Stink Moody in Master of Disaster (Judy Moody and Friends) Read online

  .

  .

  .

  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.

  Stink®. Stink 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 2013957338

  ISBN 978-0-7636-7218-8 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-7636-7447-2 (paperback)

  ISBN 978-0-7636-7905-7 (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

  For Heather McGee, Rachel Smith,

  Lisa Rudden, and Pam Consolazio

  M. M.

  For my brother, Edward, and

  sister-in-law, Vallejule

  E. M.

  CONTENTS

  CHA

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  TER

  1

  CHA

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  3

  The Sherlock-Holmes Comet 7

  Master of Disaster 29

  Albert Einstink 49

  CHA

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  2

  .

  CHA

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  1

  7

  Judy and Stink were sleeping out in

  the backyard. Judy and Stink were

  stargazing. Judy and Stink were

  searching the sky for comet P/2015

  OZ4. The Sherman-Holm comet. Stink

  called it the Sherlock-Holmes comet.

  The night sky looked like the Starry

  Night painting, only better. “No

  blinking, Stink,” Judy told him.

  The Sherlock-Holmes Comet

  .

  “A comet is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

  No way would you want to miss it.”

  Stink tried not to blink. But thinking

  about blinking just made him

  blinkier.

  “Sure is dark out here,” said Stink.

  “That’s because it’s nighttime,

  Stink.”

  “Sure is quiet out here,” said Stink.

  “That’s because it’s nighttime,

  Stink.”

  9

  .

  Judy pointed to a band of stars that

  looked like a giant brushstroke across

  the sky. “That’s the Milky Way,” said

  Judy.

  “Hey! There’s the Big Dipper. And

  the Little Dipper. And the Medium

  Dipper.”

  11

  “And there’s Wynken, Blynken, and

  Nod,” said Judy.

  “For real?” asked Stink.

  “Gotcha!” said Judy, laughing

  herself silly.

  It was dark for a long time. It was

  quiet for a long time.

  .

  “They should call this star-waiting,”

  said Stink.

  “Good things come to those who

  wait, Stink.”

  “Says who?”

  “Abe Lincoln. The ketchup bottle.

  Mom and Dad.”

  While he waited, Stink dumped out

  his backpack. “Star book. Star map.

  Star finder. Flashlight. Toilet-paper-

  tube telescope, and . . . my Star Talker

  DL7.”

  .

  14

  Stink pressed a button.

  “The full moon in March is called a

  Worm Moon.”

  Stink pressed the button again.

  “A star in Draco, the Dragon, was used

  by ancient Egyptians to build pyramids.”

  Stink pressed the button again.

  “The full moon in March is called a

  Worm Moon.”

  Stink pressed the button again.

  “The full moon in March is called a

  Worm Moon.”

  Judy put her hands over her ears.

  “Make that thing stop! All you need for

  stargazing is your eyes, Stink. And a

  little P and Q.”

  “P and Q?”

  “Peace and quiet.”

  .

  16

  Stink opened his Big Head Book of

  Stars. Stink held his star map up to the

  sky. He turned it this way and that.

  Judy watched the twinkling stars in

  the velvet sky and waited.

  Stink spun his star finder to August.

  Stink squinted one eye and

  looked through his toilet-paper-tube

  telescope.

  17

  and Draco on

  the map.

  Pegasus,

  Stink studied his star map. He found

  the Eagle,

  .

  18

  Judy studied the night sky. She

  found the Swan, the tail of Scorpius,

  and the Summer Triangle in the sky.

  Then she saw . . . a flash of light. A

  giant ball of fire streaked across the

  inky sky faster than a wink! Faster

  than a blink.

  Judy jumped up. “Stink? Did you . . .

  did you see that?”

  Stink looked up from his map. “See

  what?”

  19

  “The comet! I think

  Sherlock-Holmes just

  flew across the sky!”

  “I missed it?” Stink

  wailed. “Wait. What did it look like?”

  “Like a red-hot freaky fireball

  streaking across the sky. Like Fourth

  of July fireworks. Like five
thousand

  shooting stars.”

  “No way did you see a comet,” said

  Stink. “Comets are made of ice, not fire.

  They don’t streak across the sky. And a

  comet has a tail. Did it have a tail?”

  Judy shrugged.

  “It was probably just a shooting

  star or a meteor or a fireball or a

  supernova.”

  “Or a UFO!” Judy teased.

  .

  20

  “Whatever it was, maybe it’ll go by

  again!” Stink said hopefully.

  “It will,” said Judy. “In about a

  hundred years.”

  “A hundred years! I can’t wait till

  I’m a hundred and seven!”

  Judy got an idea. “Stink, I know

  how you can see a comet.” She

  crawled inside the T. P. Club tent.

  “Don’t come in until I say so.”

  Stink waited for what felt like a

  hundred and seven years. “Can I

  come in yet?”

  “Not yet.”

  Stink itched and scratched and

  waited. “Now?”

  “Not yet.”

  “How about now?”

  “No!”

  “Did you know the full moon in

  March is called a Worm Moon?” Stink

  asked.

  Silence.

  “There sure is a lot of peace and

  quiet out here,” said Stink.

  “You can come in now,” said Judy.

  .

  22

  Finally! Stink crawled into the tent.

  The inside was covered with stars —

  glow-in-the-dark star stickers.

  “Wow!” Stink gazed up at his own

  small sky. “There’s the Big Dipper!

  And the Little Dipper. Even the

  Medium Dipper!”

  Judy pointed to a three-star cluster.

  23

  “This is Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

  And that’s not all,” said Judy. She

  turned on not one but two flashlights.

  One made a fuzzy ball on the tent sky.

  She held the other flashlight at an

  angle to make a tail.

  “It’s a comet!” said Stink. “The

  Sherlock-Holmes comet!”

  .

  When Judy’s arms got tired, she

  turned off the flashlights and crawled

  inside her sleeping bag. “Show’s over.

  I’m going to bed.”

  “I didn’t get to see the real comet,”

  said Stink, “but I got the next best

  thing. My own private galaxy.

  Thanks, Judy.”

  “Mm-hmm,” said a sleepy Judy.

  Stink opened the tent flap to peek

  at the real sky one last time. The stars

  twinkled like glitter. All of a sudden, a

  star streaked across the sky.

  .

  26

  “A shooting star!” said Stink. “I saw

  one! For real!”

  “Make a wish,” mumbled Judy.

  Stink closed his eyes and made a

  wish.

  That night, Stink and Judy went to

  the Land of Nod under the winking,

  blinking stars. If Stink’s wish came

  true, they would be doing the exact

  same thing in another hundred years.

  .

  29

  CHA

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  2

  Stink raced home from Saturday

  Science Club. “The sky is falling! The

  sky is falling!”

  Judy looked up from her ant

  habitat. “Slow down, Chicken Little,”

  said Judy. “What are you saying?”

  “The asteroids are coming! The

  asteroids are coming! I just found

  out that a giant meteorite landed in

  Master of Disaster

  .

  Russia. No lie. And an even bigger one

  might be headed for Earth.”

  “Don’t worry, Stink. Dad says tons

  of space junk hits Earth every day.”

  “Don’t worry? Tell that to the

  dinosaurs. There could be a rock

  out there with your name on it. It

  could be speeding toward Earth right

  now, going sixty miles per second.

  Disasteroid!”

  Judy watched an ant dig a tunnel.

  .

  32

  “Ooh, I could be a yellow crazy

  ant,” said Judy. “And you could be

  an odorous ant. Odorous ants smell

  like rotting coconuts when you squish

  them.”

  “How can you think about ants at

  a time like this?” Stink cried. “Any

  minute you could be squashed like a

  pancake. Or squished right down to

  the size of . . . an ant!”

  33

  “Get serious,” said Stink.

  “Stink, if an asteroid hits Earth —”

  “You said if. But it’s not if, Judy. It’s when

  .”

  “What can I do about it?” asked Judy.

  “You can build a net the size of Virginia

  to catch the asteroid. You can invent an

  anti-asteroid Blast-o-Matic machine to

  destroy it before it reaches us. Blasteroid!”

  “That sounds too much like homework,”

  said Judy.

  “I’m going to make an asteroid-proof

  bunker in the basement.”

  “You hate the basement,” said Judy.

  “Dark. Scary. Spiders.”

  “I’d rather be bitten by ten hundred

  spiders than squished to the size of a

  coconut ant by a killer asteroid.”

  .

  Stink put on his bike helmet, water

  wings, and knee pads. He made

  himself an aluminum-foil cape.

  Asteroid Boy! Asteroid Boy would

  protect Earth from killer asteroids!

  Stink carried a blanket, a flashlight,

  and a light saber down to the

  basement. He carried Toady the

  toad and Astro the guinea pig to the

  basement. He carried half his room

  to the basement. He even took the

  toaster to the basement.

  .

  36

  “Mom! Dad!” called Judy. “Stink

  just moved into the basement.”

  “He hates the basement,” said

  Mom.

  “That’s what I said,” said Judy.

  “Why the basement?” asked Dad.

  “To hide from killer asteroids,” said

  Judy. “They’re speeding toward
Earth

  this very second.”

  “Tons of space junk hits Earth every

  day,” said Dad.

  “That’s what I said you said,” said

  Judy.

  “He’ll change his mind at the first

  sign of a spider,” said Mom.

  “He’ll change his mind as soon as it

  gets dark,” said Dad.

  .

  Judy and Mouse the cat tiptoed

  down the stairs to the stinky

  basement. Stink had built a fort out of

  boxes and boards, chairs and crates.

  “Like my bunker?” Stink asked.

  Before Judy could answer, a loud

  roaring sound came from outside.

  “Did you hear that? A sonic boom!”

  “Lawn mower,” said Judy.

  Next they heard a whooshing

  sound.

  .

  40

  “Did you hear that?” said Stink. “A

  space storm!”

  “Washing machine,” said Judy.

  Stink heard a crash like breaking

  glass.

  “It’s here!” Stink cried. “The asteroid

  has landed!”

  “That was Dad. Doing dishes

  again,” said Judy.

  “Do you feel hot?”

  Stink asked. “I feel

  hot.” He peered