has very big feets.”

  He smiled.

  Jillian started stomping a beat.

  It was working already.

  I started stomping, too. I was getting my groove on.

  “Stuck in a room? Feeling down?

  All you got to wear is a hospital gown?

  Let us in now. We’ll be your medicine now.

  We’ll turn that frown right upside down.

  You’re gonna get well, we can tell, let’s yell!

  Shake it up, shake it down. Shake it, baby, to this sound.

  Shake it up, shake it down. Shake your feet right off the ground.

  Shake it up, shake it down. Shake it all around the town.”

  Mr. Henry sat up and clapped.

  “Happy birthday, even though it’s not your birthday,” Jillian added.

  “That just made my day!” he said. “Do it again.” He got out of bed and took the balloons from us and danced around as we sang the song.

  The nurse walked in with a lunch tray.

  “Food!” Mr. Henry said. “Bring it on!”

  “Wow! Mr. Henry hasn’t eaten in two days,” the nurse said. “This is great.”

  “It’s my birthday. It’s my birthday.” Mr. Henry pumped his hands in the air.

  “It is?” the nurse asked.

  “No, but it should be!” Mr. Henry said, and took the sandwich off the tray.

  We promised to visit again and walked out.

  “Doing good deeds is like eating a great bacon burger,” I said.

  “What do you mean?” Jillian asked.

  “You want to keep doing more.”

  “I know! Let’s deliver one more gift,” Jillian said. “Then we’ll go to the nursery.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Wait.” I stopped and looked at Jillian’s feet.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’m having a moment of thanks.”

  “For what?”

  I smiled. “I can always count on your great big feet for giving me a great big beat. Thanks!”