Sly the Sleuth and the Sports Mysteries

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Authors: Donna Jo Napoli

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Case # 1: - Sly and the Soccer Switch

Case # 2: - Sly and the Kick Craze

Case # 3: - Sly and the Basketball Blues

DIAL BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

A division of Penguin Young Readers Group

Published by The Penguin Group

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The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Text set in Bembo

S.A. on acid-free paper set also:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Napoli, Donna Jo, date.

Sly the Sleuth and the sports mysteries / by Donna Jo Napoli and Robert

Furrow ; illustrated by Heather Maione. p. cm.

Summary: Sly uses her detective skills to help her friends solve the case of the soccer switch, the kick craze, and the basketball blues.

eISBN : 978-1-101-14405-3

[1. SportsâFiction. 2. SchoolsâFiction. 3. Mystery and detective stories.]

I. Furrow, Robert, date. II. Maione, Heather Harms, ill. III. Title.

PZ7.N15Slg 2006
[Fic]âdc22
2005004817

http://us.penguingroup.com

Thanks to
Barry and Eva Furrow, Richard Tchen,
to Karen Riskin and Rebecca Waugh
and Lauri Hornik

Case # 1:

Sly and the Soccer Switch

My Policies

I'm Sly the Sleuth. I run an agency called Sleuth for Hire. People bring me their problems. I solve them. So far I have solved every case.

My father says I should not get too cocky about it. Cocky people make mistakes. Plus, no one likes them. And he points out that I've only had three cases so far. They were all about pets. And they rhymed: the case of the Fat Cat, the case of the Wish Fish, and the case of the Frog Dog.

I'm not cocky. I'm just optimistic.

I like solving problems. It's fun.

That's one of my policies: I only take cases that are fun.

And only cases that a cat would care about. So when someone tells me a problem, I first ask myself what my cat, Taxi, would think.

These policies have never failed me yet. The cases I take make me happy.

I love being a sleuth.

Islands

My fourth case started with a bang.

Brian and I were sitting on the floor drawing. Brian is my neighbor. He goes to nursery school.

Bang! The porch door shook.

Brian jumped to his feet. “Earthquake!” he screamed.

“There are no earthquakes around here,” I said.

Bang!

“Volcano!” screamed Brian.

“No volcanos either,” I said.

Bang!

“Call the police,” screamed Brian.

I opened the door.

A soccer ball hit me in the belly.

“Ouch,” I said.

“Sorry.” Jack fetched his ball and held it under one arm.

“Knocking is better,” I said. “It's more traditional.”

“I can't help it,” said Jack. “I love to kick.”

“I love to kick too,” said Brian.

They both looked at me. I shrugged. “I play baseball. Not a lot of kicking in baseball. What's up, Jack?”

“There's a problem.”

“I knew it,” said Brian. “Lava!” he screamed.

“What's he talking about?” said Jack.

“What are you talking about, Brian?”

“Boom.” Brian swung his arms over his head. “Volcano, lava, islands. Water everywhere.”

“Brian, has your teacher been talking about how islands are formed?”

“We can get boats,” said Brian. “I love boats. And Wilson will be happy. Islands are good for Wilson.”

Wilson was Brian's name for all his frogs. He had a few dozen.

“How do you do that?” said Jack. “How do you figure out what Brian's talking about?”

“I've had a lot of practice,” I said.

“And you're good at that sort of thing,” said Jack. “That's why you can solve my case.”

Mistakes

I went to the kitchen drawer.That's where

I keep my sharpest pencil and my special pad of paper. Those are tools of the trade.

“Start at the beginning,” I said.

“Soccer,” said Jack.

Soccer is not my idea of fun. And Taxi hates soccer balls.

I put the pencil and pad back in the drawer.

“Go talk to your coach.”

“Coach is baffled too,” said Jack.

“Baffled?” said Brian.

“Confused,” I said to Brian.

“Baffled booffled,” said Brian.

“Go back to your drawing,” I said.

I sat on the floor, picked up my pen, and went back to my own drawing.

“I need your help,” said Jack.

“I don't know anything about soccer.”

“I do,” said Brian. “I know everything.”

My drawing was homework. And I wasn't going to finish it if Brian kept talking and Jack didn't leave.

I went back into the kitchen. I filled a bowl with brownies. I filled another bowl with grapes. I held both bowls in front of Brian.

Brian stuffed a brownie in his mouth.

I knew he would. His mother makes only health foods.

I held the bowls in front of Jack.

Jack stuffed grapes in his mouth. Then he stuffed brownies in his pockets.

“What are you doing?” I said.

“I might get hungry later,” said Jack. “You never know. Or I can sell them.”

Jack was always short of money.

“It's not nice to sell other people's food,” I said.

“You offered,” said Jack. “So it's mine now. What's that?” He frowned at my drawing.

“Birds,” I said. “It's homework. Haven't you had art class yet this week? The new art teacher is crazy about birds.”

“If it's homework, why are you using a pen? Ink doesn't erase.”

“That's the whole point. We're not supposed to think of stray marks as mistakes. We're supposed to think of them as opportunities.”

Jack pointed. “That looks like a mistake to me.”

“Go away now, Jack.”

“You make a lot of mistakes, Sly. You're making a mistake not to take my case.Taxi would love it.”

Friends

“Okay,” I said. “I'll take the bait. Why would Taxi love your case?”

“I'll show you,” said Jack. “Come.”

“Where?”

“The soccer field.”

Brian grabbed his green crayon and scribbled on his paper. “This is a soccer field.”

I gathered Brian's crayons and stuck them in his backpack. Then I rolled his picture up and put it in too. I handed Brian his backpack. “See you later.”

Brian left.

Jack ran ahead of me on the sidewalk, dribbling his soccer ball.

I caught up with him at the corner. We crossed together. Jack ran ahead again. He passed his house and jumped and waved. I wasn't surprised that he jumped. Jack jumps a lot. But the wave was a puzzle.

“Who are you waving at?” I called.

“Wish Fish,” called back Jack.

I squinted at Jack's window. Yup, that was a fishbowl on the sill. And I could even make out Wish Fish's scarlet body.

“Hey, wait,” came a voice from behind.

I turned around.

Melody raced up with Pong on a leash. Melody is my best friend. Pong is her puppy.