VIKING
Published by Penguin Group
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First published in 2009 by Viking, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group
Text copyright © David Adler, 2009
Illustrations copyright © Penguin Young Readers Group, 2009 All rights reserved
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Adler, David A.
Cam Jansen and the basketball mystery / by David A. Adler ; illustrated by Joy Allen. p. cm.
Summary: When a special autographed basketball is stolen, Cam Jansen uses her photographic memory to identify the thief.
eISBN : 978-1-101-16273-6
[1. Basketball—Fiction. 2. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Allen, Joy, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.A2615Caabd 2009 [E]—dc22 2008046694
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To my adorable grandson
Jonathan “Yoni” Alex
—D.A.
To Jeff and his bouncing basketball
coming home each day from the park
—J.A.
Chapter One
“Wow!” Mr. Shelton said. “I look so young!”
Cam, her friend Eric Shelton, and Eric’s family were on their way to Hamilton High School. They were going there to watch the last basketball game of the season. It was also the last game for Coach Oscar Jenkins. Eric’s parents were sitting on the front seat of the SUV. The children were sitting in the back.
Cam looked at Mr. Shelton. The hair around his ears was mostly gray. His face had lots of wrinkles. Cam didn’t think he looked young.
Mr. Shelton turned and said, “Look at how young I am in this picture.”
He gave Cam his high school yearbook. It was open to a picture of the basketball team.
“There’s Dad,” Eric said, and pointed.
Mr. Shelton was wearing a basketball uniform, and he did look young.
Eric said, “Look at the player next to Dad, the one at the end of the bench. That’s Danny’s father. The man standing in the tie and suit is Coach Jenkins.”
“This is a great picture,” Cam said.
“Look on the next page,” Mr. Shelton said. “There are pictures of us playing basketball.”
Cam wanted to remember the pictures. She looked at them. Then she blinked her eyes and said, “Click!”
Cam has what people call a photographic memory. It’s as if she has pictures in her head of everything she’s seen. She always says “Click!” when she wants to remember something. Cam says Click! is the sound her mental camera makes when it takes a picture.
“Here we are,”
Yvonne Lehman
Laura Boudreau
Bryan Gruley
Saro Yen
Nino Ricci
Verónica Wolff
Dana Elmendorf
Jasmine Haynes
Melody Carlson
MAGGIE SHAYNE