Andy Shane and the Barn Sale Mystery Read online

  Chapter 1

  That’s It!

  Chapter 2

  Big Barn Blunder

  Chapter 3

  Solving the Mystery

  Chapter 4

  Unbelievable

  Every year Andy Shane and Granny Webb celebrated their unbirthdays. They always chose a fall day when the jam was made, the tomatoes were canned, and the grass no longer needed mowing. In other words — the perfect time for a party.

  This year, Andy wanted to give Granny the best present ever. So he sat down and made a list of all the things she loved:

  But he couldn’t give her any of these things. Granny didn’t want to collect living things; she just wanted to watch them. He added Binoculars to the list. Granny loved her binoculars.

  Aha! That’s it! Andy knew the perfect gift. He would buy a case to protect the binoculars when he and Granny went hiking through the woods!

  That afternoon, Andy rode his bike to Dolores Starbuckle’s house. “I’ve thought of the perfect present to buy Granny Webb,” he said.

  “But your piggy bank is empty,” said Dolores, who was very practical.

  Andy had forgotten. He’d spent all his money on marbles over the summer. Dolores Starbuckle didn’t forget anything.

  “I’ll earn the money,” said Andy.

  “Doing what?” asked Dolores.

  Andy wasn’t sure, but he’d think of something.

  Later, Dolores and Andy were walking Lucky Duck when they saw an old chair sitting by the side of the road. The chair had a sign that said, FREE. TAKE ME.

  “Wow,” said Dolores. “You could give Granny Webb this chair!”

  “What would she want with an old chair?” asked Andy.

  “You could fix it up —”

  “And sell it!” said Andy. “That’s it! I can have a barn sale!”

  “I’ll help!” said Dolores.

  So Andy got his wagon, and he and Dolores walked up and down the streets in their neighborhood, collecting old plates and lampshades, mops and muffin tins.

  “Why, Andy Shane,” said Granny Webb. “What are you doing with all these things?”

  “We’re having a barn sale!” shouted Dolores.

  Granny could not believe the piles and piles and piles of things taking up the space in her barn. She collapsed into the chair with the FREE sign. “I’ll help,” she said.

  Andy, Dolores, and Granny made posters to hang around town. They decorated flyers and put them up at the post office, in the barber shop, and at the grocery store. Granny even helped Andy and Dolores put an ad in the newspaper.

  On the day of the sale, people began lining up outside the barn even before Andy had set up a table with a money jar.

  When everything was ready, Dolores opened the doors and people rushed in. They couldn’t wait to buy hats and rakes, water wings and pillows.

  While parents raced around the barn looking for bargains, children hugged and petted Lucky Duck. He gave kisses for free.

  Andy and Dolores helped people find the very objects they were looking for. They counted money and made change.

  When visitors learned about Granny’s apple orchard, she offered to give them a tour.

  “Wow,” said Andy, looking around. “We’ve sold almost everything!”

  “Yup,” said Dolores, holding up a sweater with the alphabet on it. “The lady who bought the binoculars wanted this sweater, but it wasn’t her size.”

  “Binoculars?” asked Andy.

  “You know,” said Dolores. “The ones that were hanging on the wall.”

  “Those weren’t for sale!” said Andy. “Those were Granny’s binoculars. She loved those!”

  “How was I supposed to know that?” asked Dolores.

  “They didn’t have a price tag,” said Andy.

  “I thought we forgot to give them a price tag,” said Dolores.

  “I was going to buy her a case for her unbirthday,” said Andy.

  “But you didn’t tell me, Andy Shane!”

  It was true. He hadn’t told her.

  What would Granny say when she discovered they had sold her binoculars? She would be so disappointed!

  Dolores seemed to read his mind. “Well, Andy,” she said, “we’ll just have to get them back.”

  Dolores tried to remember everything she could about the woman who bought the binoculars. “Make a list, Andy,” she said.

  Andy got out his notebook and wrote:

  “Maybe she’s a librarian,” said Dolores. “She did buy a lot of books.”

  “Or,” said Andy, remembering the alphabet sweater, “a teacher!”

  Andy and Dolores decided that she must be the new nursery school teacher at the Little Red Schoolhouse. That afternoon they rode their bikes down to the school to investigate. But because it was Saturday, the building was locked.

  “Now what are we going to do?” asked Andy.

  “Maybe the binoculars are inside,” said Dolores.

  “I could look in the windows if they weren’t so high,” said Andy.

  “Here,” said Dolores, cupping her hands. “I’ll give you a boost.”

  Andy stood on Dolores’s hands and peeked in the schoolhouse window.

  “There’s a woman in there!”

  “Let me see!” said Dolores, dropping Andy to the ground.

  Andy cupped his hands and lifted Dolores into the air. “That’s her!” said Dolores. She banged on the windowpane.

  The woman came outside. “You’re the children who had the barn sale,” she said.

  “You bought the binoculars,” said Dolores.

  “But they weren’t really for sale,” said Andy. “They belong to my Granny Webb.”

  “Oh, dear,” said the woman. “I met a man while I was walking to my car who offered to buy the binoculars from me.”

  “Did you sell them?” asked Andy Shane.

  “I did,” said the woman. “I don’t know the man’s name, but let me tell you everything I remember about him.”

  Andy pulled out his notebook and made a new list:

  “It’s Mr. Merry, the baker!” shouted Andy and Dolores together. They thanked the teacher and rode to one of their favorite places: the Merry Muffin Bakery.

  “Hello, you two,” the baker said. “I was just using my new cookie cutters!”

  “Did you buy a pair of binoculars?” asked Andy.

  “From the teacher?” Dolores added.

  “Because they belong to my Granny Webb,” said Andy Shane.

  “Oh,” said Mr. Merry. “I just made a trade with the antique dealer next door. He had a rare cookbook I wanted.”

  “So now he has the binoculars?” asked Andy.

  “I’m afraid so,” said the baker.

  Dolores and Andy walked into the dimly lit shop. There were the binoculars, sitting on a table. And right beside the binoculars was a case. Andy looked at the price tags. Even with the barn-sale money, he didn’t have enough to buy both of them.

  “Well, at least you can buy back Granny’s binoculars,” said Dolores.

  “True,” said Andy. “But now I’m right back where I started. I don’t have a present for Granny’s unbirthday.”

  The shopkeeper was looking out the window. “How do you like that bike?” said the man.

  Andy thought about his bike. It was a good bike. He had had it for a long time. But the seat was worn. Springs were popping out, and it was getting uncomfortable. Besides, he and Lucky Duck could walk to places together.

  “Would you trade the binoculars case for my bike?” asked Andy.

  Dolores gasped. She was used to seeing Andy on his bike.

  “You’ve got a deal,” s
aid the shopkeeper, holding out his hand. Andy shook it.

  When Andy got home, he hung the binoculars back on the hook in the barn and went upstairs to his room to wrap his present.

  This year, the neighbors and Dolores were invited to Andy’s barn for the unbirthday party.

  Lucky Duck was the official greeter.

  They played Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Musical Chairs, and Red Light, Green Light. They ate cupcakes with sprinkles.

  Finally it was present time. Dolores gave Andy and Granny Webb a picture she had taken of the two of them. They gave her a jar of raspberry jam.

  “Yum!” said Dolores.

  Andy Shane opened his present from Granny. It was a new bike seat and horn.

  Andy looked at Dolores.

  Dolores looked at Andy.

  “Let’s put them on your bike,” said Granny, looking around the barn.

  “Open your present first!” Dolores cried.

  Granny Webb opened her present. It was the binoculars case.

  Andy looked at the wall for Granny’s binoculars. He wanted to show her how well they fit in the case. But they weren’t there.

  Granny looked sheepish. “Andy Shane,” she said quietly, “I traded my binoculars with Kate at the bicycle shop — for a new bike seat.”

  Andy laughed. “I traded my bike to the antique dealer for your binoculars case!”

  “Wow,” said Dolores.

  “Wow,” said the neighbors.

  Andy laughed. “I guess that’s what happens when you have an unbirthday!”

  “It is understandable!” said Granny.

  “You’ll have to wait until your real birthday,” said Dolores.

  “Unless,” said Andy, who was already thinking of a plan. . . .

  The next day, Andy Shane and Granny Webb set up an apple stand. They sold lots of apples.

  Then they went to a barn sale.

  Jennifer Richard Jacobson is the author of all six Andy Shane adventures and the middle-grade novels Small as an Elephant and Paper Things. In elementary school, Jennifer decided to re-create a flea market by pulling a wagon door to door, asking her neighbors if they had any “junk” they no longer needed. She wheeled so many objects home, her parents knew (much like Granny Webb) that they had to help. “People came in droves!” says Jennifer. “I didn’t sell a pair of binoculars, but I mistakenly sold my great-grandmother’s antique typewriter. Oh, how I wish I had that now!” Jennifer Richard Jacobson lives in Maine.

  Abby Carter is the illustrator of many books for children, including the other books about Andy Shane. She also illustrated My Hippie Grandmother by Reeve Lindbergh, Full House: An Invitation to Fractions by Dayle Ann Dodds, and Maggie’s Monkeys by Linda Sanders-Wells. Abby Carter lives in Connecticut.

  Text copyright © 2009 by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Abby Carter

  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 2016

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Jacobson, Jennifer, date.

  Andy Shane and the barn sale mystery / Jennifer Richard Jacobson ; illustrated by Abby Carter. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: After Andy hosts a barn sale to raise money for a case for Granny Webb’s binoculars, he realizes that they accidentally were sold, so with Dolores’s help they try to track down the missing binoculars.

  ISBN 978-0-7636-3599-2 (hardcover)

  [1. Lost and found possessions — Fiction. 2. Friendship — Fiction. 3. Mystery and detective stories.]

  I. Carter, Abby, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.J1529Ae 2009

  [E] — dc22 2008017974

  The illustrations in this book were done in black pencil and black watercolor wash.

  Candlewick Press

  99 Dover Street

  Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

  visit us at www.candlewick.com

 

 

  Jennifer Richard Jacobson, Andy Shane and the Barn Sale Mystery

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