Джеймс Хоу - Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow

Everyone Loves Bunnicula!

“Bunnicula is the kind of story that does not age, and in all probability, will never die. Or stay dead, anyway....”

—NEIL GAIMAN

“Bunnicula was one funny, scary, must-read vampire bunny when he first showed up. He hasn’t changed a bit. Very scary. Very funny.”

—JON SCIESZKA

“As a kid, I saw the classic movie Dracula and became instantly afraid of vampires. Many years later, I read the classic children’s book Bunnicula . Now—in addition to vampires—I am also afraid of bunnies. I hope you’re happy, Jim.”

—BARBARA PARK

“James Hows is the king! Bunnicula rules!!!”

—DAV PILKEY

The Monroe house is going mad with excitement. Pete has just won a contest, and the prize is a school visit from none other than M. T. Graves, Pete’s idol and the bestselling author of the FleshCrawlers series. He’s even going to stay with the Monroes while he’s visiting! Harold and Howie are thrilled, but Chester the cat is suspicious. Why does Graves dress all in black? Why doesn’t the beady-eyed crow perched on his shoulder say anything? Why has a threatening flock of crows invaded the backyard? And most worrisome of all: In each of the FleshCrawlers books, why does something always happen to the pets? Suddenly, Graves’s interest in all of the animals—especially Bunnicula—looks far from innocent. It’s up to Chester, Harold, and Howie to find out if M. T. Graves and Edgar Allan Crow are really devising a plot to make their beloved bunny . . . NEVERMORE!

A Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club Selection

1006

James Howe is the author of more than seventy books for young readers, including the popular Bunnicula series (which he wrote with Harold’s help) and the Tales from the House of Bunnicula series (which he wrote with Howie’s help). Among his other books are the Sebastian Barth mysteries, the Pinky and Rex series, The Misfits, and Totally Joe. James Howe wrote Bunnicula meets Edger Allan crow because he loves crows and can’t resits a good pun. He lives in New York State and shares his home with one dog; two cats; his partner, Mark; and his daughter, Zoey, when she visits from college. He also shares his backyard with many “birds, including the occasional crow.

Jacket design by Russell Gordon

Jacket illustration copyright © 2006 by C. F. Payne

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ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

Simon & Schuster

New York

Bunnicula

Meets

Edgar Allan Crow

Books by James Howe

Bunnicula Books

Bunnicula (with Deborah Howe)

Howliday Inn

The Celery Stalks at Midnight

Nighty-Nightmare

Return to Howliday Inn

Bunnicula Strikes Again!

Bunnicula and Friends

The Vampire Bunny

Hot Fudge

Scared Silly

Rabbit-cadabra!

The Fright Before Christmas

Picture Books

There’s a Monster Under My Bed

There’s a Dragon in My Sleeping Bag

Teddy Bear’s Scrapbook (with Deborah Howe)

Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores

Horace and Morris Join the Chorus (but what about Dolores?)

Kaddish for Grandpa in Jesus’ name amen

Tales from the House of Bunnicula

It Came from Beneath the Bed!

Invasion of the Mind Swappers from Asteroid 6!

Howie Monroe and the Doghouse of Doom

Screaming Mummies of the Pharaoh’s Tomb II

Bud Barkin, Private Eye

The Amazing Odorous Adventures of Stinky Dog

Sebastian Barth Mysteries

What Eric Knew

Stage Fright

Eat Your Poison, Dear

Dew Drop Dead

Pinky and Rex Series

Pinky and Rex

Pinky and Rex Get Married

Pinky and Rex and the Mean Old Witch

Pinky and Rex and the Spelling Bee

Pinky and Rex Go to Camp

Pinky and Rex and the New Baby

Pinky and Rex and the Double-Dad Weekend

Pinky and Rex and the Bully

Pinky and Rex and the New Neighbors

Pinky and Rex and the Perfect Pumpkin

Pinky and Rex and the School Play

Pinky and Rex and the Just-Right Pet

Novels

A Night Without Stars

Morgan’s Zoo

The Watcher

The Misfits

Totally Joe

Edited by James Howe

The Color of Absence: Twelve Stories about Loss and Hope

13: Thirteen Stories That Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

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 products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2006 by James Howe

Illustration copyright © 2006 by Eric Fortune

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

The text for this book is set in Stempl Garamond.

The illustrations for this book are rendered in graphite pencil.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Howe, James, 1946-

Bunnicula meets Edgar Allan Crow / James Howe ; illustrated by Eric Fortune. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

“Ginee Seo Books.”

Summary: An overly alarmed Chester the cat predicts a gruesome fate for the pets in the Monroe household when a writer of juvenile horror fiction and his bird companion stay overnight.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-1458-7 (print)

ISBN-10: 1-4169-1458-7

ISBN-13: 978-1-4424-5190-2 (eBook)

[1. Pets —Fiction. 2. Authors—Fiction. 3. Crows — Fiction.

4. Humorous stories.] I. Fortune, Eric, ill. II. Title.

PZ7.H83727Bum 2006

[Fic]—dc22 2006000574

TO MEREDITH And WILL DAVIS

—J. H.

CONTENTS

EDITOR’S NOTE

ONE

The Letter

TWO

Excellently Weird

THREE

Suddenly There Came a Tapping

FOUR

A Fine Murder of Crows

FIVE

The Odd Guest

SIX

It’s in the Bag

SEVEN

Astonished in the Pumpkin Patch

EIGHT

Too Late?

NINE

The Truth About Edgar and Miles

TEN

Farewell

A LETTER WITHIN A LETTER WITHIN A FINAL WORD FROM THE EDITOR

EDITOR’S NOTE

It was with a heavy heart that I entered my office that Friday afternoon in December. After the holidays, I would be cleaning out my desk one last time—not because my publishing house was moving to a new office but because I was moving to a new life. I wanted to believe that I’d made the right decision. After all, I’d yearned to take up sheep farming for as long as I could remember. Still, when I opened that door and beheld the shelves overflowing with books; the framed photos, plaques, and awards covering the walls; the sharpened pencils with their worn-down erasers; and the half-read manuscripts and half-eaten candy bars littering my desk, I couldn’t help asking: Could sheep bring me anywhere near the pleasure I’d found in the company of authors?