Gimme Shelter Read online

  “That’s not a word, Sug—” said Dirt.

  The low grumble grew to a deafening ROOOOAAAARRRRRR!! The chipmunks tried to jump into their shelter, but the wind blew the pile of dirt right back into the hole, filling it up.

  “FOLLOW ME!!!” yelled Sugar, heading for the emergency tunnel inside the chickens’ shelter. Dirt and the chipmunks fell in line behind Sugar while large white balls of hail began to pelt them.

  “IT’S A TORNADO!!” shrieked the squirrels. They jumped into their shelter, but it wasn’t deep enough to protect them. They tried scurrying up the tree for safety, until the branches bent in the wind but dropping the squirrels back to the ground.

  “Now it’s a hurricane!” yelled Poppy and Sweetie as buckets and Frisbees and lawn chairs spun past them.

  “GET DOWN! GET DOWN!” shouted Sugar. The chipmunks and the squirrels and the chickens got as low as they could, flattening themselves.

  “THIS WAY!” A furry face was sticking out of the entrance to Sugar’s emergency tunnel. The frightened animals dove in and traveled through the now-widened tunnel, just as something dark came hurtling toward the door, completely blocking out the sun.

  Chapter 8

  BOINK!

  BOINK!

   SPLAT!

    CLUNK!

  Plastic furniture, wood scraps, toys, and even a Big Wheel clattered across the yard, slamming into the chicken coop. All the animals huddled together for safety. Then the chicken coop itself was wrapped in darkness.

  “Is it a tornado?” asked one of the chipmunks.

  “It can get very dark before and during a tornado,” said Sweetie. “But I’m not seeing the telltale cylinder.”

  “I think it’s a hurricane!” said one of the squirrels. “The wind is so strong!”

  “A hurricane can have winds up to two hundred miles per hour,” said Sweetie, “but torrential rain is more typical.”

  “It must be a meteor!” said Poppy, his face feathers still perfectly in place. “I saw something big and dark coming toward the door!”

  “Unlikely,” said Sweetie. “We would have felt the impact. But . . . it could be a derecho.”

  They all stared at her.

  “It’s a wind shear accompanying a strong line or wall of thunderstorms. Some say it comes from the Spanish word for straight,” Sweetie explained.

  They all stared at her.

  “A girl can study Sugarology, astronomy, and meteorology at the same time, you know!” answered Sweetie.

  Suddenly, just as quickly as it had begun, the roaring and the wind stopped.

  Dirt and Sugar told everyone to stay put and slowly opened the door to the chicken coop, pulling aside a familiar dark-blue tarp that had blown onto the chicken coop door.

  “It wasn’t a tornado, a hurricane, a hailstorm, a meteor, or a derecho!” announced Sugar.

  “What was it???” asked Sweetie.

  “It was the Connolly kids with a leaf blower and a crate full of Ping-Pong balls,” Dirt explained.

  “I’m not gonna lie,” said Sugar. “That wasn’t on my list.”

  “I have a question,” said Poppy.

  “Yes?” asked Sugar.

  “Who is that?” Sticking out of the entrance to the emergency tunnel was that same adorable fuzzy face that had led them through the tunnel.

  “I believe that is a bog lemming,” said Dirt.

  “Wow. I didn’t think they actually existed,” said Poppy.

  “Bog lemmings are small rodents who dig underground burrows,” said Dirt. “My guess is that all the digging in the yard might have been interfering with her home.”

  “If I’m not mistaken,” said Sugar, “she’s the one who widened the tunnel so it would be big enough for all of us to make it to the coop.”

  The bog lemming winked and disappeared back into the tunnel without another word.

  Epilogue

  The Connolly kids took off in a flash when they saw Moosh sprinting in their direction. She cleared that fence by an easy foot, and the back door to the Connolly’s house wasn’t strong enough to keep her out. The Connolly kids found themselves between a rock and a hard place: the rock being Moosh and the hard place being, well, Mrs. Connolly. I don’t think they’ll be allowed outside for the rest of the summer. I picked Moosh up by the scruff of her neck and carried her back out the giant Moosh-shaped hole in the door.

  Everything that had been buried in the yard came to light, including the T. rex–eating unicorn, which was in reality a gardening tool and some marbles. Nope, wasn’t on my list, either.

  The squad and the chipmunks and the squirrels all worked together to make something out of the scrap wood, the Ping-Pong balls, the marbles, the gardening tool, and everything else they gathered up from the yard.

  “I think we should call it E Pluribus Unum,” announced Dirt.

  “It’s Latin for ‘one big hole,’ ” said Sugar, tearing up with emotion.

  “No, it’s Latin for ‘out of many, one,’ ” explained Dirt. “It means that when all of us come together, we make one. Whether we are chickens, chipmunks, dogs, squirrels, or butterflies. And we are stronger that way.”

  “That works too,” Sugar admitted.

  The statue stands at the entrance to the pool they had all dug together. Dirt is a no-nonsense lifeguard; Sweetie keeps an eye on the weather; and Poppy’s giant head appears to be waterproof, too.

  “I’m not gonna lie,” said Sugar. “I think those Connolly kids could really use a little more adult supervision. They cause all kinds of trouble out here.”

  That’s when I pushed her into the pool.

  About the Author

  Doreen Cronin is the author of the Chicken Squad series as well as many bestselling books, including Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho!; Click, Clack, Surprise!; and the Caldecott Honor Book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at DoreenCronin.com.

  Stephen Gilpin lives and draws pictures for brilliant children in a cave just north of Hiawatha, Kansas, with his wife, Angie; their kids; and an infestation of dogs. Visit him at sgilpin.com.

  • A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book • Atheneum Books for Young Readers • Simon & Schuster

  chickensquad.com

  Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids

  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Doreen-Cronin

  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Stephen-Gilpin

  Also by Doreen Cronin

  Cyclone

  Bloom

  Bounce

  M.O.M. (Mom Operating Manual)

  Stretch

  Wiggle

  The Chicken Squad #1: The First Misadventure

  The Chicken Squad #2: The Case of the

  Weird Blue Chicken

  The Chicken Squad #3: Into the Wild

  The Chicken Squad #4: Dark Shadows

  Click, Clack, Boo!

  Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho!

  Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type

  Click, Clack, Peep!

  Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack

  Click, Clack, Splish, Splash

  Click, Clack, Surprise!

  Dooby Dooby Moo

  Duck for President

  Giggle, Giggle, Quack

  Thump, Quack, Moo

  ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

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

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  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.

  Text copyright © 2017 by Doreen Cronin

  Case illustrations copyright © 2017 by Kevin Cornell

  Interior illustrations copyright © 2017 by Stephen Gilpin

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

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  Book design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian

  The text for this book was set in Garth Graphic.

  The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Cronin, Doreen, author. | Gilpin, Stephen, illustrator.

  Title: Gimme shelter : misadventures and misinformation / Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Stephen Gilpin.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Atheneum, 2017. | Series: The Chicken Squad ; 5 | “A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book.” | Summary: The Chicken Squad uncovers mysterious remains while digging a meteor/storm shelter, and they stop work to investigate just as a big storm is approaching.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017008516 | ISBN 9781534405714 (hardback) | ISBN 9781534405738 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Chickens—Fiction. | Holes—Fiction. | Humorous stories. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Farm Animals. | JUVENILE FICTION / Imagination & Play.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.C88135 Gim 2017 | DDC [E]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017008516