EXCERPT
Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine
by Sands Hetherington
Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine is the second title in the Night Buddies series, a 7-times award-winning chapter book series for kids ages 7 and up. Also available: Night Buddies and the Pineapple Cheesecake Scare (read my blog post). Coming March 2015: Night Buddies Go Sky High.
This book tour is brought to you by Reading Addiction Book Tours. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
In the second book in the Night Buddies series, red crocodiles start popping up all over the city, creating confusion, committing crimes, and causing Crosley to go a little crazy at the sight of them.
The impostors must be stopped, and Night Buddies John and Crosley are just the guys to stop them!
Stakeouts and wild chases in a fantastic flying machine, far-out schemes to snare the impostors, and a never-ending supply of Crusted Crème Fro-Madge frozen yogurt make for one totally super night.
These adventures after lights-out will delight any young reader who relishes an adventure/fantasy in the wee hours of the night.
The Night Buddies series revolves around the nighttime adventures of a young boy named John, who is not ready to go to sleep, and a bright red crocodile named Crosley who turns up under John’s bed.
Each book starts by having this unlikely pair sneaking out of John’s house using Crosley’s I-ain’t-here doodad, which makes them invisible to John’s parents. They embark on their Program, the Night Buddies word for Adventure, and make their way around the Borough chasing down enemies and cleaning up the mishaps at hand.
Book Video
Excerpt
Okay, since you’re here I guess you’re all hot to hear about it, right? About the next big adventure Crosley and me got into. This makes two now, two Programs. That’s what we call them in the Night Buddies and please don’t ask me why that is. They start at bedtime and go all night, but you already know about that if you checked out the first one. And you know why I don’t much go for pineapple cheesecakes anymore, either. Not that there’s anything wrong with pineapple cheesecakes, okay? It’s just that I’ve seen way more of the things than I want to for the next twenty-five years. I’ll be real old then. Me, John (no-middle-initial) Degraffenreidt, your faithful correspondent.
The Program I’m talking about right now started out just like the first one did. That part’s pretty much up to the crocodile on assignment. All I do is go to bed on a night when I really, really don’t want to, and then I just lay there and wait, and Crosley comes crawling out of someplace with his flashlight lit. That’s how he likes to do it, and that’s fine with me.
But hey, let me get going here! So I’m laying there in bed on this night we’re talking about, okay? Wide awake and waiting and waiting for something to happen but nothing ever does.
So I’m starting to worry, right?
“Hey listen, Cros, it’s safe. Mom an’ Dad are both downstairs.”
I waited a pretty long time again.
“Cros — Are ya there? Crosley — ?”
Nothing. Dark.
I got up and went over and looked inside the closet and then I looked under the bed. “Crosley, are ya down there? I really don’t feel like sleepin’ an’ you said — ”
It was way too dark to see anything, specially under the bed.
“Hey, you promised, Crosley!”
“ — SNERK! SNK-SNORK!” Rustle!
I grinned really big but you couldn’t see it in the dark.
“Hey Crosley, turn your flashlight on. What’s the matter, you asleep under there? I thought ya said you’d be in the closet.”
“SNERK! WUFF! Say what? FUP! — Uh, well HELLO there, ol’ Night Buddy o’ mine! How on earth ya been keepin’ yourself? I didn’t think ya was ever gonna come t’ bed!”
It was that voice like a chain saw with the volume knob turned down. Turned down most of the time, I mean.
“Not so loud, Cros. Switch on your flashlight. I can’t see nothin’.”
“Ain’t got no flashlight,” said the chain saw.
“Why not? I thought it was a major part o’ your equipment.”
“Forgot t’ go get a new one. Wait, hang on, lemme crawl out from under here — ”
I giggled: “You were sleepin’, weren’t ya? That’s why ya didn’t get in the closet — Oop! —
Praise for the Book
"Kids love these adventures because they are visual, inventive, engage the absurd, and still mix a level of adventure with anxiety regarding the antics of the players. It is another success for Sands Hetherington!" ~ Grady Harp
"Young readers will not only enjoy the predicaments in which John and his buddy find themselves, but also be introduced to such words as purloin, nuance, hyperbole, and euphony (there is a glossary to help explain them). Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine is a fun and satisfying story for kids of all ages who like to read mysteries." ~ Wayne S. Walker
"This is a great sequel to the first book in this series. I love the idea of the Night Buddies, a secret agent program to help kids get tired and go to sleep. The book had lots of humor in it and it is appropriate for kids of all ages. [...] Some parents may not like the purposely misspelled words and made up words (Crosley speaks very unusually), but I liked it and thought it really made Crosley have a cool personality. I am looking forward to the next book in the series!" ~ This Kid Reviews Books
"This Night Buddies story is fast-paced, easy to read, and holds your attention. You'll easily fall in with the 'lingo' and enjoy the characters you meet, like Fast Fanny Farnsworth, Crenwinkle from Headquarters, and Officer Finnegan on Elmer. There's plenty of silliness to appeal to kids - especially reluctant boy readers and girls who like things exciting and even a little bit 'gross' at times. [...] This is one fun book to read out loud with children. They will enjoy listening to it and probably will want to read it to you, too. Sands Hetherington is already working on the third Night Buddies story and enjoys reading them to his grand children." ~ Penelope Anne Cole
About the Illustrator
Jessica Love grew up in California, with two artist parents. She studied printmaking and drawing at UC Santa Cruz, then went on to study acting at The Juilliard School in NYC. Her favorite way to work is collaborative, which is why illustration is such a treat.
Some of her inspirations are Maurice Sendak, Edmund Dulac, Lisbeth Zwerger and of course, the incomparable Hilary Knight. Jessica currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, toggling back and forth between her work as an actor and her work as an artist.
About the Author
Sands Hetherington credits his son John for being his principal motivator. Sands raised his son as a single parent from the time John was six. He read to him every night during those formative years. He and young John developed the Crosley crocodile character in the series during months of bedtime story give-and-take. Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro. He lives in Greensboro.
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