Louise Trapeze Can SO Save the Day Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2016 by Micol Ostow

  Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2016 by Brigette Barrager

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Ostow, Micol, author. | Barrager, Brigette, illustrator.

  Title: Louise Trapeze can SO save the day / Micol Ostow ; illustrations by Brigette Barrager.

  Description: First Edition. | New York : Random House, 2016. | “A Stepping Stone book”

  Summary: The Sweet Potato Circus is in trouble, and Louise and her best friend, Stella, will do anything to save their circus—even if it means joining forces with their sworn enemy, Ferret-breath Fernando.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015035853 | ISBN 978-0-553-49750-2 (pbk.) | ISBN 978-0-553-49747-2 (hardback) | ISBN 978-0-553-49749-6 (ebook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Circus—Fiction. | Humorous stories. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Performing Arts / Circus. | JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Readers / Chapter Books.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.O8475 Lj 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  Ebook ISBN 9780553497496

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

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  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  1. Cotton Candy Crazy!

  2. Whispery Things

  3. An Emergency Problem!

  4. Being Not-Believed

  5. Stormy Brains

  6. Last but Not Least

  7. Funny Money

  8. Three Heads Are Best

  9. Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Uh-Oh!

  10. Superhero Strong!

  11. The Most Superb-est Plan

  12. The Whole Entire Truth

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  “O lé!” Ringmaster Riley boomed from the back of the circus ring.

  “Olé!” the crowd shouted back, clapping their hands like wildness.

  (Olé is Spanish for hooray for Louise!)

  Oona the Juggling Chicken and I had just finished our newest routine: the Tightwire Tango. We did a whole tightwire walk with amazing fancy jumps set to special Spanish tango music! Can you even?

  Our performance was superb. We even leaped from the tightwire onto Clementine the Elephant’s back! Then Clem waved her trunk at the crowd. The audience stomped their feet so hard I thought they would stomp right through the ground!

  (Crowds love when Clementine waves.)

  Bright, circusy music started up. I waved, and Oona flapped her wing. Tolstoy the Clown led us out of the ring and through the Big Top doorway.

  “We did it!” I shouted once we were outside.

  “You sure did!” Tolstoy said. His big red clown-makeup mouth was turned up in a giant smile. He lifted me (and Oona) down to the ground.

  “Great job, guys,” Stella said. She was waiting for me right outside the tent.

  Stella Dee Saxophone is my BFF best friend. She and her parents, Max Saxophone and Ms. Minnie Dee, are actually Clementine’s trainers. They perform with Clem every night. But sometimes they let me do unique tricks with her for special occasions! Like tonight!

  “I’ll take Clem to Max and Minnie for some water,” Tolstoy said. “Can you guys take Oona back to Chuck Cluck?”

  “Of course!” Stella and I said together.

  Chuck Cluck was in our “backstage” tent. Stella and I started to walk over there. But the closer we got to the tent, the flappier Oona went with her wings.

  And then! Completely from nowhere! Out leaped a giant jumping whirl of a person—and a whiskery ferret.

  Ferret-breath Fernando! Fernando was Ringmaster Riley’s son and my big-time enemy. Of course he was the one jumping out at Stella and me. He is such a gooberhead.

  “Ack!” I shouted. “Fernando! Why are you sneaking up on Stella and me?” For once, he wasn’t wearing his stilts, so I could stare right into his beady, gooberish eyes.

  Fernando snickered. “Scared you, didn’t I?” he asked.

  Fernando likes to tease me because I am only ninety-eight percent fearless. Ninety-eight is a lot of percents! But it’s not all of them. (One hundred is all of them.) He thinks he is braver than Stella and me because he is nine whole years old, and Stella and I are still only seven. Pfft.

  “You startled me,” I said. Startled is not exactly the same as being scared—more like a scaredish surprise.

  Fernando rolled his eyes. “Fine. I startled you.” He laughed again. Then he lowered his voice to a whisper. “But do you want to see something for-real scary?”

  Stella’s eyes went wide-wide-wide. She didn’t look too sure. “Maybe,” she said. (Stella is not one hundred percent fearless, either!)

  “Look,” Fernando said. He pointed past the backstage tent. “Over there. My dad is arguing with Ethel Teitelbaum!”

  I gasped. Arguing means people are having a problem! That was for-real scary. We Sweet Potatoes do not argue very much, thank goodness gracious.

  Stella and I looked where Fernando was pointing. Right away, I could see Ethel Teitelbaum, our Refreshments Queen, looking upset. Next to her was her big, shiny cotton candy machine.

  And that machine was the reason she was upset!

  The cotton candy machine was going totally berserker! Huge, puffy clouds of pink and blue cotton candy were exploding everywhere, covering the machine. There were giant globs of Easter-egg-colored cotton candy on the ground! And behind Ethel, I could see some audience members with sticky, cotton-candy-crazy chins and cheeks. One little girl even had a huge swirl of cotton candy on her head like a bird’s nest!

  It looked very delicious, to be one hundred percent honest. But also, it definitely looked like a problem!

  “What happened?” Stella asked.

  “Dad is upset about the broken cotton candy machine,” Fernando explained. “Some of the audience members are angry because they got covered in cotton candy when it exploded. And some are complaining because they couldn’t have cotton candy after Ethel had to shut the machine down!”

  “Yikes!” I said. Oona gave a worried-ish cluck from my shoulder. Complaining was not good at all! We wanted to keep our circus audience one hundred percent happy, one hundred percent of the time!

  “Yikes is right,” Fernando agreed. “Too many complaints could be bad news for the Sweet Potatoes. We might even have to close the show!”

  Stella’s eyes went watery. “Fernando, we don’t believe you!” she said. “You’re just overreacting.”*

  “Believe what you want,” Fernando said. “You’ll see.”

  “Ugh, don’t listen to him, Stella,” I said. “What-ever happened with the cotton candy machine, it was definitely an accident. I’m sure it’s not a for-serious argument.” I said it in my loude
st voice, to help make myself believe it.

  Still, though…it was an awful lot of cotton candy puffing and spilling all over the place! The bird’s-nest girl was pulling chunks of cotton candy off her head and gulping it down.

  “You’re probably right,” Stella said hopefully.

  “Why don’t you go catch up to your parents and Clem?” I said. “I’ll take Oona back to Chuck Cluck. It’s almost time for the finale.”

  Stella agreed, and we both walked off. (We gave Fernando stinky looks before we walked away.)

  It didn’t take long to get to Chuck Cluck. But right at the very outside of the backstage tent, I heard grown-up voices.

  The voices were whispery.

  And those whispery voices sounded worried!

  Uh-oh! I had to listen in and find out why….

  I stopped right outside the backstage tent. I wanted to hear the grown-up whispering! But I couldn’t understand anything from so far away.

  I turned to Oona. “Do you hear that?”

  She nodded.

  “What do you think it is?” I asked.

  She did a chickeny kind of shrug at me like she had no worldwide idea.

  Quiet as mice, Oona and I peeked our heads through the tent flap. There was Chuck Cluck. Loona and Maude were with him, in a small wire cage. Next to Chuck was Cady the Bearded Lady. I couldn’t see their faces, but they were standing in a very serious-business way. Their voices were still low and whispery. That meant they had an important grown-up secret.

  I craned* my neck so my head was stretched as far out and close to them as it could go.

  Finally, I could hear the littlest bit of grown-up talking.

  And it did not sound good.

  Tiny pieces of words floated at me. I tried to understand them as best I could. It sounded like Cady was talking. All I could hear were “audience” and “sales DOWN.”

  Uh-oh. This was definitely not good. DOWN meant we were selling fewer tickets than usual! Maybe not enough tickets at all.

  Was this all because of the cotton candy craziness? Was Fernando right? If people were complaining and sales were down, would we have to close the whole entire circus?

  More words floated by. “Save…performance.”

  Save the performance?

  I was trying hard to be sneaky, but I couldn’t help it: I let out a big-time gasp.

  Right away, Chuck Cluck and Cady turned around. Chuck smiled extra big, like he was super happy to see me. But I knew better! I’d heard all those whispery words, after all.

  “Louise!” he cried. “How was the new act?”

  Well, if Chuck was pretending to be happy and regular, then I would pretend, too. I made my face extra smile-ish, just like his.

  “Superb!” I said. “Oona stayed perfectly balanced, and we did a jumping spin right onto Clementine’s back. It was amazing.”

  (It’s not braggy to call something amazing if it’s the truth.)

  “I’m sure it was!” he said. He still sounded the cheeriest.

  But I had heard the whispering with my very own ears! And I saw Ethel Teitelbaum and Ringmaster Riley having an argument, too. And that berserker cotton candy machine. So I knew there was a problem. No matter how much Chuck and Cady smiled at me.

  “Thanks for taking such good care of Oona,” Chuck said. “I know she felt special being part of your show.”

  “She’s the specialest!” I agreed.

  It was the truth. Everyone in our circus troupe was super-extremely special! So if there was a problem?

  I, Louise Trapeze, would have to solve it!

  Mama and Daddy will definitely know the whole story, I thought. I would find them and ask!

  I said goodbye to Chuck, Cady, and the chickens and went back to the Big Top tent. Right outside, Tolstoy the Clown was juggling away.

  But I didn’t know why he was juggling. The show was almost over, after all. Maybe he just wanted some extra practice? Except, right now he was juggling very quickly! Much more quickly than normal times. Those juggling balls were whirling around and around! Tolstoy looked like he was performing his act in real-life fast-forward! It was the strangest.

  Tolstoy did a quick hello nod. I was still confused, but I just nodded back. I was in an extra hurry, too—I needed to talk to Mama and Daddy right away, before we all had to go out for our big finale!

  I found them both a little bit closer to the Big Top tent flap, doing their stretches for their curtain call.*

  “Great job tonight, Lou!” Mama called when she saw me. Her leg was pulled all the way straight up against her so she looked like the letter I.

  (Mama is super bendy!)

  “Thanks!” I said. “But we need to talk!” I did a serious face. “I think there is a Sweet Potato Emergency Problem!”

  “Really?” Mama lowered her leg back onto the ground so we were both standing like regular people again. She crouched down next to me. “What is it?”

  Now I was the one with a whispery voice. “First, Ringmaster Riley was arguing with Ethel Teitelbaum about the broken cotton candy machine. And then! I heard Chuck Cluck talking to Cady the Bearded Lady. He said ticket sales are down.”

  Mama looked at me. Her eyebrows were pointy like she was maybe not-believing me.

  I tapped my foot in an impatient way. “And down is the opposite of up.”

  Mama smiled. “That’s true.”

  “This is not a time for smiling!” I said. My voice was a little bit shouty. “If we don’t sell enough tickets, the Sweet Potato Circus might have to close! And then what?”

  It was time to tell Mama everything I’d heard. “Cady said we need to save the circus! I heard it with my own two ears. And you only save things that are in trouble!”

  Mama leaned close-close-close to me and wrapped me in a hug. “I can see why you’re upset,” she said. “It would be sad if the circus had to close.”

  “It would be the saddest ever!” I agreed.

  “But that’s not going to happen,” Mama said. “You must have heard wrong. If the circus needed saving, don’t you think Daddy and I would know about it?”

  I shrugged. Mama had a point, but I was still worried!

  “But Cady said—” I started.

  Mama interrupted me. (Interrupting is mostly rude, but sometimes adults are allowed to do it when they think children are getting carried away.)

  “Lou, what have Daddy and I told you about eavesdropping?”* she asked.

  I frowned. “Not to do it.”

  “Exactly.” She raised her eyebrows again so they were very pointy. “Now, I don’t know what you heard, but I do know you probably misunderstood. You have nothing to worry about. The Sweet Potato Circus is going to be around for a long, long time.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Really,” Mama replied. She pointed to where Tolstoy was still whoosh-whoosh-whooshing his juggling balls around lickety-split quick. “Who wouldn’t buy a ticket to see that?”

  Now Mama really had a point. “Okay,” I said. “If you promise.”

  I was still an eensy bit worried. But Mama seemed completely sure everything was fine. And she was a grown-up. That meant she knew things.

  “I purple pony promise.” Mama took my hand. “So are you ready for our curtain call?”

  I nodded and tried to push the worrying thoughts away. For now, it was time to take a bow!

  The next morning, my BFF, Stella, and I were doing math problems in our classroom trailer. But I could not concentrate. All I could think about was what Cady had said about saving the performance.

  If the Sweet Potato Circus closed, I wouldn’t get to do any more superb tricks on the flying trapeze. And I wouldn’t get to do any more curtain calls, either.

  And if the circus closed, there would be no more special circus class! And circus class is so much fun!

  Instead of regular school, Stella, Fernando, and I have a tutor who travels with our troupe and teaches us. Our tutor’s name is Jed, and he is extremely
good at keeping us smart. Jed is a grown-up who did college and everything. He doesn’t perform in our circus, but he’s very strong. He lifts weights every morning outside his trailer. He also rides a dirt bike, which is an extra-speedy bicycle that has an engine! It is loud-loud-loud (in a good way!).

  So Stella and I were doing math and Fernando was reading. Linus, Fernando’s pet ferret, was batting an eraser all around.

  But instead of thinking about school, I was busy worrying. How could I convince Mama that we had a real-live emergency problem?

  “In this next math problem, there is a movie theater with ten seats,” Jed said. “Four people have bought movie tickets. So how many more tickets does the theater need to sell in order to fill up all its seats?”

  Tickets? Seats? This math word problem was exactly the same as the actual Sweet Potato problem going around and around in my brain! In real life, we didn’t sell enough tickets to fill all our Big Top seats. That’s what Cady the Bearded Lady said.

  “Louise, you seem distracted* today,” Jed said.

  I sighed. “I am.”

  “What is it?” Stella asked.

  “Well…,” I said, “Mama says it’s nothing….”

  “Hmm,” Jed said. “If your mother says it’s nothing, I’m sure you can trust her.”

  “Even if the circus is going to close?” I asked.

  It was out! I didn’t mean for my inside thoughts to explode and make everyone worried. But I couldn’t help it.

  Stella gasped. Even Fernando couldn’t hide his surprise-y face.

  Jed just looked very confused. “What makes you think the circus is going to close, Louise?” he asked.

  I swallowed. “First, we all saw Ethel Teitelbaum and Ringmaster Riley having an argument when the cotton candy machine went crazy,” I said. Fernando and Stella nodded at that.