The Orphan of Awkward Falls (27 page)

Josephine tugged anxiously on his puffy coat. “Come on, what does the letter say?”

Thaddeus folded the pages and stuffed them in his pocket. “It says…that I am not a monster.”

A small smile on the boy’s face exposed a gaggle of teeth that had begun to extrude beyond their normal positions. The Full Stenchley was ahead of schedule.

Josephine rolled her eyes and punched his shoulder. “Well, duh. I could’ve told you that.”

Keith Graves
is the author and illustrator of many picture books, including
Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance
and
Chicken Big,
which was a Junior Library Guild Selection, BookPage Best Children’s Book of 2010, and E.B. White Read-Aloud Award Honor Book. His own children, thirteen-year-old twins, inspired this story, his first novel. Keith lives in Austin, Texas.