Long Time, No Sea Monster Read online

  “But plants are boring,” Emma blurts out.

  Ms. Frogbottom shoots her a look.

  “No offense,” Emma says.

  “None taken,” our teacher replies. “But I disagree.”

  “Having a Venus flytrap in the classroom is going to be interesting,” Sofia insists.

  “How?” I wonder. “You can’t pet it or play with it.”

  “You can feed it,” Sofia explains.

  “You mean water it,” Aiden corrects her.

  Sofia shakes her head. “Venus flytraps are carnivorous. Which means—”

  “They eat meat,” Tony finishes her sentence. “Like carnivorous dinosaurs.”

  “You can take turns feeding Veronica,” Ms. Frogbottom tells us.

  “What does she eat?” Olivia asks.

  “Mostly bugs.” Sofia has already looked up Venus flytraps on her tablet. “Crickets, ants, grasshoppers, and beetles.”

  Hmmm… that is kind of cool, actually.

  “Imagine the experiments we can do,” Sofia continues. “We can see if Veronica responds to music. Scientists believe plants react to classical—”

  “That’s it!” I shout, interrupting the class brain.

  “What’s it?” Olivia asks me.

  “Our front-page news story. It will be about Veronica, the meat-eating plant. No other class at Left Turn Alleyway Elementary has a pet like her.”

  “Can I write the article?” Sofia asks me.

  “Definitely!” I tell her. “And be sure to take pictures of Veronica eating.” I turn to my teacher. “It’s okay to take pictures in the classroom, right?”

  Ms. Frogbottom smiles and nods.

  “Great!” I exclaim.

  Sofia isn’t the only person excited about Veronica now. I’m pretty psyched too. This is going to be a great story. It might even help us win that contest.

  But if it doesn’t, the article will teach our readers something they didn’t know before, which is exactly what newspapers are supposed to do.

  * * *

  “How was school today?” our babysitter, Jessie, asks Olivia and me as we walk home later that afternoon.

  “We got a lot of work done on our class newspaper,” I tell Jessie.

  “And we went on another field trip,” Olivia adds.

  “Yeah,” I say. “I guess you could say it was just a regular day in class 4A.”

  WORDS YOU HEAR ON A FIELD TRIP TO SCOTLAND

  bagpipes: A musical instrument that is made of a tube, a bag for air, and pipes from which the sound comes

  blood pudding: A sausage made of pork blood, pork fat or beef fat, and oatmeal, oat groats, or barley groats; also called “blood sausage”

  carnivore: An animal that primarily eats other animals

  clan: A group of closely related families, often from the Scottish Highlands

  herbivore: An animal that eats only plants

  kilt: A knee-length pleated skirt-like garment with a plaid pattern, traditionally worn by men but now worn by girls and women as well

  loch: The Scottish Gaelic word for a lake

  loom: A frame or machine used for weaving thread or yarn to make cloth

  rumbledethumps: A traditional side dish from the Scottish borders; it usually includes potatoes and cabbage

  scone: A small biscuit-like cake made with flour, fat, milk, sweetener, and sometimes added fruit

  tartan: A plaid pattern made of stripes of different widths and colors; Scottish clans have their own tartan patterns

  More from this Series

  Fangs for Having Us!

  Book 3

  Get a Hold of Your Elf!

  Book 4

  I Want My Mummy!

  Book 1

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  NANCY KRULIK is the author of more than 250 books for children and young adults, including three New York Times bestsellers. She is the author of several successful chapter book series and has sold nearly 10 million books worldwide. The popularity of her many series led the founders of the Morristown Festival of Books to declare that Nancy Krulik must reign as the queen of early chapter books. Nancy lives in Manhattan with her husband, composer Daniel Burwasser.

  Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids

  www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Nancy-Krulik

  Also in the

  MS. FROGBOTTOM’S FIELD TRIPS series

  Book 1: I Want My Mummy!

  COMING SOON:

  Book 3: Fangs for Having Us!

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin paperback edition April 2021

  Text copyright © 2021 by Nancy Krulik

  Illustrations copyright © 2021 by Harry Briggs

  Also available in an Aladdin hardcover edition.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  ALADDIN and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Cover designed by Karin Paprocki

  Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia

  The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2020936865

  ISBN 9781534454002 (hc)

  ISBN 9781534453999 (pbk)

  ISBN 9781534454019 (ebook)