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    Jessica Finch in Pig Trouble (Judy Moody and Friends)


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      .

      .

      .

      For Ashley

      M. M.

      For my nieces, Melanie and Mariel

      E. M.

      Adopting a pig

      —

      or any pet

      —

      is a big decision. Make sure you

      understand the time, care, and cost involved before making a final

      commitment and bringing any critters home! If you are interested

      in learning more about owning and caring for potbellied pigs, ask

      your local librarian to recommend an authoritative and reputable

      guide, or search online for more information.

      This is a work of fiction.

      Names, characters, places,

      and incidents are either products

      of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

      Text copyright © 2014 by Megan McDonald

      Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Peter H. Reynolds

      Judy Moody font copyright © 2003 by Peter H. Reynolds

      Judy Moody®. Judy Moody is a registered trademark of Candlewick Press, Inc.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted,

      or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means,

      graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording,

      without prior written permission from the publisher.

      First electronic edition 2014

      Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2012947726

      ISBN 978-0-7636-5718-5 (hardcover)

      ISBN 978-0-7636-7027-6 (paperback)

      ISBN 978-0-7636-6713-9 (electronic)

      This book was typeset in ITC Stone Informal.

      The illustrations were created digitally.

      Candlewick Press

      99 Dover Street

      Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

      visit us at www.candlewick.com

      CONTENTS

      CHA

      p

      TER

      1

      Just Say

      Oink

      1

      CHA

      p

      TER

      2

      This Little Piggy 19

      CHA

      p

      TER

      3

      The PeeGee WeeGee Club 43

      .

      7

      CHA

      p

      TER

      1

      Just Say

      Oink

      Pigs, pigs, and more pigs! Jessica Finch

      loved pigs.

      Jessica Finch had a dream. A big pig

      dream. She dreamed of having a pet

      pig.

      If she had a pig, they would read

      books together. And ride bikes. And

      have sleepovers.

      .

      Jessica called her friend Judy

      Moody. “Emergency,” she told Judy.

      “Come right away.”

      Judy Moody rode her bike up the

      hill to Jessica’s house.

      “I came as fast as I could,” said

      Judy. “What’s the emergency?”

      “It’s a pig emergency,” said

      Jessica Finch.

      “RARE!” Judy said.

      “Come on,” said Jessica, and Judy

      followed her upstairs to her room.

      .

      Jessica’s room was pink. Pink,

      pinker, pinkest. Pinker than bubble

      gum. Pink as a pig’s tail. And her

      room was full of . . . pigs. Pig books.

      Pig pillows. Pig posters. Piggy banks.

      Even a fuzzy piggy-face rug.

      .

      12

      “Your room is one big pigpen!” said

      Judy.

      “Thanks!” said Jessica. She glanced

      out into the hall. She closed her door.

      She made her voice almost a whisper.

      “Okay. So. You know how it’s

      almost my birthday, right?”

      “Right! Happy almost birthday,”

      said Judy.

      “And you know how there’s only

      one thing I want for my birthday,

      right? More than anything else in the

      whole world.”

      “Umm . . . a piggy cake?” asked

      Judy.

      13

      “No. Not a piggy cake.

      Not a piggy coin purse.

      Not a piggy clock.

      Just one single present. A real-live,

      cute-as-a-button, potbellied pig.”

      .

      14

      Judy’s eyes grew as big as gum balls.

      “Potbellied pigs are super cute and

      super smart and super cuddly,” said

      Jessica. “And I dropped a million and

      one hints, like telling my parents that

      my birthday just happens to be on the

      same day as National Pig Day.”

      “Really?”

      “Really.”

      “Happy almost Pig Day, too,” said

      Judy. “But I think you have about a million

      in one chance of getting a real live P-I-G.

      You might as well ask for an aardwolf.”

      “A-A-R-D-W-O-L-F,” said Jessica

      Finch, Super Speller.

      “So what’s the emergency anyway?”

      Judy asked.

      “Right. You have to help me snoop

      around. I just have to know if I’m getting

      a P-I-G.”

      “Judy Moody, Super Snoop, at your

      service. Where do we start?”

      .

      16

      Jessica squinted her eyes. Jessica

      pinched up her face, thinking. “I

      know!” she said. “Under my mom and

      dad’s bed.”

      “You think there might be a pig

      under your mom and dad’s bed?” Judy

      asked.

      Jessica Finch snorted. “No, see, we

      snoop for normal presents. If we find

      any, that’s bad. If we don’t find any,

      that’s good.”

      Judy scrunched up her face. “How

      is

      no presents a good thing?”

      “If we don’t find presents, I just know

      I’m getting a real pig. If we find normal

      presents, no pig.”

      Judy just shrugged. She had no pig

      sense at all.

      .

      “Come on. I know all the good

    &n
    bsp; hiding places,” said Jessica. “You be

      my lookout.”

      “Roger,” said Judy.

      “Who’s Roger?”

      “Never mind,” said Judy.

      “If you hear footsteps, just say oink,”

      Jessica told Judy. “One oink for Mom.

      Two oinks for Dad.”

      “Gotcha,” said Judy.

      Jessica took Judy’s arm and dragged

      her down the hall.

      19

      Jessica looked under the bed.

      Jessica looked in

      the window seat.

      Jessica went to

      look in the closet.

      .

      “Oink! Oink!” Judy was oinking!

      “Who? What? Where?” asked Jessica.

      “I think I heard footsteps,” said Judy.

      Jessica listened at the top of the

      stairs. Quiet. Dead quiet. “I don’t hear

      anything,” she said.

      “Sorry,” said Judy. “False-

      alarm oink.”

      .

      Jessica opened the closet door. She

      stood on a box. She pulled down a

      bag. Crunch, crunch, crunch went the

      paper. Jessica’s heart sank.

      “Oh, no!”

      “What’s wrong?” Judy asked.

      “I found presents,” said Jessica.

      23

      She peered into the bag. “A piggy

      flashlight. An I Piggies notebook.

      Even a game called Pig Out. That

      means no potbellied pig.”

      “Oink,” said Judy.

      “Ratday,” said Jessica, slumping

      down on the bed.

      “Huh?”

      “It’s Latin. Pig Latin for drat.”

      .

      25

      CHA

      p

      TER

      2

      This Little Piggy

      Jessica Finch was ummedbay outway.

      B-U-M-M-E-D O-U-T.

      Judy tried to cheer her up. “Let’s

      play the game,” Judy whispered.

      “What game?”

      “The Pig Out game!” said Judy.

      “Now? But it’s for my birthday. My

      mom will get mad.”

      “We’ll just play it once,” said Judy.

      “C’mon. It’ll be upersay unfay.”

      .

      “Super fun! Then we put it back and

      nobody will know?” said Jessica.

      “They don’t call me Super Snoop for

      nothing,” said Judy.

      Jessica perked up. She ran back inside,

      grabbed the game, and then ran back

      to her room.

      In no time, Jessica and Judy sat

      crisscross applesauce on the fuzzy

      pink piggy rug.

      .

      28

      “So, how do you play?” asked Judy.

      Jessica tore the lid off of the box.

      “There’s no board. You just roll the five

      little piggies like dice,” said Jessica Finch,

      Pig Expert. “And you get points for how

      they land.” She showed Judy the score

      chart.

      29

      Judy rolled the pigs. “Snorter! Ten

      points!”

      Jessica rolled the pigs. “Side of

      bacon! Minus ten points!”

      Judy rolled the pigs again.

      .

      30

      One landed on top of another.

      “Pig pyramid!” yelled Jessica.

      “Is that good?”

      “Good? That’s fifty points!” said

      Jessica. “You win.”

      “Play again?” Judy begged.

      31

      “Shh,” said Jessica. “Did you hear

      that?”

      “Hear what?”

      Somebody was coming up the stairs.

      .

      32

      “Quick! Hide the pigs!” Jessica

      whispered.

      Judy shoved the pigs under the rug.

      Jessica hid the box under her bed.

      Mrs. Finch walked past Jessica’s

      room. Mrs. Finch went down the hall

      into the bathroom.

      33

      “Phew. That was close,” said Jessica.

      “I better put this back.”

      “And I better go home,” said Judy.

      “Before we get in pig trouble.”

      Jessica and Judy laughed like hyenas.

      “Are you sure you have to go?”

      “Yep. I have to feed the . . . um . . .

      my Venus flytrap.”

      .

      As soon as Judy was gone, Jessica

      put the game back in the box. “One

      little, two little, three little, four little

      piggies

      —” Uh-oh! Piggy Number Five

      was issingmay! Missing!

      35

      Jessica looked under her leg. She

      looked under the rug.

      She looked under the bed.

      NTBF! Nowhere To Be Found.

      Pig-a-ma-jig!

      .

      Jessica Finch ran out of the house

      and hopped on her super-pink bike.

      She rode super fast to Judy Moody’s

      house. She honked her Super Pig bike

      horn all the way up the driveway to

      the Moody backyard.

      Jessica took off her helmet. She

      heard noises coming from a blue tent

      in the backyard. A tent with a sign

      that said T. P. CLUB.

      .

      “Knock, knock,” called Jessica.

      Judy poked her head out of the tent

      flap.

      “Do you know where my pig is?”

      Jessica asked Judy.

      39

      Judy’s eyes bugged out. “Pig? What

      pig?”

      “One of the little plastic piggies is

      missing. From the Pig Out game.”

      “Oh, that pig,” said Judy.

      Pee! Gee! Wee! Gee!

      Jessica heard a strange sound. She

      looked around. “Hey, what was that

      sound?”

      “What sound? I didn’t hear a

      sound.”

      Pee! Gee! Wee! Gee!

      “There it is again. A squeak. A high-

      pitched squeak.”

      “Maybe it was a mouse,” said Judy.

      “It was louder than a mouse.”

      “I mean, maybe it was Mouse.

      My cat.”

      .

      40

      “Your cat’s in there?”

      “Sure. Why not?”

      Jessica shrugged. Then she heard

      the sound again.

      Pee! Gee! Wee! Gee!

      “There. Didn’
    t you hear that?”

      “Squeaky door,” said Judy.

      “But your tent doesn’t have a door,”

      said Jessica. Sometimes Judy Moody

      was one oink short of a litter.

      “Then it must be Stink,” said Judy.

      “Squeaky Stink.”

      “Your little brother’s in there, too?”

      “Sure. Why not?”

      “Well, can I come in?” said Jessica.

      “NO!” said Judy. “I mean, no.”

      Stink popped his head out of the tent,

      too. He pointed to the word CLUB on

      the sign. “Members only,” he said.

      .

      42

      M-E-A-N-I-E!”

      “Yeah, sorry. Those are the rules,”

      said Judy.

      “But I never get to be in your clubs.

      Can’t I be in your club? Just this once?

      For my birthday?”

      Judy shook her head. “Rules are

      rules,” she said.

      “Atray inkfay,” said Jessica.

      “I am not a rat fink,” said Judy.

      Jessica Finch made a pinch face.

      Jessica Finch felt like she might cry.

      “Judy Moody, you are not a friend.

      You are not even a Super Snoop. You

      are just . . . a big . . .

     

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