Gustav Gloom and the People Taker (9781101620748) by Kristen (ILT) Adam-Troy; Margiotta Castro Page B

“What?”
    Fernie spoke very slowly as if afraid that the words would jam together if she didn’t let them out one at a time. “Shadow dinosaurs . . . like shadow cats.”
    â€œWell, not exactly like shadow cats. They’re much larger.”
    Fernie grew irritated with him for changing the subject. “I came across the street looking for my cat, Harrington.”
    He came down a step. “Why would you think your cat was over here?”
    â€œI saw his
shadow
chase him here.”
    â€œOh,” he said. “That makes sense.”
    â€œHow does that make sense?”
    â€œIt just does,” Gustav Gloom said. “Cats are always starting fights with their shadows. They’re much better at seeing their shadows move than people are. I’d better help you find him.”
    This was, of course, exactly what Fernie had wanted in the first place, but right now it was only as useful as a hamburger stand on the ground to a hungry girl riding the roller coaster: a good place to wind up eventually, but not at all helpful when she still had to ride wherever the tracks took her.
    Getting more of the big picture with every sentence, she said, “I ran away from some other shadows in the front hall and saw a few hundred others in that other big room up front. Another one, a girl’s shadow, attacked the Beast for me, just like that.”
    â€œThere are a lot of shadows here,” Gustav said. “Most of them don’t talk to me much, but sometimes they do me favors. Maybe one took a liking to you.”
    â€œ
Shadows
live here.”
    â€œIt’s not so unusual,” he said. “They live in your house, too.”
    â€œBut you’re
not
a shadow.”
    â€œDo I
look
like a shadow?”
    â€œNo,” Fernie said. “You just look like a kid who never gets any sun.”
    â€œThat’s what I am, more or less.”
    â€œSo how did you end up being raised in a shadow house?”
    Gustav shrugged. “I was adopted.”
    The invisible string holding Fernie’s jaw shut seemed to snap again. She closed her mouth with more difficulty than that act had ever given her and continued to follow the strange, pale boy up the next four turns of the spiral staircase until they reached the top, the bedroom of the shadow dinosaurs.
    It wasn’t anything at all like what Fernie had imagined. Somehow she’d pictured a typical boy’s bedroom ten stories tall, with furniture to fit, including bunk beds eight stories tall, a gigantic wicker toy chest, and bright blue wallpaper with rocket ships on it. She’d even imagined a tyrannosaurus rex in a striped red T-shirt and khaki shorts sitting at a gigantic desk playing video games. She hadn’t really expected any of this because it would have been ridiculous, but it was the image that had come to mind, and it wasn’t all that unreasonable given how much very real ridiculousness the Gloom house had.
    Instead, what she saw when the top of the staircase opened up into a much larger room was a dark gray mist over what felt like, but didn’t even come close to looking like, a dense tropical jungle. The air smelled like the elephant house at every zoo she’d ever been to, which as far as Fernie was concerned answered a question she’d never before this day had any reason to ask: whether shadow dinosaurs made shadow dinosaur poop. Fernie wasn’t sure that she wanted to venture into that murk, where the only warning she would have of any nearby hungry mouths would be when she suddenly found herself inside one. “Can we take a break here until I get used to this?”
    â€œHow long will that take?” Gustav asked.
    â€œHow about just until I get used to knowing that I’ll never get used to it?”
    â€œOkay,” Gustav said agreeably. “But when I say we have to hurry up and go, we have to hurry up and go. Otherwise the dinosaurs may be a