Movie For Dogs (11 page)

Andi had just arrived home from a Creative Writing Club meeting when she saw an envelope with the return address of Pet Lovers Press lying in the entrance hall under the mail slot. This time her name was spelled correctly.

As before, she didn’t immediately open the envelope, but it wasn’t because she wanted to prolong the excitement. She wasn’t excited at all. She felt sure it contained an invitation to enter the Young Author Cat Lovers Contest.

She picked up the envelope and carried it into the kitchen, where she laid it on the counter while she made two tuna sandwiches, one for herself and one for her dogs. She cut the second sandwich in two and placed one of the halves in Bebe’s bowl. Then she carried the other half into the backyard to give to Gabby.

As she’d hoped, Red Rover wasn’t there. Bruce, who had not been delayed by an after-school activity, must have taken Red running. That was a relief, because since Gabby and Red were now practically roommates, Andi was finding it difficult to give Gabby the same treats she gave Bebe while withholding those treats from Red. Bruce was very strict about Red’s diet and wouldn’t allow him to eat people food.

Life in a multidog family was not always easy.

While Gabby wolfed down his sandwich and Andi ate hers, she finally got around to opening her letter.

When she saw the first paragraph, she couldn’t believe what she was reading.

Dear Ms. Andrea Walker,

The first-place winner in our Young Author Dog Lovers Contest has been disqualified.

This means that your delightful novel,
Bobby Strikes Back,
has been promoted from second place and become our grand-prize winner. If, in the intervening months, you have not sold your story elsewhere, we would very much like to publish it.

Please let us know if
Bobby Strikes Back
is still available.

Sincerely,

Jo Ann Bayse, Senior Editor

Pet Lovers Press

Andi read the letter once and then read it a second time.

She bolted across the yard, out through the gate, into the alley, and down the sidewalk to Aunt Alice’s house. She didn’t even pause to ring the doorbell. She just threw open the door and rushed right in.

“Aunt Alice!” she cried. “My book is going to be published!”

Aunt Alice was seated in her favorite chair, sipping tea and reading a romance novel.

“Wipe your feet, dear,” she said. “I just had the carpets cleaned. I wondered how long it would take for Jerry to be disqualified.”

“How did you do it?” Andi asked her. “What did you tell them? You knew I promised not to tell anyone about Sarah!”

“I used alternative methods,” Aunt Alice said. “I kept searching the Internet and finally found a Web
site called Ugly Bird Books. They actually had a copy of
Tuffy Bean and the One-Ring Circus.
Only one copy, but that was all we needed. And they only charged me three dollars.”

“Ugly Bird Books?” Andi repeated.

“A wonderful Web site,” Aunt Alice said. “They gave an honest description of the book. Poor condition hardcover. Some torn and stained pages. A missing jacket. Some very old, very hard peanut butter smeared in the margins. But it was the same dear book I remembered from my childhood. I ordered it online and had them ship it directly to Pet Lovers Press. I hoped the editor would be able to put two and two together. Apparently she did.”

“I’m going to be a published author!” Andi said softly. The idea was so overwhelming she could hardly take it in. “
Bobby Strikes Back
is going to be in bookstores! It’s going to be in libraries! Teachers will put it on reading lists for their students!”

“And you’ll probably be asked to give interviews,” Aunt Alice said. “It’s nice that you’ll have an experienced consultant to advise you.”

“You can’t mean Jerry!” Andi exclaimed incredulously.

“Certainly not,” said Aunt Alice. “I was referring to Gabby. With all the embarrassment this sham must be causing the Gordons, Jerry will probably be grounded for at least two days.

“On the subject of Gabby, I received a wedding announcement from Maynard Merlin. He enclosed a photo of himself and his lovely bride, Medusa. Mr. Merlin had a bandage on his hand. Gabby’s replacement may not be as docile as Gabby.”

“Did you run a background check on Medusa?” Andi asked her.

“Well, yes,” Aunt Alice confessed, looking slightly embarrassed. “That wasn’t exactly ethical, but I couldn’t restrain myself. Medusa has had six husbands and owns a pit bull. We don’t need to worry about her.”

Andi loves dogs. So when an adorable stray shows up, Andi wants to save it—but she can’t take it home. With the help of her brother Bruce, she rescues the stray and its puppies and moves them into an abandoned house down the block. Andi is thrilled—she’s running a dog hotel! But can she and Bruce keep the canine castle going, or will a bark give their secret away?

Now that their Hotel for Dogs has closed, Andi and her brother Bruce have a new project—publishing a newspaper for dogs.
The Bow-Wow News
is a neighborhood sensation, but once they post it online, scary things start to happen. A dognapper is on the loose! Beloved pets are disappearing! And, worst of all, one of the dognapped victims belongs to
them
! Can Andi and Bruce make sure this story gets a happy ending?

FOR YOUNGER READERS

News for Dogs
Hotel for Dogs
A Gift of Magic
I Walk at Night
Song of the Circus
The Magic of Spider Woman
Wonder Kid Meets the Evil Lunch Snatcher
The Longest Hair in the World
The Birthday Moon
The Circus Comes Home
Horses of Dreamland
From Spring to Spring
Songs from Dreamland
Chapters: My Growth as a Writer
The Terrible Tales of Happy Days School

FOR OLDER READERS

Summer of Fear
Down a Dark Hall
Don’t Look Behind You
The Twisted Window
The Third Eye
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Stranger with My Face
Ransom

LOIS DUNCAN
modeled the character of Andi in
News for Dogs, Hotel for Dogs
, and
Movie for Dogs
after her childhood self. Like Andi, Lois knew very early on that she wanted to be a writer and started submitting stories to magazines when she was ten. Today she is the author of more than fifty books, most of them for young people. Her suspense novels have received young readers’ awards in sixteen states and three foreign countries, and in 1992, Lois received the Margaret A. Edwards Award, presented by
School Library Journal
and the ALA Young Adult Library Services Association for “a distinguished body of adolescent literature.”

Lois lives with her husband, Don Arquette, in Sarasota, Florida. She can be contacted through her Web site at
www.loisduncan.arquettes.com.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

Copyright © 2010 by Lois Duncan Arquette
Cover art by Robert Papp
Cover design by Tim Hall

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, APPLE PAPERBACKS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

First Scholastic paperback printing, September 2010

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eISBN: 978-0-545-38885-6