Molly Moon & the Morphing Mystery by Georgia Byng

like some sort of monster from a horror film, landed beside her. As suddenly as the surprise arrival of this creature had hit her, the shock subsided.
    â€œDon’t know why we’re called ladybugs. I mean, I’m a boy.” Micky’s voice sounded high-pitched and thin, as though it had been whizzed up on an electric voice blender. “How many spots have I got?”
    â€œSix,” Molly replied, studying the red glossy shell of his wings.
    â€œYou sound really funny!” Micky laughed, his buzzing giggle like a sound effect off a synthesizer.
    â€œYou sound normal,” Molly replied.
    â€œReally?”
    â€œOf course you don’t, you numbling. You’re the size of a lentil!”
    â€œDid you say hello to your ladybug? You know, sortof introduce yourself before you took over?” Micky squeaked.
    â€œYes. Well, it seemed like the kind thing to do,” Molly replied.
    Just then, there was an enormous, windlike noise in the room as Black coughed. The ground shook as he walked to his desk. He opened a drawer.
    â€œLet’s see what he’s up to,” Micky suggested, his voice so comically high that Molly began to laugh.
    â€œHow?” she spluttered. Now her own voice made her laugh, too. On top of this, Micky’s seriousness was making the situation even funnier.
    â€œFly, of course,” Micky said. This reply had Molly the ladybug on her knees. “Why are you laughing?”
    â€œI don’t know! It’s just that we’ve both turned into ladybugs, and you’re behaving as though—” Now Molly was laughing so much she could hardly talk. “You’re behaving as though it’s completely normal, and you sound like a cartoon character.” Molly was in stitches.
    â€œMolly, pull yourself together,” said Micky. This made Molly laugh even more, as now having a bossy ladybug tell her what to do was even funnier. “It’s probably the shock of being a ladybug,” Micky said, with the coolness of a doctor analyzing a patient’s illness.
    At this point, Molly rolled onto her back from mirth. And there she lay, laughing, with her feet upin the air. Micky stayed quiet, and after a while she calmed down. “Now you’re stuck, aren’t you?” he said. “That was a bit stupid. Haven’t you ever seen how ladybugs can’t get up from their backs?”
    â€œOh!” Molly spluttered a bit more and then tried to sober up.
    â€œLucky I’m here.” Micky went around to her side and rocked her back onto her feet.
    â€œOkay, okay, I won’t laugh anymore,” Molly promised. “Oh. Phew. So how do we fly?”
    â€œIt’s easy,” Micky replied, “because as a ladybug, you were born to do it. Just stretch out.” He extended his wings, and Molly copied him. “And just kind of reach for the air and cup it in your wings and push it down to the ground with them.”
    â€œLike thi—?” Before Molly could finish her sentence, she had shot up into the air.
    â€œYes,” Micky said, now flapping beside her. “It’s great, isn’t it?”
    â€œAmaaaaazing!” Molly yelled back as she dived upward, her laughing fit now completely behind her. “It’s a bit like swimming underwater! Except the air is thinner and easier to push than water.”
    â€œBrilliant, isn’t it?” he shouted, laughing as he landed on the top of the sofa back.
    Now they could both see Black beside his desk.
    â€œBook, book, book,” he grunted under his breath. These words weren’t actually decipherable to Molly and Micky, because they now only spoke Ladybug, but they could understand exactly what Black was doing. He had slipped the hypnosis book into a large black shoulder bag and was gathering his coat from the back of the chair.
    â€œWe’d better follow him,” Molly buzzed. “Before he shuts the door.” Micky wiggled