Candy Kingdom Chaos Read online

  “Hi, Nadine,” Nancy called.

  Nadine didn’t wave back. Or smile. Instead her hand dropped down over her jacket pocket.

  Nancy watched as Nadine’s hand pressed against her pocket tightly. It was then that something clicked for Nancy. . . .

  “Bess, George,” Nancy murmured. “I think I know who took the bracelet.”

  Clue Crew—and YOU!

  Now’s your chance to think like the Clue Crew and solve the mystery of the missing candy-striped bracelet! Or turn the page to solve this whodunit.

  1. So far the Clue Crew ruled out Andrea, Antonio, and the Sour Power Pals. Can you think of more bracelet-grabber suspects? Get a paper and pen and then write down your answers.

  2. When Nadine covered her pocket, it gave Nancy an idea. Do you know what her idea might be? Write one or more on a piece of paper.

  3. Antonio’s lost magnifying glass came in handy for Nancy, Bess, and George. What other tools might be helpful for detectives like the Clue Crew—and you?

  WRIST TWIST

  “Who, Nancy?” Bess whispered. “Who took Nadine’s bracelet?”

  “Nadine!” Nancy whispered back.

  “Why would Nadine steal her own bracelet?” George hissed.

  “You saw how upset Nadine was,” Bess reminded her. “She was practically crying over her lost bracelet.”

  “Nadine’s an actress, remember?” Nancy whispered. “Anyway, we have to look inside her pocket right now.”

  “Another pocket?” Bess groaned. “Great.”

  “What are you guys talking about?” Nadine called as the girls walked up the path. “I have to run an errand for my mom.”

  “This won’t take long, Nadine,” Nancy said. “We just want to ask you something.”

  Nadine raised an eyebrow. “You do? What?”

  “Here’s our picture from the end of the Sour Power Pals ride,” Bess explained as she held it up. “In it you’re still wearing your candy-striped bracelet.”

  “Impossible,” Nadine insisted, shaking her head. “I lost my bracelet somewhere inside the ride. I told you I felt some kind of tug, remember?”

  “That must have been Antonio,” George said coolly.

  “Antonio?” Nadine asked surprised.

  “Antonio Elefano was sitting right behind you on the boat,” George explained. “He told us he dropped a spider in your pocket—”

  “Spider?” Nadine cried. “Ewwwww!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George watched as Nadine frantically emptied her pockets. Out flew a pack of gum, a cherry lip balm, a squiggly gummy spider, and last but not least a red-and-white candy-striped bracelet!

  George looked at the bracelet and then pumped her fist. “My plan worked again,” she declared. “I am on a roll!”

  Nadine wasn’t celebrating. “Phooey,” she murmured under her breath. “I should have known the Clue Crew would figure it out.”

  Nancy picked up the red-and-white candy-striped bracelet. It was exactly like the ones she, Bess, and George were wearing. The missing bracelet!

  “Why did you do it, Nadine?” Nancy asked gently. “Why did you take off your own bracelet and hide it from us?”

  Nadine blinked away tears. She then threw back her shoulders and said, “Because I didn’t want to ride the Twisting Taffy Coaster. That’s why.”

  The Clue Crew stared wide-eyed at Nadine.

  “The Twisting Taffy Coaster?” Nancy repeated. “Why didn’t you want to ride it?”

  “I’m scared of roller coasters,” Nadine confessed. “More than I’m scared of icky spiders.”

  “The one in your pocket was a Gummy Pests candy,” Bess said.

  “It’s still gross,” Nadine sniffled.

  Nancy, Bess, and George listened as Nadine explained everything: how she pulled off her bracelet while the girls were running toward the Twisting Taffy Coaster. How she stuck it in her jacket pocket and told them it was lost.

  “I think I get it, Nadine,” George said. “If you didn’t have the bracelet, you couldn’t go back to Candy Kingdom.”

  “And if you couldn’t go back to Candy Kingdom,” Bess added, “you wouldn’t have to ride the Twisting Taffy Coaster.”

  “Right,” Nadine murmured.

  Nancy felt bad for Nadine and understood why she hid her bracelet. But there was still something she didn’t get.

  “Why didn’t you tell us, Nadine?” Nancy asked. “Why didn’t you tell us you didn’t want to ride any coasters?”

  “Because you gave me your fourth prize bracelet!” Nadine exclaimed. “I didn’t want to spoil your fun by being a downer!” She heaved a sigh and said, “Sorry. I don’t blame you if you take someone else to Candy Kingdom this week.”

  “Someone else?” Nancy repeated. She smiled as she shook her head. “We want you to come with us to Candy Kingdom, Nadine.”

  Nadine gasped while Bess and George nodded in agreement. “Me?” she said. “Are you sure?”

  “Totally,” Bess declared. “And you don’t have to ride the Twisting Taffy Coaster if you don’t want to.”

  “You’re not a downer either,” George told Nadine with a smile. “A drama queen sometimes . . . but never a downer.”

  Drama queen? Nancy’s eyes lit up as the words gave her an idea . . .

  “Nadine?” Nancy asked. “Why don’t you try acting like someone who’s brave on coasters and loves them too?”

  “Yeah, Nadine,” Bess agreed. “If you act brave, maybe you’ll feel brave too!”

  Nadine finally smiled. “I played a squirrel one year in the class play,” she said, “and I had a craving for nuts a whole week.”

  “So?” George asked.

  “So,” Nadine declared happily, “it might work!”

  The next morning, Nancy’s dad drove the Clue Crew and Nadine back to Candy Kingdom. Mr. Drew was happy to ride the Marshmallow Mix-Up. Nadine rode the Twisting Taffy Coaster, not once, but twice!

  “You did it, Nadine!” Nancy cheered.

  Nadine’s candy-striped bracelet dangled around her wrist as she planted both hands on her hips.

  “You mean Princess Extrema,” Nadine announced. “Coaster Hero of the Universe!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George exchanged smiles. Their friend was back at Candy Kingdom and better than ever!

  “And guess what, Nadine?” Nancy asked. “You can ride the Twisting Taffy Coaster every day this week.”

  “And the Bubble Gum Bobsled, the Gumdrop Go-Carts, the Licorice Loop-the-Loop, and Minty Matterhorn!” Bess said.

  “There’s only one word to describe all that,” George said with two thumbs-up. “SWEET!”

  Test your detective skills with another Clue Book mystery:

  Nancy Drew Clue Book #8: World Record Mystery

  “Go, Katie! Go, Katie!”

  Nancy Drew and her best friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne, joined the rest of the crowd cheering for River Height’s teen Katie McCabe as she spun across the electronic floor pad of the Dance-A-Thon video game. The arcade was full of fans watching the gaming whiz practice her moves. Katie’s feet flew fast on the lit-up squares, and she added arm movements to match the rhythm. In just a few hours, a judge from the Beamish Book of World Records would be there to record Katie’s attempt to break the current high score!

  “This is so exciting!” exclaimed Nancy.

  “I hope by the time I’m sixteen I can dance like Katie,” Bess said. She tried out a kick step and almost crashed into George.

  Nancy laughed. “Good thing you have a few years to practice. I think you might need them.”

  Nancy and her friends were eight, and even though they didn’t have dance moves like Katie, they were already experts at one thing: solving mysteries. Nancy, Bess, and George called themselves the Clue Crew.

  George shook her head, causing her short brown hair to flop this way and that. “I know dancing takes a lot of athletic skill, but I’ll take soccer over sashaying anytime.”

  George was the tomboy of
their group. She and her cousin Bess were as different as night and day, but that didn’t stop them from being close as could be.

  Bess pulled her blond hair into a ponytail and fastened it with a sparkly clip. “I just hope the judge hurries up and gets here.”

  Nancy laughed at her eager friend. “I hate to tell you, but I heard that the judge isn’t scheduled to arrive for a couple of hours. That just means we have time to play some games of our own, if you want.”

  George led the way to the change machine that let them exchange their allowance money for game tokens. “How about some Skee-Ball to start?” she suggested. “It’s my favorite.”

  The three girls took turns bowling at the Skee-Ball game. Bess got three balls into the tiny opening, worth one hundred points, and collected six tickets when the game ended.

  “I’m saving up for the lava lamp I saw behind the prize counter,” Bess said. “It will look super groovy in my room! And the base is pink—my favorite!”

  “You’ll need to win a lot more games to have enough tickets for a prize that big, Bess,” Nancy said, handing her friend the three she’d scored.

  “I have that same lava lamp in my arcade and it costs seventy-five fewer tickets than here.”

  The girls turned around to find Christopher Finn, the owner of Gamespot, just behind them. His arcade was down the street and was another popular hangout spot for the kids in River Heights.

  “Sorry to eavesdrop,” Mr. Finn said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “It’s just so crowded in here, I couldn’t help but stand close.”

  Nancy was jostled again, this time by a kid racing past her to the photo booth. She grimaced. “That’s okay, Mr. Finn. There are a ton of people in here today.”

  “Tell me about it,” he replied. “My arcade’s practically a ghost town this morning. Everyone would rather be here, cheering on Katie. I sure wish I had the Dance-A-Thon game at my place.”

  Mr. Finn hung his head and shuffled past the girls. Bess, Nancy, and George shared a sympathetic look, but it only took a few moments for them to get back in the mood to play.

  The arcade was full of energy and sounds: bells, dings, chimes, laughter, and happy squeals!

  Nancy was a pro with the giant padded hammer as she earned eight tickets at Whack-A-Worm. Next the girls climbed into plastic cars that moved them side to side and up and down as they raced one another on big screens in front of them. Bess and Nancy leaned into the racetrack turns while George yelled at her car to go “faster, faster!”

  When they were done racing, Bess and George played against each other in air hockey. For two girls so different, their skills were well-matched and the game ended in a tie score.

  “Hmm, I know we said I’d play the winner, but how will we pick now?” Nancy asked, rubbing her chin.

  “I’ll play you, Nancy.”

  The girls spun around to see Michael Malone holding up a game token in his hand. Michael was in fourth grade and a close buddy of Ned Nickerson, one of Nancy’s friends.

  “Sure, Michael. I’ll play you,” Nancy said. “Are you any good?”

  Michael held the token up to the sky and blew on it, before dropping it into the air hockey machine and pressing Start.

  “Not to brag too much, but I’m good at every game. I have the high score on three of the machines here.”

  He flipped the red puck in his hands before setting it onto the center of the table.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CAROLYN KEENE is the author of the ever-popular Nancy Drew series of books.

  PETER FRANCIS lives and works in the United Kingdom. When he’s not helping the Clue Crew solve mysteries, he can be found sketching frantically in his studio, investigating hidden landscapes, or growing his own vegetables.

  Test your detective skills with even more Clue Book mysteries:

  Nancy Drew Clue Book #8: World Record Mystery

  ALADDIN

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids

  authors.simonandschuster.com/Carolyn-Keene

  authors.simonandschuster.com/Peter-Francis

  Don’t miss a single

  Nancy Drew Clue Book:

  Pool Party Puzzler

  Last Lemonade Standing

  A Star Witness

  Big Top Flop

  Movie Madness

  Pets on Parade

  And coming soon:

  World Record Mystery

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin hardcover edition March 2017

  Text copyright © 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Peter Francis

  Also available in an Aladdin paperback edition.

  ALADDIN and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  NANCY DREW, NANCY DREW CLUE BOOK, and colophons are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Designed by Karina Granda

  The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally.

  The text of this book was set in Adobe Garamond Pro.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2016961755

  ISBN 978-1-4814-5827-6 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-5826-9 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-5828-3 (eBook)