Horrid Henry and the Scary Sitter by Francesca Simon Page A

Sitter
    Horrid Henry’s Christmas

HORRID HENRY
AND THE
SCARY SITTER

    Francesca Simon
    Illustrated by
Tony Ross

Text © Francesca Simon 2002
Internal illustrations © Tony Ross 2002
Cover illustrations © Tony Ross 2008
Cover and internal design © 2009 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
    Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
    The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
    Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567–4410
(630) 961–3900
Fax: (630) 961–2168
www.jabberwockykids.com
    Originally published in Great Britain in 2002 by Orion Children’s Books.
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Simon, Francesca.
  Horrid Henry and the scary sitter / Francesca Simon ; illustrated by Tony Ross.
    v. cm.
      Contents: Horrid Henry tricks and treats—Horrid Henry and the bogey babysitter—Horrid Henry’s raid—Horrid Henry’s car journey.
 [1. Behavior—Fiction.] I. Ross, Tony, ill. II. Title.
 PZ7.S604Hre 2009
 [Fic]—dc22
    2009017470
     
    Printed and bound in the United States of America.
    VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

 
    To my old friends Caroline Elton and
Andrew Franklin, and my new ones
Miriam, Jonathan, and Michael

1
HORRID HENRY TRICKS AND TREATS
    Halloween! Oh happy, happy day! Every year Horrid Henry could not believe it: an entire day devoted to stuffing your face with candy and playing horrid tricks. Best of all, you were
supposed
to stuff your face and play horrid tricks. Whoopee!
    Horrid Henry was armed and ready. He had toilet paper rolls. He had water pistols. He had shaving cream. Oh my, would he be playing tricks tonight. Anyone who didn’t instantly hand over a fistful of candy would get it with the cream. And woe betide any fool who gave him an apple. Horrid Henry knew how to treat rotten grown-ups like that.
    His red and black devil costume lay ready on the bed, complete with evil mask, twinkling horns, trident, and whippy tail. He’d scare everyone wearing that.
    “Heh heh heh,” said Horrid Henry, practicing his evil laugh.
    “Henry,” came a little voice outside his bedroom door, “come and see my new costume.”
    “No,” said Henry.
    “Oh please, Henry,” said his younger brother, Perfect Peter.
    “No,” said Henry. “I’m busy.”
    “You’re just jealous because
my
costume is nicer than yours,” said Peter.
    “Am not.”
    “Are too.”
    Come to think of it, what
was
Peter wearing? Last year he’d copied Henry’s monster costume and ruined Henry’s Halloween. What if he were copying Henry’s devil costume? That would be just like that horrible little copycat.
    “All right, you can come in for two seconds,” said Henry.
    A big, pink, bouncy bunny bounded into Henry’s room. It had little white bunny ears. It had a little white bunny tail. It had pink polka dots everywhere else. Horrid Henry groaned. What a stupid costume. Thank goodness
he
wasn’t wearing it.

    “Isn’t it great?” said Perfect Peter.
    “No,” said Henry. “It’s horrible.”
    “You’re just saying that to be mean, Henry,” said Peter, bouncing up and down. “I can’t wait to go trick-or-treating in it tonight.”
    Oh no. Horrid Henry felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach. Henry would be expected to go out trick-or-treating—with Peter! He, Henry, would have to walk around with a pink polka dot bunny. Everyone would see him. The shame of it! Rude Ralph would never stop teasing him. Moody Margaret