Evans Gabriel - Oh, Rats!

Also by Tor Seidler

Firstborn

Mean Margaret

The Wainscott Weasel

ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

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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 authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright 2019 by Tor Seidler

Illustrations copyright 2019 by Gabriel Evans

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

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Book design by Greg Stadnyk and Karyn Lee

The illustrations for this book were rendered in pencil and gouache.

Jacket design by Greg Stadnyk

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Seidler, Tor, author. | Evans, Gabriel, illustrator.

Title: Phoenix / Tor Seidler ; illustrated by Gabriel Evans.

Description: First edition. | New York : Atheneum, [2019] | A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book. | Summary: A New Jersey squirrel named Phoenix teams up with a pack of rats in New York City to save their riverside home from being demolished and turned into a high-riseProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018045417| ISBN 9781534426849 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534426863 (eBook)

Subjects: | CYAC: Adventure and adventurers-Fiction. | SquirrelsFiction. | RatsFiction. | New York (N.Y.)Fiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.S45526 Pho 2019 | DDC [Fic]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045417

For Annabel

P HOENIX WOKE UP EARLY AND decided to go look for some food. Hed actually never ventured out of the nest, which was in a hole about a third of the way up a pine tree, but he had poked his head out to watch his parents go foraging. They descended the tree headfirst, so he assumed this was how it was done. But when he got out onto the bark and turned that way, he started trembling, and his left whiskers twitched uncontrollably. He turned himself the other way. The trembling and twitching stopped. He supposed he could descend tailfirst, but that struck him as ignominious. Might there be tasty seeds in some of those pine cones up the tree?

He started to climband found he was a natural at it. But the higher he went, the skinnier the pine got. And the bark grew smoother, harder to grip. Then, to make matters worse, the tree began swayingmore than those around it.

Phoenix looked up and saw why. Their pine poked above the others, exposing it more to the wind. But this wasnt necessarily all bad. The topmost pine cones looked within easy reach, and there was something appealing in the idea of being above everyone else. But on his final push he made the rookie mistake of looking down.

A few weeks ago, as a newborn, hed clung to his nursing mother, but that was nothing compared to how he clung to the skinny tree now. The needle-strewn ground was so far away! However, the wind gradually died down, and as the tree grew more stable, his panic turned to disgust. What kind of tree squirrel was afraid of heights? He lifted his eyes and edged upward.

Once perched on the highest branch, he was so pleased with himself that he even forgot he was hungry. What a view! Beyond the woods to the west was a town with buildings and steeples even higher than his pine. To the south, ponds and wetlands glimmered in the morning sun. Rising out of a newly planted cornfield to the north were giant towers carrying power lines on their steel shoulders. To the east, toward the sun, a bridge crossed a boat-speckled bay to a spit of land crowded with beach houses. Beyond that, an endless, silvery sea.

Phoenix!

Phoenix looked down again, but this time only three branches down. There was his father, Rupert, looking very sternor trying to, anyway. Phoenix had assumed his family was asleep when hed slipped out of the nest, but in fact his father had seen him. However, Rupert had done nothing to stop him. For much of March and all of April hed dragged food home for the kits. Now that it was May he figured it was high time they got out and foraged for themselves. But then his mate had woken up, noticed a head missing, and had a fit.

Get down here! Rupert said.

Phoenix gulped and started a pathetic, tail-first descent. When he followed his father back into the nest, his mother gasped with relief.

I thought you might have fallen out and broken your skull! she cried.

Hardly, Rupert said. He went all the way to the top.

What! Phoenix, youre only ten weeks old!

Were very disappointed in you, said Rupert. You could have been picked off up there. Remember what we told you about birds of prey?

Phoenixs brothers sniffed reprovingly, but Phoenix didnt mind. Though his father said he was disappointed in him, the gleam in his eyes said otherwise.

As the weeks went by, it became clear that Phoenix was the pick of the litter. He was the biggest of the bunch, with the most lustrous fura luminous golden-brown on his back, pure white on his bellyand by far the bushiest tail. He was the most venturesome, too, and was first to move out and find a hole of his own. It was only a few trees away. Squirrels generally spend their lives within a mile or two of where theyre born. So he still saw a good deal of his family, often going to forage with his father. The central part of their woods was mostly pines, but the outer fringes had lots of oaks and walnuts and hickories. Rupert got a kick out of showing him which nuts and acorns were best and how to cache them cleverly so birds and chipmunks wouldnt find them.

Phoenix also became quite popular with his sisters girlfriends. He considered most of them empty-headed, but one named Giselle made an impression on him. She had an adorable white blaze on her snout and was always carrying on about a young squirrel named Tyrone, whom Phoenix took an instinctive dislike to. Tyrone was reputed to live in a stump in the north end of the woods, and one day when Phoenix was poking around for food in that vicinity, they crossed paths. To his dismay, Tyrones fur was every bit as shiny as his. His tail might have been even bushier.

Huh, Tyrone said after they introduced themselves. I always thought Phoenix was a girls name.

Phoenixs fur prickled. You live in a stump ? he said.

Only when Im slumming in the woods, Tyrone said.

Phoenix wasnt sure what this meant, but the next time he ran into his sisters crew, Giselle explained that Tyrone had a second home.

The attic of a house in town, she said. Guess what he does there!

What? Phoenix said unenthusiastically.

Shinnies down a rain gutter at night and raids the humans pantry! You wouldnt believe the cool stuff he brings back. Ever had golden raisins? Or smoked almonds? Last time he brought back red licorice!