Captain Awesome, Soccer Star Read online

  “Come on, Nacho Cheese Man!” Captain Awesome yelled. “We’ve got one more goal to tend!” Captain Awesome and Nacho Cheese Man ran toward the goal where the Von Boogers and the game ball waited. . . .

  YUM!

  The best thing about soccer, though, isn’t the winning. It’s going out for pizza after a game. Coach McGillicudy treated all the Megabytes to Jumbo Everything Pizzas from Jumbo’s Pizza Palace.

  Evan, Sally, Bernie, Meredith, Mike, Marlo, and Charlie all agreed that Eugene would get the slice that had the most pepperoni.

  And not only that, but Eugene managed to avoid the salad bar and not eat any of the green stuff.

  Does life get any better?

  Yes, it does.

  Because on the drive home, Eugene’s dad forgot to play any Dinosaur Delmer songs.

  Both boys were eager to return to their neighborhood. They’d been gone for nearly two hours. Who knew how much eviling evil had been doing in their absence? Perhaps some horrible mutant monster from the sewer had gotten loose and started knocking over mailboxes or digging holes in people’s yards.

  “BUT”—Eugene began—“if there is no evil to be found . . . I mean, if EVERYTHING is absolutely, totally, completely normal, let’s squeeze in a little soccer practice before our next Sunnyview Superhero Squad meeting.”

  “You took the cheese right out of my can!” Charlie replied.

  MI-TEE!

  No. 6

  CAPTAIN AWESOME

  SAVES THE

  WINTER WONDERLAND

  TING! TINGGG! TINGGGGG!

  “I love to play the triangle!” Eugene McGillicudy yelled out in a very heroic voice. In Mrs. Randle’s music class, Eugene always went for the triangle. “I like any musical instrument that’s shaped like pizza!”

  SHAKE! SHAKE-SHAKE!

  “Keep your triangle,” Eugene’s best friend, Charlie Thomas Jones, said. “I like the maracas. I don’t know what’s inside, but I hope it’s dried bugs.”

  SHAKE!

  Every Thursday morning, Sunnyview Elementary School’s music teacher, Mrs. Randle, passed out an assortment of xylophones, tambourines, recorders, cowbells, bongo drums, and more to all the second graders in her music room.

  Eager students from different classes grabbed them like free chocolate, and sang and played under Mrs. Randle’s waving baton.

  “Cowbell!” cried Evan Mason as he grabbed one from the stack.

  “The tambourine is MINE!” yelled Meredith Mooney, dressed in pink, from the ribbons in her hair to the shoelaces in her pink shoes. She had secretly stuck pink tape on the tambourine to mark it as her own.

  Colin Boyle from Mrs. Duncan’s second-grade class grabbed a set of bongo drums.

  BAMMITY-BAM! BAM!

  He bammed them with the palms of his hands. “Nice,” he said.

  “Okay, class,” Mrs. Randle said. “Let’s get started.”

  “And a one, and a two, and a one, two, three, four,” she called out and swung her baton like she was swatting at a lazy fly.

  TING!

  SHAKE!

  TINGGG!

  SHAKE-SHAKE!

  Eugene tinged and Charlie shook because superheroes step in front of danger and aren’t afraid to make as much crazy loud music as possible. Just like that time Super Dude fought his musical enemy, Trouble Clef, and knocked the musical scales right off his slide trombone.

  KA-PUNCH!

  When STAN KIRBY was six years old, he tied a beach towel around his neck and became Super Commander Beach Boy. He tried his best to protect sand castles from the waves, keep seagulls away from his french fries, and keep the beach clean. When Stan’s not creating the awesome adventures of Captain Awesome, he loves reading comic books, eating okra, and hang gliding (but not at the same time).

  GEORGE O’CONNOR’S cover—as a mild-mannered clerk in one of Gotham’s most beloved children’s bookstores—was completely blown when his first picture book, KAPOW!, exploded onto the scene. Forced to leave the bookselling world behind, he now spends even more time in his secret Brooklyn, New York, hideout—where he uses his amazing artistic powers to strike fear in the hearts of bad guys everywhere!

  Jacket design by Laura Roode

  Jacket illustrations copyright © 2012

  by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Little Simon

  Simon & Schuster • New York

  CaptainAwesomeBooks.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  LITTLE SIMON

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 www.SimonandSchuster.com • Copyright © 2012 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kirby, Stan. Captain Awesome, soccer star / by Stan Kirby ; illustrated by George O’Connor. — 1st ed. p. cm. Summary: Second-grader Eugene McGillicudy finds that he can tap the power of Captain Awesome without wearing the costume, as he scores a goal for his soccer team. [etc.] [1. Superheroes—Fiction. 2. Soccer—Fiction.] I. O’Connor, George, ill. II. Title. PZ7.K633529Cak 2012 [FIC]—dc23 2011023402

  ISBN 978-1-4424-4331-0 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-4332-7 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-4333-4 (eBook)