Samantha Spinner and the Perplexing Pants Read online

  BOOKS BY RUSSELL GINNS

  Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans

  Samantha Spinner and the Spectacular Specs

  Samantha Spinner and the Boy in the Ball

  Samantha Spinner and the Perplexing Pants

  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 © 2021 by Russell Ginns

  Cover and interior illustrations copyright © 2021 by Barbara Fisinger

  Image Credits: this page, this page (top right), this page, this page, this page: Shutterstock; this page (top left, bottom), this page: Pixabay; this page: Horne, Andrew, 11 May 2010, “A photo of The Thinker by Rodin located at the Musée Rodin in Paris,” digital image, Wikimedia Commons, web, 17 July 2020.

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

  Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web! rhcbooks.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Ginns, Russell, author. | Skorjanc, Barbara Fisinger, illustrator.

  Title: Samantha Spinner and the perplexing pants / Russell Ginns ; illustrated by Barbara Fisinger.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Delacorte Press, [2021] | Series: Samantha Spinner series ; 4 | Audience: Ages 8+. | Audience: Grades 4–6. | Summary: It is up to Samantha and her brother Nipper to face what the WEATHER has in store for them and defeat SNOW, or risk losing their Uncle Paul forever.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2020013072 (print) | LCCN 2020013073 (ebook) | ISBN 978-1-9848-4923-6 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-9848-4924-3 (library binding) | ISBN 978-1-9848-4925-0 (epub)

  Subjects: CYAC: Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. | Brothers and sisters—Fiction. | Missing persons—Fiction. | Uncles—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.G438943 Saf 2021 (print) | LCC PZ7.G438943 (ebook) | DDC [Fic] —dc23

  Ebook ISBN 9781984849250

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

  Penguin Random House LLC supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to publish books for every reader.

  ep_prh_5.6.1_c0_r0

  Contents

  Cover

  Books by Russell Ginns

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One: The Bad News Blares

  Chapter Two: Morning, Warming…Warning!

  Chapter Three: Weather or Not

  Chapter Four: Roll Out

  Chapter Five: See Salt

  Chapter Six: Dust the Two of Us

  Chapter Seven: Unaccompanied Miners

  Chapter Eight: I Don’t Think Snow

  Chapter Nine: Armored and Dangerous

  Chapter Ten: Take Me to the Rivera

  Chapter Eleven: Wonder at the Wall

  Chapter Twelve: Lore of the Ring

  Chapter Thirteen: Values

  Chapter Fourteen: Watch Out for the Snow

  Chapter Fifteen: From Plaid to Worse

  Chapter Sixteen: Dismissy

  Chapter Seventeen: Mission: Uncrossable

  Chapter Eighteen: Call in the Family

  Chapter Nineteen: Hollywood Bawl

  Chapter Twenty: Scarlet Hydrangea’s Unicorn-O-Pedia

  Chapter Twenty-one: Fabricated

  Chapter Twenty-two: It Wasn’t Fair

  Chapter Twenty-three: Samantha, Hears the Deal

  Chapter Twenty-four: Operation Snoddgrass

  Chapter Twenty-five: Inside Out

  Chapter Twenty-six: Irony Chef

  Chapter Twenty-seven: Crazy Mixed-Up Files

  Chapter Twenty-eight: Reunion

  Chapter Twenty-nine: Knit Wits

  Chapter Thirty: Mitten Accomplished

  Chapter Thirty-one: Plaid Moon Rising

  Chapter Thirty-two: Lens Me a Hand

  Chapter Thirty-three: The Good, the Plaid, and the…Pugly?

  Chapter Thirty-four: Head Out

  Chapter Thirty-five: Application

  Chapter Thirty-six: Traveling Light

  Chapter Thirty-seven: Nipper Spinner and the Super Plan

  Chapter Thirty-eight: Team Spirit

  Chapter Thirty-nine: A Tomb with a View

  Chapter Forty: Mine

  Chapter Forty-one: Finders Breepers

  Chapter Forty-two: Pug Patrol

  Chapter Forty-three: Who’s There?

  Chapter Forty-four: Amazon Primate

  Chapter Forty-five: End of the Line

  Chapter Forty-six: Track to the Future

  Chapter Forty-seven: Grand Slam

  Chapter Forty-eight: Bottomless Pitch

  Chapter Forty-nine: Rahib!

  Chapter Fifty: Shattered

  Chapter Fifty-one: Intermural

  Chapter Fifty-two: Snowbuddy’s Home

  Chapter Fifty-three: Dome Sleet Dome

  Chapter Fifty-four: Case Closed

  Chapter Fifty-five: Challenge Her

  Chapter Fifty-six: Leader Board

  Chapter Fifty-seven: A Gross Game

  Chapter Fifty-eight: Crash Course

  Chapter Fifty-nine: Wruf

  Chapter Sixty: Fashion, Disaster

  Alas, Nipper Didn’t Know These Amazing Facts!

  Whoa, Nelly! This Book Is Full of Super-Secret Secrets

  Super-Secret Answers

  Acknowledgments

  Map

  About the Author

  TO SHELDON GINNS AND MARIAN COHEN

  Thanks for encouraging my love of art, architecture, and exploring the world.

  Section 1, Detail g0t0s4m4n

  The Thinker

  A bronze statue of a man sitting on a rock with his chin resting in one hand is known around the world as The Thinker.

  French sculptor August Rodin created his original plaster model in 1881, and he made dozens of bronze versions in many sizes over the rest of his career. The largest ones are more than six feet tall.

  Like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Michelangelo’s David, Rodin’s The Thinker is one of the world’s most famous works of art. Pictures of the sculpture are often used to represent ideas, inventions, and learning.

  Today, twenty-eight giant bronze Thinkers sit in deep thought on steps of museums, in university courtyards, and at the entrances to buildings and parks in citie
s around the world.

  The twenty-eight largest Thinkers sit atop entrances to super-secret tunnels around the world.

  When you are at the Detroit Institute of Art, take a closer look at the stone base beneath the statue. Find the side that faces the museum. Grab a corner and pull. The heavy panel will swing outward and reveal a staircase.

  The steps are covered with fine dust and can be slippery, so be sure to use the handrail as you enter.

  Also, watch out for the SNOW!

  “One hundred forty-four! One hundred forty-four!”

  Sitting on the steps to his uncle’s apartment over the garage, Nipper had thought he was far enough away from Sammy the parrot to not hear it screeching.

  “The Yankees are the worst! One hundred forty-four!”

  He wasn’t.

  Somewhere behind his neighbor’s house, Missy Snoddgrass’s double-triple super-awful pet bird squawked and blabbed. Nipper’s Yankees were in big trouble, and the parrot made sure he knew it.

  “Did you hear that?” said Mr. Spinner. “One hundred forty-four.”

  Nipper turned to see his dad. He stood a few feet away, smiling, and waving a yellow-mitten-covered hand. In his other hand he was holding up a fresh, steaming waffle with a pair of tongs.

  “That’s a gross, Son,” said Mr. Spinner. “Remember?”

  “Yeah, Dad. I remember,” said Nipper. “A dozen dozens is one gross. That rotten bird is squawking about a gross of games.”

  Ever since Missy had stolen his baseball team, the Yankees had been on an endless losing streak. It was a major-league catastrophe.

  “Cheer up, Son,” said his dad, waving the waffle tongs in front of him. “I’ve made you breakfast.”

  Nipper caught a whiff of the fresh waffle. It smelled delicious. The aroma was soothing. He would love a waffle. He would have one…maybe two…maybe three…waffles…three…

  Nipper snapped out of it.

  Three more games! His Yankees only had three games left!

  He looked over to the Snoddgrass yard. He squinted and tried to spot Sammy the parrot. He kept looking, until his gaze fell on the back of the Snoddgrass house.

  Nipper watched a green dot flickering on the covered porch.

  “Come back inside with me,” said Mr. Spinner. “When waffles get cold, the flavor decreases.”

  Nipper turned back to face his dad. In the four months since Mr. Spinner had taken over as the family’s official breakfast maker, he had become a breakfast perfectionist. Nipper’s dad applied science and math to waffle making. Normally that was awesome. But today it was just a distraction.

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” Nipper said.

  He watched his father walk back across the pavement and disappear into the kitchen. Then he looked again toward his neighbor’s house.

  “A gross of games,” he repeated.

  Nipper felt like he was caught in a gross game.

  The New York Yankees had just lost their one hundred forty-fourth game in a row. If they lost three more times, they’d be finished. Gone. No more. According to rule thirteen hundred thirteen, section thirteen, any baseball team that loses one hundred forty-seven games in a season gets kicked out of the league. Their bats are chopped into firewood, and their uniforms donated to community musical theater groups.

  He couldn’t let it happen. Not musical theater. Not his Yankees. His precious, super-awesome Yankees!

  Nipper eyed the paper bag in his hand. He had been carrying it with him ever since he and his sister had escaped from the Clandestine League of Unstoppable Daredevils, a band of skateboarders, surfers, and gymnasts also known as the CLOUD. He uncurled the top and peeked inside.

  Good. The special thing inside the bag was still there. He was going to need it…if he was going to save his team.

  Samantha’s eyes snapped open.

  “Where’s Uncle Paul?” she shouted.

  She looked around. She was in her room, alone.

  She sniffed.

  The scent of fresh-baked waffles filled the air.

  Had Uncle Paul made breakfast?

  No. It was her father downstairs in the kitchen. Of course it wasn’t her uncle.

  Uncle Paul was missing…again.

  A little over a week ago, Samantha had found her uncle. She’d had to defeat ninjas, clowns, and daredevils to do it. Then, when she hadn’t been around—the moment she’d turned her back—Uncle Paul had gotten taken…again!

  It was Nipper’s fault, and her father’s fault, too.

  She’d literally just gone upstairs, and a bunch of men and women in white coats and bright white sneakers had showed up at the house…and Nipper and her father had let them take her uncle away.

  Again!

  Nipper had said they were the “math police.” But Uncle Paul had left behind an old, worn mitten and a note that said Watch out for the SNOW!

  Samantha didn’t know much more than that. The only thing she had learned from what had happened was that her brother and her father weren’t much help at all, especially when it came to not losing Uncle Paul.

  She sat up in bed and wiped sweat from her forehead.

  Why was it so hot in the house?

  She took in her surroundings. Her red umbrella rested against the side of her desk. She hadn’t touched it for a week, not since her embarrassing fainting spell.

  Samantha had blacked out right after Uncle Paul had been taken away. The doctor said it was due to travel stress, plus a severe attack of coulrophobia, a fear of clowns.

  Samantha thought that was a bunch of hooey. She loved to travel. She had also defeated a band of awful clowns known as the Society of Universal Nonsense. That proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that she wasn’t afraid of clowns.

  Samantha’s mother said her blackout could also have been caused by the shock of seeing Buffy in a photo with a cute new boyfriend. And it was true that Samantha had been shocked. Her sister was completely awful. It didn’t make sense that the boy who had saved Samantha and Nipper in Africa had suddenly shown up in California. And it made even less sense that he was there with Buffy.

  But what did her mother know about those things, anyway? Dr. Spinner was a doctor, but all her patients were rodents and lizards.

  It didn’t matter. Samantha had slept, rested, and thought about missing uncles, annoying brothers, unhelpful fathers, and ridiculous selfish older sisters for a solid week. It was time to make new plans. And time to find Uncle Paul once and for all.

  But that was hard to do when it was so hot in the house.

  She got up and went to the window. She pulled it open, and a cool, fresh, Seattle summertime breeze wafted into her room.

  Much better.

  Samantha saw her brother in the backyard, making his way to the house. They hadn’t spoken much to each other in the past seven days. At first it was because Samantha had fainted and stayed in bed for a day and a half. Then it was because he wouldn’t apologize for letting the people in white coats take Uncle Paul away.

  “Watch out for the SNOW,” she repeated now.

  Was the SNOW the people who had taken her uncle away? Who could they be, and why had they done it?

  She had spent enough time resting, and moping. It was time to figure things out. She got dressed and opened her bedroom door. A gust of warm air rolled in from the rest of the house.

  Breakfast smelled delicious. And she was ready to talk to Nipper again, even without his apology. She would let him rattle on about his baseball team, and then they could start making plans to save their uncle from the SNOW.

  “Dad,” Samantha called as she walked into the kitchen. “Why is it so hot in here?”

  Her father stood at the counter, adjusting the controls of the waffle iron. He wore the yellow mitten from Uncle Paul on his right hand, and
he held a pair of tongs in his left. A six-high stack of waffles rested on a plate nearby.

  “And why aren’t you using an oven mitt?” she added.

  “All the oven mitts are missing,” he answered. “It’s a good thing Paul left us this mitten.”

  Dennis sat on the floor, close to the kitchen table. He looked wilted. His head drooped inside his plastic cone. The temperature was too much for the little pug.

  “Why is it so hot in here?” she asked again.

  “Your mother and I decided to turn up the heat,” her father said as he poured batter onto the waffle iron. “The radio warned about a cold snap this afternoon.”

  “Cold snap?” asked Samantha. “Have you looked outside? It’s warm and sunny.”

  “We also got a text alert about a blizzard coming,” said Mr. Spinner.

  “A text alert?” asked Samantha. “Who sent that?”

  “It came from the Storm Notifications of Oregon and Washington,” he answered.

  “Storm Notification of…I’ve never heard of…,” said Samantha. “Wait! Did they call themselves the SNOW?”

  “Possibly,” said Mr. Spinner. “The alert sounded very serious.”

  He closed the waffle iron and stepped back from the counter. Then he took a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his brow.