PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
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Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
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Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Registered Offices: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in the United States of America by Pleasant Company Publications, 2002
Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2007, 2012
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Copyright © Laurie Halse Anderson 2002, 2012
Title page photo © 2011, Bob Krasner
All rights reserved
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Anderson, Laurie Halse.
Masks / Laurie Halse Anderson.
p. cm.
Summary: After assisting with her own cat’s emergency surgery,
Sunita decides she can no longer work with animals and accepts an internship at a lab,
unaware that the research conducted there includes animal testing.
ISBN: 9781101575185
[1. Animals—Treatment—Fiction. 2. Animal experimentation—Fiction.
3. Cats—Fiction. 4. Veterinarians—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.A54385Mas 2009 [Fic]—dc22
2009008763
Printed in the United States of America
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
To Suzanne Weyn, with thanks
Chapter One
Y ou’ll make an awesome tiger, Sunita,” Maggie tells me as we spread our art materials across her kitchen table. It’s Thursday afternoon, a week before Halloween. We’ve decided we’d better start making costumes for the big Halloween party at the Ambler Town Center.
“Your dark eyes will look so cool through the mask,” Maggie adds.
She’s totally focusing on my costume now. Once Maggie sets her mind to a project, she locks in. Sometimes she reminds me of a bulldog—playful and fun, but once she sinks her teeth into something, it’s awfully hard to shake her loose!
She studies me intently, working out my costume in her mind. “I’ve never seen a tiger with long black hair, though. Maybe we can make you an orange-striped hood to wear. Or a scarf out of tiger-striped fabric.” She smiles. “Being a tiger is just perfect for you.”
I’m surprised and pleased that Maggie sees me that way, but I’m not sure that being a tiger fits my personality. I think of tigers as fierce and strong. I’m more on the shy, timid side.
Being a tiger does fit with my number-one passion in life: cats. There are lots of other things I like—computers and computer games, ballet, reading (especially about animals), and collecting Ganesha statues. (Ganesha’s a sweet Hindu god with a boy’s body and an elephant’s head.) But there’s nothing I love more than cats—domestic cats, wild cats, large and small cats.
Another reason being a tiger fits me is that one home of the tiger is India, and that’s where my ancestors came from. Both
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Registered Offices: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in the United States of America by Pleasant Company Publications, 2002
Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2007, 2012
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Copyright © Laurie Halse Anderson 2002, 2012
Title page photo © 2011, Bob Krasner
All rights reserved
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Anderson, Laurie Halse.
Masks / Laurie Halse Anderson.
p. cm.
Summary: After assisting with her own cat’s emergency surgery,
Sunita decides she can no longer work with animals and accepts an internship at a lab,
unaware that the research conducted there includes animal testing.
ISBN: 9781101575185
[1. Animals—Treatment—Fiction. 2. Animal experimentation—Fiction.
3. Cats—Fiction. 4. Veterinarians—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.A54385Mas 2009 [Fic]—dc22
2009008763
Printed in the United States of America
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
To Suzanne Weyn, with thanks
Chapter One
Y ou’ll make an awesome tiger, Sunita,” Maggie tells me as we spread our art materials across her kitchen table. It’s Thursday afternoon, a week before Halloween. We’ve decided we’d better start making costumes for the big Halloween party at the Ambler Town Center.
“Your dark eyes will look so cool through the mask,” Maggie adds.
She’s totally focusing on my costume now. Once Maggie sets her mind to a project, she locks in. Sometimes she reminds me of a bulldog—playful and fun, but once she sinks her teeth into something, it’s awfully hard to shake her loose!
She studies me intently, working out my costume in her mind. “I’ve never seen a tiger with long black hair, though. Maybe we can make you an orange-striped hood to wear. Or a scarf out of tiger-striped fabric.” She smiles. “Being a tiger is just perfect for you.”
I’m surprised and pleased that Maggie sees me that way, but I’m not sure that being a tiger fits my personality. I think of tigers as fierce and strong. I’m more on the shy, timid side.
Being a tiger does fit with my number-one passion in life: cats. There are lots of other things I like—computers and computer games, ballet, reading (especially about animals), and collecting Ganesha statues. (Ganesha’s a sweet Hindu god with a boy’s body and an elephant’s head.) But there’s nothing I love more than cats—domestic cats, wild cats, large and small cats.
Another reason being a tiger fits me is that one home of the tiger is India, and that’s where my ancestors came from. Both
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