Sleepy Hollow Sleepover
Read Sleepy Hollow Sleepover Online
Authors: Ron Roy
Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose aren’t the only kid detectives!
What about you?
Can you find the hidden message inside this book?
There are 26 illustrations in this book, not counting the one on the title page, the map at the beginning, or the picture of the jack-o’-lantern that repeats at the start of many of the chapters. In each of the 26 illustrations, there’s a hidden letter. If you can find all the letters, you will spell out a secret message!
If you’re stumped, the answer is on the bottom of
this page
.
Happy detecting!
This book is dedicated to parents who read to their children
.
—R.R.
To the residents of the real Tarrytown, New York,
all of whom have level heads on their shoulders
—J.S.G.
CHAPTER 1“Starting today, I’m changing my ice cream flavor,” Josh said. He was staring into the Sweet Youth Ice Cream Shop window. “From now on, I’m only eating raspberry!”
“But you always choose pistachio,” Dink said. “I’ve known you five years, and it’s pistachio every time.”
Josh shrugged. “I guess I’m tired of green,” he said.
Ruth Rose poked the boys. “How about
that
green, Josh?” she asked. “Green money!”
An armored truck had pulled up to
the bank, next to the ice cream shop. Three men wearing dark green uniforms unloaded bags of money onto a cart. Two of the guards pushed the cart through the glass doors into the bank. The third man watched over the truck.
Josh grinned. “Can’t I have red ice cream and green money?” he asked.
Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were in Tarrytown, New York. It was Halloween day, and families from all over had come to Tarrytown for a big party and haunted hayride. Dink watched some kids and their parents enter the ice cream shop next to the bank.
The guards came out of the bank with the empty cart, climbed into the truck, and drove away.
Ruth Rose walked to the bank window. She tapped a finger against the glass. “This hayride is going to be so cool!” she said.
The kids read the sign hanging inside the window. It said:
DON’T MISS THE HAUNTED HAYRIDE
AND HALLOWEEN PARTY TONIGHT!
FOOD, GAMES, A BONFIRE,
AND LOTS OF SPOOKY STUFF!
AND WATCH OUT FOR THE
HEADLESS HORSEMAN!
HE’LL BE WATCHING YOU!
In the window, behind the sign, stood a big brown horse. A curtain separated the horse from the rest of the bank. The kids knew that the horse was fake, but it looked real. On top of the horse sat a dummy of a man dressed in black. A cloak hung from his shoulders. But his head was missing.
“How can the headless horseman be watching us?” Josh asked. “The dude has no eyes! Who is that guy, anyway?”
Ruth Rose opened her book bag. In it were her Swiss Army knife, a couple of books, and her cell phone. She pulled out a guidebook for New York State and opened to the pages about Tarrytown.
“Listen to this,” she said. “A writer named Washington Irving wrote a story called ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.’ It was about a schoolteacher named Ichabod Crane who lived here, in Tarrytown. He was—”
“Hey, I saw that movie!” Josh said.
“Yeah, but first it was a book, Josh,” Dink said. “Keep reading, Ruth Rose.”
“Anyway, this teacher was in love with a woman named Katrina,” Ruth Rose went on. “But some other guy loved her, too. His name was Brom Bones. So in the story, Mr. Bones dressed up as a headless horseman to scare Ichabod Crane out of town.”
“Did it work?” Josh asked.
Ruth Rose read more. “Yup. Old Ichabod mysteriously disappeared, and Katrina married Brom Bones.”
“But it was all fake, right?” Josh asked. “There really was no headless horseman?”
Ruth Rose read some more. “Brom Bones didn’t want anyone to know that he was the headless horseman. So he told people it was the ghost of a soldier who had lost his head in a battle,” she said. “And at night, his ghost rides around Tarrytown looking for the head!”
“Gross!” Josh cried.
“Look, guys,” Dink said, pointing at the window. A woman had stepped out from behind the curtain. She opened a hidden door in the side of the horse. The woman reached an arm inside the horse, then pulled it back out. She disappeared behind the curtain again.
Suddenly the horse’s head moved up and down. Then the legs and feet started pumping in place. The man on the horse’s back leaned forward, like a jockey in a race. One hand began slapping the horse with a small whip. The horse looked like it was running!
“This is so awesome!” Ruth Rose said. “It’s a mechanical horse!” She handed her book to Dink, pulled out her cell phone, and snapped a bunch of pictures.
A crowd of people had gathered to watch the horse and rider. One little boy started to cry. “That’s a scary man!” he said.
The boy’s father scooped him up. “It’s not real, Simon,” the man said. “It’s just a big action figure. That man is only a stuffed doll.”
“He’s scary and I hate him!” Simon howled. “And I want ice cream now!”
The man laughed, then carried the little boy into the ice cream shop.
“We’re looking at our own private piñata,” a quiet voice said from behind Dink. Dink glanced at the window and saw a reflection of two men. They wore dark glasses and baseball caps.
“Yeah, and tomorrow Bonnie will fill it with green candy!” the man’s buddy said.
After a few minutes, the mechanical horse began to slow down. Finally, it stopped moving altogether. The crowd of people drifted away.
“That was so cool,” Ruth Rose said.
“He’s scary and I hate him!” Josh whined, sounding just like little Simon. “And I want ice cream now!”
Dink laughed.
As the three kids backed away from the window, Dink stepped on someone’s toes. “Sorry,” he said.
He turned to the two men he had
overheard talking about a piñata.
“No problem, kid,” one of the men said. He pointed to his feet. He was wearing cowboy boots with silver toes. “Nothing can hurt these.”
The man’s friend pulled on his arm. “Come on, Ace, we have work to do.”
Ace and his friend walked away.
“Come on,” Josh said, mimicking the man’s gruff voice. “We have ice cream to do!” He pulled Dink and Ruth Rose into the ice cream shop.
CHAPTER 2