Ninja Night, excerpt from chapter 3

I think kids' middle grade reading can be suspenseful without being nightmare inducing. Bigfoot Day, Ninja Night is a fun and fast paced read. Here's a sample from the beginning of chapter 3 of the second story:

Chapter 3 The Plan

My whole world was about to explode. Forget about aliens sticking needles into you or an axe wielding psycho chopping you up or teenagers hassling you. This was worse. Much, much worse.

“No way, mom! Grace is not going to get to camp with us, is she?”

My mom and Gracie had trekked through the woods and found our private little boys-only campsite. Gracie had her pink backpack at her side and mom was carrying a pink sleeping bag with princesses all over it and a pillow with a lacy pillowcase. Gross.

“Luke, you did not tell me the truth when you said your father told you it was a “guys only” camping trip.”

Oh, oh. I should have known she would check with him.

“Gracie can stay until morning, then I’ll come back and get her. She has a gymnastics lesson at eleven and a birthday party to go to in the afternoon.” She put her hand up to stop me from protesting. I knew it wouldn’t do any good anyway, but I couldn’t help myself from groaning. “This won’t ruin your weekend,” she continued, “you’ll still have all day tomorrow and tomorrow night for just boys.”

She ducked into the tent and started spreading out Gracie’s pink stuff. Nicky looked at me and I frowned back, then he looked past me toward Ghost Hollows and I got an idea. Gracie would be begging me to call for mom before it even got dark.

copyright 2010 by Debra Chapoton
Would your young reader be reading on to find out what happens next?