The Backyard Animal Show Read online

  The boys turned their attention to the street in front of them as they heard the harsh screeching of truck brakes, followed by a soft thud. The dirty yellow dump truck, full of rocks and debris from the work zone, had been rumbling slowly down the street when it stopped suddenly. The boys watched as the driver jumped out of the cab and ran to the side of the road.

  “Oh, no!” cried Rico. “The truck hit a deer!”

  ZIGGY AND HIS FRIENDS ARE excited to spend the entire summer watching the heavy machinery at the construction site for the new apartment complex by their houses. But when a dump truck kills a doe and the boys rescue her orphaned fawn, they learn the construction might be hurting the animals.

  The boys decide to stage a neighborhood animal show to raise money for the local wildlife rescue center. They’re pretty sure they can handle it since they’ve been taking care of their new fawn, Dino. But soon enough they realize their friends’ cats, dogs, and hamsters may be a lot more work than they thought. . . .

  SHARON M. DRAPER, author and professional educator, lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1997 she was named National Teacher of the Year. She is active with the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and several other professional education organizations. Her books include Tears of a Tiger (winner of the John Steptoe Award for New Talent); Forged By Fire and Copper Sun (winners of the Coretta Scott King Award); the Coretta Scott King Honor Book The Battle of Jericho; as well as Out of My Mind, winner of the 2011 Josette Frank Award.

  Jacket designed by Karina Granda

  Author photograph by Anna Navarro McCall

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2012 by Vanessa Brantley Newton

  ALADDIN

  Simon & Schuster, New York

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  Clubhouse Mysteries!

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin hardcover edition July 2012

  Text copyright © 2006 by Sharon M. Draper

  Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Jesse Joshua Watson

  Originally published as the series title Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  ALADDIN is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and related logo is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Designed by Karina Granda

  The text of this book was set in Minion.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2006010291

  ISBN 978-1-4424-5023-3 (hc)

  IBSN 978-1-4424-5022-6 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-5024-0 (eBook)

  This book is dedicated to the little boy named Larry who loved animals and birds and all the beautiful things of nature. He grew up to be a man who still does.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  ‘Stars and Sparks on Stage’ excerpt

  ZIGGY AWAKENED TO A BRIGHT SPRING SATURDAY MORNING. The sunshine sparkled through his open bedroom window, and the roaring and groaning sounds of heavy trucks erased any songs a bird might be attempting to sing. Ziggy jumped out of bed, pulled the curtain aside, and looked to see what was making that powerful, compelling noise.

  “The construction has started!” Ziggy whispered excitedly. “And we’ve got two whole weeks of spring break to watch the builders. I’ve got to tell Rico, Rashawn, and Jerome.” He dressed quickly, ran down the stairs, and gobbled a quick breakfast of honey-covered green beans and a glass of apple-prune juice. Ziggy, never one to eat a traditional meal, believed breakfast, and every other meal as well, should be an adventure. He grabbed a handful of walnuts from a jar, stuffed them into his jeans pocket, and waved good-bye to his mother, who was fixing herself a cup of tea.

  “You boys be careful at that construction site!” she warned. “You stay behind that fence and watch from a distance, you hear me, son?”

  “Yes, Mum,” Ziggy said obediently as he put on his jacket. “We won’t get in the way—promise.”

  Ziggy’s mom looked unconvinced, but she waved him on, reminding him to be home in a couple of hours. Just in case she might think of any other warnings to add to the list of things mothers worry about, Ziggy hurried out the door and down the street to his friend Rico’s house. Rico was just coming out of his front door.

  “Did you hear them? This is gonna be awesome, mon!” Ziggy told his friend. “It may take all summer for that apartment complex to be built. Just think of all the trucks and heavy equipment they’ll need!”

  “Yeah, I can’t wait to check out all the bulldozers and stuff, but I sorta hate to see that little piece of land get all torn up.”

  “What do you mean, mon?” Ziggy asked.

  “Well, that area down the street has been woods for as long as I’ve lived here—there’s lots of trees, and squirrels who live in those trees, and birds, and probably bugs, too. Where will they move to now that the diggers are tearing up the place where they live?”

  “I never thought about it that way, mon,” Ziggy replied thoughtfully.

  Just then Rashawn and Jerome, the other two members of the Black Dinosaurs Club, joined Ziggy and Rico on the sidewalk. Rashawn was followed by his Siberian husky, a retired police dog named Afrika. Rashawn, the tallest of the four, wore a bright red, thick fleece, button-down sweatshirt with the picture of a basketball player on the front.

  The Black Dinosaurs was the name of the club Ziggy, Rashawn, Rico, and Jerome had started one summer vacation. They had built a clubhouse in Ziggy’s backyard, and they met on Saturdays during the school year, sometimes just to goof off and eat pizza, and sometimes to try to solve neighborhood mysteries.

  “Bulldozers!” Rashawn cried as they slapped hands.

  “Excavators and cranes!” Jerome added. “Let’s hurry up and get down there before they finish.”

  “It will be weeks before they finish this project—maybe months, my dad said,” Rashawn explained.

  “Good! I love big trucks!” Jerome said with a grin. “Race you!”

  “And we’ve got two whole weeks to watch them work, mon!” Ziggy cried eagerly.

  The four friends ran down the street to the construction site. The area was barricaded with metal fencing and yellow tape, but that didn’t bother the boys. They found a spot on a nearby hill across the street from the site and settled in to watch as the motors of the heavy earthmoving equipment roared and rumbled as they worked.

  “It sounds like dinosaurs growling at each othe
r, mon,” Ziggy observed. “Vroom! Vroom!”

  “That big earthmover is the T. rex!” Jerome continued. “Ready to gobble the dirt demons.”

  “Dirt demons?” Rico asked. He chuckled.

  “Don’t mess with my story, man,” Jerome said. “I’m getting ready to have the crane battle the dump truck!”

  “Dump truck wins!” Rashawn said gleefully as he scratched his dog under its chin. “That’s the triceratops.”

  “No way!” Jerome said. “The crane can pick up the dump truck and fling it across the construction zone. Crane wins, for sure.” He had brought a bag of potato chips and the boys passed the bag around, chewing, observing, and dreaming of truck monsters.

  “They really do look like beasts, don’t they, mon?” Ziggy said in quiet appreciation of the snorting machines across the street.

  The huge yellow backhoe looked almost graceful as it scooped dirt from an increasingly large hole. Its long neck dipped, scraped, and pulled huge clods of earth, pebbles and branches dangling from its claw teeth like the remains of a meal. It turned, swiveled, and spit the rocky clumps into the back of the dump trucks, which then ambled away like overburdened elephants.

  “The man inside the cabin who’s operating the controls looks like one of those toy men we used to play with,” Rashawn observed.

  “Look at the treads on those rollers, man,” Jerome said. “I bet that thing can roll over and stomp a whole army of toy builders.”

  “You think they run on diesel fuel?” Rico asked.

  “For sure, mon,” Ziggy replied. “Big rigs need heavy-duty food—just like I do. For dinner my mum is making sirloin steak covered with bananas! Yummy.”

  “Yuck,” said Rashawn, who did not eat meat. “Just give me a big bowl of chili instead.”

  “Whoa! Look at that! The crane is lifting that tree like it’s a toothpick!” Jerome pointed out with excitement.

  “Where will they take the tree?” Rico asked.

  “I don’t know, mon,” Ziggy answered. “Maybe they’ll make a chair out of it. Or a house for someone to live in. Or maybe just a pile of wooden toothpicks.” He sighed.

  “The trees were home to lots of creatures,” Rico continued glumly. “The birds and the snakes and the raccoons and the deer that lived in those bushes and woods were happy living there. Now it’s all just dirt so people can build apartments. It doesn’t seem fair to me.”

  “The animals will find another place to live, Rico,” Jerome said, trying to sound reassuring.

  “Where?” Rico asked. “My mother told me they’re building another new housing project a few blocks away. Pretty soon there won’t be any place left for the creatures.”

  The boys turned their attention to the street in front of them as they heard the harsh screeching of truck brakes, followed by a soft thud. The dirty yellow dump truck, full of rocks and debris from the work zone, had been rumbling slowly down the street when it stopped suddenly. The boys watched as the driver jumped out of the cab and ran to the side of the road.

  “Oh, no!” cried Rico. “The truck hit a deer!”

  THE FOUR BOYS RACED DOWN THE HILL AND ACROSS THE STREET TO WHERE A SMALL CROWD OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS HAD GATHERED. A large brown deer lay on the ground, her eyes wide but unseeing. She didn’t move or breathe. Afrika sniffed the deer and backed away.

  “Is it dead?” Rico asked fearfully as the boys got as close as they dared.

  “Yes, son,” the driver replied sadly. “I’m afraid she is. She just darted right in front of me, and I couldn’t stop fast enough.” The truck driver, dressed in a yellow hard hat, dark shirt and dirty vest, and thick brown work shoes, looked more like one of the boys than a big, powerful construction man. His face, moist with either sweat or a tear, showed real sorrow. He knelt down gently and touched the deer. “I’m sorry, old girl,” the driver said. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “How do you know it’s a girl deer?” Jerome asked.

  “Well, you can tell because this one has been nursing. She has a fawn, probably hidden nearby.”

  “A baby deer? It’s going to be waiting for its mother to come home with dinner, and she’s not coming back!” Rico looked very agitated.

  “I wonder where the fawn might be,” Rashawn said, echoing Rico’s worry.

  The other boys looked with concern toward what was left of the woods, then turned their attention back to the lifeless animal in front of them.

  “I’ve never been this close to something dead.” Ziggy shuddered. “Why would she run in front of your truck, mon?” he asked the driver. “It seems to me that animals would be scared and run the other way instead.”

  “She was probably protecting her baby,” the driver replied. “If she saw our trucks as threats to her fawn, she would try to lead us away from them the way she would a predator.”

  “We were across the street pretending the trucks were animals. We didn’t realize it might seem that way to the creatures that live in the woods,” Rashawn said.

  “These construction sites chase many animals and birds from their natural habitats,” the driver admitted. “Many of them die. I see it happen every time we clear a green space.”

  “So why do you do it?” Rico asked angrily.

  “If no one had cleared the woods from the place where your house is now, you would have no place to live, son. People bring progress, I guess, which means buildings and houses and stores and malls, and all of that takes away the woods and the forests.”

  Rico said nothing, but his face was a frown.

  “So what will happen to the fawn?” Jerome asked.

  The driver sighed and looked at the four friends. “It’s a hard fact of life, boys, but the little deer will probably die.”

  “No!” the four boys cried at once.

  “Won’t another mother deer adopt it?” Ziggy asked hopefully.

  “Probably not,” the driver replied. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t like one of those TV movies where the baby animal is cared for by loving adoptive woodland creatures. It just doesn’t work like that in real life.” He stood up and stretched. “Look, fellas, I’ve got to get back to work. I’m really sorry this happened. I’ll make sure the mother deer is buried here on the land she loved.” He motioned to one of the other drivers to help him clear the deer from the road.

  Ziggy, Rico, Rashawn, and Jerome walked away slowly from the scene, each caught in his own thoughts. Afrika trotted very close to Rashawn.

  “We’ve gotta find that fawn, guys!” Rico cried with determination.

  “You’re right, mon,” Ziggy said excitedly. “Great idea, Rico!”

  “And if we do, then what?” Rashawn asked.

  “We take care of it!” Rico replied.

  “And how do we do that?” Jerome asked doubtfully.

  “I don’t know yet, but I do know we can’t let that little deer die all alone in the woods. Besides, this whole area is gonna be cleared by the end of next week. The poor little thing won’t have a place to hide, anyway.”

  “Then let’s do it, dudes,” Rashawn said, urgency in his voice. “Let’s see if we can find the fawn. I bet Afrika can help. He used to be a police dog, you know. He’s an expert tracker.”

  “Afrika is just an old Siberian husky that sleeps all day dreaming of how cool he used to be,” Jerome said.

  “The only thing Afrika can find these days is his food dish,” Rico said with a laugh.

  “Give him a chance. You’ll see,” Rashawn said with confidence.

  The four boys and the dog walked farther away from the construction site and deeper into the wooded area not yet reached by diggers and dozers. Yellow tags and orange spray paint had been placed on many of the trees.

  “Why do you think they marked up all these trees?” Rico asked as they stepped slowly and carefully through the undergrowth.

  “Those are the ones that will be cut down,” Rashawn replied. “My dad said this whole area is going to be new houses.”

  “More h
omeless animals,” Rico said sadly.

  They searched for almost an hour, digging in weeds and looking into thickets. Their hands and clothes were streaked with mud and dirt. Not only did they not find the fawn, they didn’t even see a squirrel in a tree or a snake slithering from them.

  “Looks like everybody has packed up and moved away,” Rico said. “I don’t even hear birds chirping.”

  “Well, at least there’s not many bugs out today,” Jerome said. “I guess they wait until summer to start buzzin’ around and gettin’ on my nerves.” He didn’t like insects, so he was very careful as he lifted branches and small logs in their search.

  “Maybe we just don’t know how to look, mon,” Ziggy said dejectedly. “The little deer has got to be here someplace.”

  Jerome asked, “How are we going to find a fawn? It’s the exact same color as the dirt and the leaves and branches.”

  “I bet you could pass it by and never see it, mon,” Ziggy said. “This might be harder than we thought. How’s super tracker dog doing, Rashawn?”

  “I think he’s onto something!” Rashawn replied quietly. “Sh-sh-sh.”

  Afrika sniffed excitedly, his nose to the ground. He walked in small circles, yipping with excitement. The boys stood still, waiting.

  Slowly, Afrika trotted to a small, greenish-brown thicket. The dog used his nose to move the leaves and branches from the trembling little deer that hid there. Nestled in soft grass, it had been hidden well by its mother—it was almost invisible in the branches, which were the same color as itself. It didn’t try to run, but its eyes were large with fright. The boys knelt down around it quietly, gentle in their movements and sounds.

  “He’s beautiful,” Rico whispered.

  Light tan in color, with white spots all over its back, the fawn looked at the boys with expectation.

  “His ears are so big, mon,” Ziggy said softly.

  “And look at that nose—all black and shiny,” Rashawn added. He laughed a little.