The Mystery at Monkey House

Table of Contents

 

“They’re gone,” Cam said.

“Who’s gone?” Eric asked.

“The monkeys! The cage was full of monkeys, and now it’s almost empty!”

Cam led Eric and Billy to the first monkey cage. Eric’s monkey and a few of the other monkeys were missing.

“I think someone stole them,” Cam said.

Billy shook his head and told Cam, “No one would steal monkeys. The zoo keeper is probably feeding them somewhere. Or maybe the monkeys are being moved to another cage.”

“No,” Cam said and shook her head. “The monkeys are fed in their cage. Look. There are even some banana peels in there from the last feeding. And if they were moving the monkeys, they would have taken them all.”

Then Eric asked, “Where would they move monkeys?
This
is the monkey house.”

 

 

 

DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE YOUNG CAM JANSEN
SERIES FOR YOUNGER READERS!

PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by Penguin Group.
Penguin Young Readers Group,
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand. London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

 

First published in the United States of America by Viking,
a division of Penguin Books USA Inc., 1985
Published by Puffin Books, 1993
Reissued 1999
This edition published by Puffin Books,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2004

 

9 10

Text copyright © David A. Adler, 1980

Illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 1980
All rights reserved

 

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE 1993 PUFFIN BOOKS EDITION AS FOLLOWS:
Adler, David A.

 

Cam Jansen and the mystery at the monkey house / by David A. Adler;
illustrated by Susanna Natti. p. cm.
Summary: Fifth-grade sleuth Cam Jansen uses her photographic memory to solve a
monkey-smuggling mystery at the city zoo.

eISBN : 978-1-101-07609-5

[1. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Natti, Susanna, ill. II. Title. III. Series: Adler,
David A. Cam Jansen adventure; 10.
[PZ7.A2615Caah 1992]
[Fic]-dc20
93—13047 CIP AC

 

 

 

RL: 2.3

 

 

 

 

“Q
uick,” Cam Jansen told her friend Eric Shelton. “Pull the cord. Ring the bell.”

Cam and Eric were riding on a bus. Eric reached up and pulled the cord above his window. It rang a bell. The driver knew someone wanted to get off at the next stop. At the corner, the bus stopped and the driver opened the doors. Cam and Eric got off.

“We almost missed our stop,” Cam said. “The Jackson Park Zoo is right up this block.”

It was a cool spring afternoon. Cam and Eric had gone to the zoo right after school. When they reached the zoo entrance, Eric took out his wallet and paid the fee. Cam paid, too.

“Look,” Eric said. He pointed to a boy just ahead. “There’s Billy Adams. He’s the boy I told you about. He just moved into my apartment building.”

“Hey, Billy, Billy!” Eric called.

The boy turned. Cam and Eric walked over to him. “This is my friend Jennifer Jansen,” Eric told the boy. “But everyone calls her ‘Cam’.”

“Cam?”

“It’s short for ‘The Camera.’ Everyone calls her that because she has an amazing memory. Her mind takes a picture of whatever she sees. When she wants to remember something, she just looks at the pictures she has stored in her brain.”

Cam, Eric, and Billy were standing on a wide paved road. In front of them was a large map of the zoo.

Eric said, “Cam can take one look at this map. Then she can close her eyes and tell you where everything is.”

“I don’t believe it,” Billy said.

Cam looked at the map. She said,
“Click,”
and closed her eyes.

“What did she say?” Billy asked.

“Click,”
Eric whispered. “She always says that when she wants to remember something. It’s the sound her mental camera makes when it takes a picture.”

“Where are the giraffes?” Billy asked.

“Walk down this main road,” Cam said with her eyes still closed. “When you pass the camel rides, turn right. First come the elephants, and then the giraffes.”

“She’s peeking,” Billy said.

,Cam turned around and said, “Now you can’t say I’m peeking. Ask me another question.”

Cam has red hair and freckles. Eric’s hair is brown. Cam and Eric live near each other and are in the same fifth-grade class. Cam and Eric often walk to school together.

“Where’s the Lion Safari Gift Shop?” Billy asked.

“It’s on the main road right next to the Bear Hug Refreshment Stand.”

Cam opened her eyes. A large truck was on the road. Cam, Eric, and Billy moved aside to let the truck pass. It was a gardener’s truck. The back was filled with dirt, sticks, shovels, and rakes.

“Well, I’m smart, too,” Billy said. “People think goats eat tin cans, but they don’t. They just like to lick the glue off the labels. And the fastest animal is the cheetah.”

“I didn’t say Cam was smarter than you,” Eric said. “I just said she has an amazing memory.”

“I have a good memory, too. When I was two years old I met John and Jennie Hudson. They’re friends of my parents. And I still remember their middle names. Jack and Donna.”

“That’s great,” Eric said. “Now, let’s go see the monkeys. They’re always lots of fun.”

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”
Then she said, “To get to the monkey house, we just walk down the main path and make a left at the seal pool. The monkeys are right after the prairie dogs.”

“Did you know that people in Malaysia train monkeys?” Billy asked. “They tie belts and long ropes on them. Then the monkeys climb trees and pick coconuts.”

Eric smiled and said, “That’s very interesting.”

“Let’s go,” Cam said, as she walked ahead. “I don’t want to
talk
about monkeys. I want to
see
them.”

 

 

 

 

T
here were very few people visiting the zoo. Cam, Eric, and Billy walked past the refreshment stand. The woman working there was reading a book. Nearby was a man with an ice-cream cart. He was sitting on a bench and resting.

As they walked past the seals, Billy said, “Did you know that baby seals can’t swim? And do you know how seals keep warm? Their bodies are covered with lots of blubber. Blubber is fat.”