Sam Wu Is Not Afraid of Sharks Read online

  STERLING CHILDREN’S BOOKS and the distinctive Sterling Children’s Books logo are registered trademarks of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

  Text © 2018 Katie Tsang and Kevin Tsang

  Illustrations © 2018 Nathan Reed

  Additional illustrations © 2018 Egmont Ltd.

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  ISBN 978-1-4549-3258-1

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  TO OUR SIBLINGS:

  JACK, JANE, AND STEPHANIE

  -Katie & Kevin Tsang

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1: MY HISTORY AS A CERTIFIED, DEFINITELY NOT AFRAID GHOST HUNTER

  CHAPTER 2: ONE FISH, TWO FISH

  CHAPTER 3: ALIEN ENCOUNTER

  CHAPTER 4: EVIL SHARK LORDS

  CHAPTER 5: A DANGEROUS: INVITATION

  CHAPTER 6: SHARKS DON’T LIVE ON THE MOON

  CHAPTER 7: BUTTERBUTT THE BEACH CAT

  CHAPTER 8: QUARANTINE

  CHAPTER 9: PRAWN CRACKERS AND PAJAMAS

  Chapter 10: UNDERWATER SPACESUIT

  CHAPTER 11: AN ATTACK IN: THE POOL!

  CHAPTER 12: YOU CAN’T GET: CHICKEN POX TWICE

  CHAPTER 13: THE EIGHT SENSES: OF DOOM!

  CHAPTER 14: A PARTY . . . FOR SHARKS!

  CHAPTER 15: CAKE FOR HEROES

  About the Authors

  Acknowledgments

  My name is Sam Wu, and I am NOT afraid of sharks. Or ghosts. Or anything else, no matter what a certain someone—that someone being Ralph Philip Zinkerman the Third—might tell you. And whateveranyone tells you, I am NOT Scaredy-Cat Sam.

  You might have heard about my adventures with some ghosts. They started in the Space Museum and then everything snowballed from there.1

  Anyway, I’ve established that I’m NOT afraid of ghosts. NOT even the Ghost King, who is the number-one bad guy in the entire universe. I know this from my favorite show,

  There was a ghost in my house and we— that’s me and my friends Zoe and Bernard—had to find it and chase it out of my house.

  True story.2 We even have the ghost hunter certificates to prove it.

  Back to me being brave.

  I’m so brave that my sidekick is an actual, genuine, man-eating snake named Fang.3

  I thought that by proving I wasn’t afraid of ghosts nobody would call me Scaredy-Cat Sam anymore. I was wrong.

  It was just the beginning of proving how NOT afraid I am.

  1I recently realized that when people say “snowballed” they don’t really mean an actual snowball like you’d throw at an enemy. They mean an AVALANCHE. Which sounds terrifying.NOT that I’m afraid of avalanches.

  2 This story might NOT be 100 percent true, but don’t tell Ralph Philip Zinkerman that. Or his twin sister, Regina.

  3Fang doesn’t actually have fangs, and I’ve also never seen him eat a man, but that isn’t important. The important thing is that Fang is an actual snake, and he’s my very scary sidekick. NOT scary to me, scary to everyone else. Except to my little sister, Lucy, who is apparently not afraid of anything.

  After the INCIDENT at the Space Museum, which won’t be spoken of (it involved me, an Astro Blast Simulator, and a change of pants), I had to prove my bravery by getting a snake sidekick and becoming a certified ghost hunter.

  It’s kind of a long story. All you need to know is that I proved how BRAVE I am.

  But apparently, bravery is something you have to prove over and over again.

  I thought everything would go back to normal and I’d never have to hear the words

  “Scaredy-Cat Sam”

  again. But then we had a school trip to the aquarium. And that was when things really went wrong.4

  It should have been a perfect day. I wasn’t 100 percent sure what to expect at the aquarium, but my best friend Bernard swore it was going to be

  AMAZING.

  Up until this point I’d had exactly three experiences with the deep sea:

  1. On my favorite show, there was once an episode where they flew to a water planet and met a flying space ocean turtle named Stephanie. There was also an Evil Shark Lord who was in cahoots with the Ghost King5. It was a great episode. Most people would have found it TERRIFYING, but I was only a little bit scared.

  2. The beaches in Hong Kong (where my family is from) very sensibly have shark nets. To keep out the sharks. My little sister, Lucy, wondered what would happen if a shark got IN the shark net, but I told her that was impossible.6

  3. When I asked Na-Na (that’s my grandma—she lives with us) what an aquarium was, she told me it was like the big fish tanks at the seafood restaurants in Chinatown, which we go to on special occasions. Na-Na always picks out a fish that is STILL SWIMMING in a fish tank for us to have for dinner. One time I named the fish, but then it came out on a plate, so I don’t name the fish from the tank ANYMORE.

  So I thought that the aquarium was going to be like a giant fish tank where you picked out your dinner. When I told Bernard and Zoe that their mouths dropped open.

  “EW!” said Zoe.

  I frowned. “Zoe, you eat fish. Just yesterday you had fish sticks for lunch,” I said.

  “That’s different!” she spluttered. We were on the bus on our way to the aquarium.

  “How?” I asked.

  “It just IS! Tell him, Bernard,” she said.

  Bernard frowned and then took out his thinking glasses. He only wears them when he is thinking VERY HARD.

  “Well,” he said. “Fish sticks come in a box. So obviously it is a completely different thing.”

  “Yeah!” said Zoe. “Exactly!”

  “Well, where do they come from before they go in the box? Fish sticks don’t grow on trees like other sticks.” I pointed at a tree to prove my point.

  “I don’t know,” Zoe said loudly (the more unsure about something she is, the louder she gets). “They just are. But I do know you don’t eat the fish at the aquarium.”

  I shrugged. “Try telling Na-Na that.”

  And then we arrived at the aquarium.

  4 But not quite as wrong as they went at the Space Museum. Maybe I should stop going on school trips.

  5 He‣s the number-one enemy in the universe, according to Captain Jane, Spaceman Jack and ME. But Evil Shark Lord is probably enemy number two.

  6 It actually sounded very possible and EXTREMELY scary. But I didn‣t want to worry her so I put on a brave face. All part of being a big brother.

  From the outside, the aquarium looked a lot like the Space Museum. It was a BIG building, and we had to line up to go inside.

  “Hey, Sam Wu-ser,” someone farther back said with a snort. “Do you have a stupid outfit for the aquarium, too?”

  It was Ralph. Only Ralph thinks it’s hilarious to call me Sam Wu-ser because it rhymes with loser. And only Ralph snorts like that. I took a deep breath and tried to remember what my dad had said to do about Ralph. His advice was: “Just ignore him.”

  Ralph pushed his way up through the line until he was right behind me. He started poking me in the back. “Hey! Hey! Sam Wu-ser! I’m talking to you! Hey! Hey.”

  This was, as you might imagine, very hard to ignore.

  “He doesn’t have his outfit on because we’re going to the aquarium, no
t the Space Museum!” said Zoe.

  !!! “OBVIOUSLY.” !!!

  I was, in fact, wearing a

  T-shirt, because it is the best show ever. I made it myself. And in honor of the aquarium trip, I’d even drawn on space turtle Stephanie. I didn’t feel the need to point this out though.

  Ralph was quiet for all of FIVE SECONDS. But then he barreled on. “Hey. Hey, Sam. I heard there is a submarine simulator in there. Bet you’re too scared to get in it. Especially after what happened at the Space Museum.” He started laughing, but it wasn’t a real laugh, it was some sort of pretend villain laugh. Then he pushed past me, because Ralph always pushes in lines, and went to the front.

  “I’d like to put him in a submarine simulator,” Zoe muttered. “And send it to the BOTTOM OF THE SEA!”

  “Yeah!” said Bernard. Then he patted me on the shoulder. “Don’t listen to him, Sam. Everyone has forgotten about—”

  “Don’t say it!” I said. “We don’t talk about it,

  REMEMBER?”

  “Sorry!” said Bernard. Then he coughed. “But, um, you aren’t going to get into the submarine simulator, are you.”

  “Bernard might have a point,” said Zoe, tugging on her ponytail.

  “I wasn’t planning to,” I said. “But please can we stop taking about it.”

  They nodded. Spaceman Jack, my favorite character on, never has to deal with this kind of thing. He NEVER does anything embarrassing, but if he did, his friends would definitely NEVER bring it up.

  “Come along, you three, hurry up!” It was our teacher, Ms. Winkleworth. “We have lots to see—and we don’t want to be late for the feeding at the shark tank!”

  THE FEEDING?

  AT THE WHAT?

  WHAT KIND OF FEEDING?

  WHO

  IS FEEDING WHO

  WHAT?

  Before I had a chance to think about all the ways a live shark-feeding was more than a little dangerous, we were shuffled into the aquarium.

  It was nothing like the fish tanks in Chinatown.

  “See, Sam! How COOL is this?” Bernard waved his arms around. I tried to look at everything all at once, but it was impossible.

  It was as if we were underwater but somehow breathing air. It was like being on a spaceship in water—dark and filled with aliens! Luckily, I have lots of experience with aliens from watching , so I was TOTALLY fine. But otherwise I might have been a tiny bit afraid.

  “That thing isn’t a fish,” I spluttered, pointing at this HUGE PURPLE BLOB that was somehow floating above my head. I could hear Captain Jane (she’s the captain of TUBS, The Universe’s Best Spacecraft) in my head, telling me to take a deep breath and stay calm. “What IS that.”

  “It’s a jellyfish!” said Zoe. Her eyes were huge.

  “LIKE THE POISONOUS KIND?” I asked in a very calm but also very loud way.

  “Yep! That’s right,” said a friendly voice from above me. I looked up. It was someone who worked at the aquarium. Her name tag said “Betty.” “That is a jellyfish! One of forty-eight species we’ve got here in the aquarium.”

  “Ohhhh!” said Zoe and Bernard and everyone else. They all seemed way too excited about the fact that we were now trapped underwater, surrounded by POISONOUS JELLYFISH.

  “Mmmmm,” I said, nodding as if I too was excited. “But, Zoe,” I whispered, “what if it gets out?”

  “It can’t get out!” she whispered back. We’d been pushed forward till our noses were almost touching the glass.

  “That’s what we thought about Fang!” I said in a louder whisper. “And we were pretty wrong about that!”

  As I’ve told you, Fang is my FIERCE SNAKE sidekick. He escaped from his tank once. With the help of Butterbutt, my sister’s cat. It’s kind of a long story. But the point is, he wasn’t supposed to get out of his cage and he did. So I didn’t think Zoe could blame me for being a little . . . antsy 7 about the possibility of super-dangerous creatures escaping from their cages.

  “That was totally different!” she said. “And anyway, Butterbutt isn’t here.”

  “You never know with Butterbutt,” I muttered darkly.

  “Okay, everyone,” said Betty the guide, leading us over to what looked like a pool of ocean monsters, “it’s time for the petting tank! Everyone is going to get a turn to touch some of their favorite sea creatures. We’ve got starfish, sea slugs, and stingrays! Who wants to go first?”

  I stared at Aquarium Guide Betty. “Touch . . . a stingray?” Didn’t Betty hear herself? It says STING in the name! Who would want to touch a STINGray? That’s like asking, “Who wants to pet this SPIKY porcupine? Or this POISONOUS scorpion?”

  “We’ve got a volunteer!” said Betty. She reached out and pulled me forward.

  “Sam won’t do it!” Ralph said with a snort. “He’s, too scared.”

  “No he’s not!” said Zoe. “Right, Sam?”

  “Right,” I said. I tried to smile bravely, but my mouth wasn’t really working.

  It was rubbery and slimy and VERY unpleasant. It felt deadly. And I wasn’t even touching the stinger!

  My whole class gasped.

  Bernard gave me a thumbs-up. I really hoped the stingray didn’t decide to, you know, STING ME.

  “You all right?” asked Betty. “You seem to be a bit shaky.”

  “I’m fine! Fine!” I said. “The water is just . . . cold. Really cold. Brrr!”

  Betty raised her eyebrows. “It’s room temperature.”

  “SO COLD,” I said. I wanted to pull my hand out of the water, but I didn’t know how to do it without everyone noticing.

  “Um, it is probably someone else’s turn,” I said.

  “I want to try!” It was Regina, Ralph’s twin sister. She isn’t awful like he is. She is actually kind of nice. She also doesn’t snort as much. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever heard her snort even once.

  “Well, come on up!” said Betty, who still hadn’t let go of my hand.

  Regina SQUEEZED in next to me and put her hand straight into the water. “This is so cool,” she said, grinning at me.

  “Oh, yeah,” I said casually. “Super cool.” Then Betty let go of my hand, and I whipped it out of the water so fast that I splashed Regina.

  “Sorry!” I said.

  She laughed. “That’s okay! It’s just water.”

  Just STINGRAY-INFESTED WATER, I thought, but I just nodded as if I wasn’t at all worried about the contents of the water.

  I turned around and gave Zoe and Bernard a big grin.

  No more Scaredy-Cat Sam here! Spaceman Jack and Captain Jane would have been proud.

  7 Antsy but definitely NOT scared.

  Now that I’d obviously done the BRAVEST thing anyone could do at the aquarium, I felt much more relaxed.

  “That was great!” I said to Bernard as we made our way through the rest of the aquarium. “Did you see me wrangle that stingray?”

  Bernard blinked. “You mean when the guide put your hand in the water?”

  “I touched it, too!” said Zoe.

  “Yeah, but I think the one I touched was the scariest one,” I said. “Definitely the ringleader of the group.”

  “I don’t think stingrays have leaders,” said Bernard.

  “These ones do,” I said. “I could just tell.”

  Bernard frowned. “I’ll have to look it up later.” Bernard loves to look things up. It is kind of his superpower—being smart and knowing facts. Zoe’s superpower is being super fast. My superpower is being SUPER BRAVE, obviously.

  We turned the corner and in front of us was the biggest tank we’d seen yet.

  THE SHARK TANK.

  Maybe the stingrays weren’t the scariest thing in the aquarium.

  “Gather in close,” said Betty. “But don’t rap on the glass—we don’t want to bother the sharks.”

  “Of course we don’t want to bother the sharks,” I said to Zoe. “Who would want to bother A SHARK?”

  Then I saw who was rapping on th
e glass.

  Ralph. Of course. If anyone was going to annoy a shark it would be him.

  “Did you know that sharks are older than dinosaurs?” asked tour-guide Betty. “They’ve been around for over FOUR HUNDRED MILLION YEARS.”

  Bernard gasped. As I said, he loves facts. He raised his hand. “Does that mean that they are like dinosaurs that live in the sea?”

  “Kind of!” said Betty. “But unlike the dinosaurs, they’ve managed to survive all these years. Masters of survival!”

  And then I saw one. My very first shark sighting. It was NOT going to be my last.

  It looked just like the sharks in the movies but BIGGER and MEANER. It had big black eyes and rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth. And I was sure it was looking right at me.

  “Whoa,” said Zoe.

  “Whoa,” said Bernard.

  I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t believe that I was staring at a REAL LIVE SHARK. Which could EAT ME.

  A few other sharks swam by, too, but the first one—the one staring me down—was definitely the scariest one. NOT that I was scared of it. But everyone else probably was because it was a very scary shark.

  “And we arrived just in time for the feeding!” said Betty.

  Oh, no! The FEEDING! With all of the excitement, I’d forgotten about the FEEDING.

  Ralph cheered. “This is going to be the best!” he said to his friends. “I can’t wait to see the shark DESTROY something.” Then he bared his teeth like a shark.

  “Ralph,” said Regina. “Please calm down.” But she looked excited, too. Everyone looked excited. I didn’t get it! How could you be excited when we still didn’t know WHAT or WHO was going to get fed to the sharks?