The Top Secret Toys (Vincent Shadow, 2)

The Top Secret Toys (Vincent Shadow, 2)

More toys, more pressure, and more mystery in this exciting sequel to Vincent Shadow: Toy Inventor ! After winning the annual Whizzer Toys Invention Contest, twelve-year-old Vincent Shadow can't wait to start his once-in-a-lifetime internship with the renowned Mr. Whiz. Vincent wants to come up with an idea that will make toy history-but he can't even think of one that will impress his little sister! In this sequel to Vincent Shadow: Toy Inventor , toys and trouble go hand in hand as Vincent faces the ultimate test: Save Whizzer Toys or disappoint kids everywhere. Tim Kehoe is the inventor of numerous toy products, including the world's first colored bubbles, called Zubbles, and he was recently named one of America's 100 Best by Reader's Digest . In 2005, Zubbles was awarded Popular Science's Grand Prize for Innovation. The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow was Tim's debut children's book. He lives with his wife and five children in Minnesota. Visit him online at www.timkehoe.com. Guy Francis 's work has been published in a variety of formats for children. Visit him online at www.guyfrancis.com. Vincent Shadow #2: The Top Secret Toys By Kehoe, Tim Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Copyright © 2012 Kehoe, Tim All right reserved. ISBN: 9780316056694 BUNK BEDS 1 New York, New York All parents keep a secret list of mistakes—a top-secret list of regrets that they share only with other parents. And while some of those lists may include the purchase of bunk beds, Nancy Zimmerman is, perhaps, the only parent to put the purchase of her son’s bunk bed at the very top of the list. Timmy Zimmerman, better known as Danger Boy to his friends and family, discovered his love of stunts shortly after his mother purchased his bunk bed. The bed had played a major role in many of his death-defying stunts over the years. But today Timmy was preparing to take danger to a new level. Timmy carefully removed the plastic motorcycle models from his bookcase and leaned the empty bookcase against his bunk bed. Then he positioned his bike jump at the base of the bookcase. Now the back of the bookcase formed a solid ramp to the bike jump. Timmy duct-taped a pillow to his old skateboard and climbed to the top bunk. He looked down the ramp and figured he would be traveling thirty or fifty miles per hour by the time he reached the jump. Professional stuntmen always take safety precautions and Timmy believed he was nothing if not professional. So he strapped on his foam bike helmet and mounted the skateboard. Timmy was lying headfirst on the skateboard. A simple push would propel him down the ramp, over the jump and, if his calculations were correct, out into the hall and down the stairs before he landed in the couch cushions he had placed at the bottom of the stairs. Unfortunately for Timmy, he wasn’t very good at math and his calculations were rarely correct. As he pushed off the top bunk, Timmy was on a crash course for his bedroom closet. Timmy wasn’t going fifty miles an hour when he hit the bike jump. But he was going fast enough to send him sailing four feet into the air, through his closet doors, and headfirst right through the back wall of his closet. “What the…” he said. Timmy didn’t move. His head was completely embedded in the wall. After several seconds he let out a little cough and shook the dust from his hair. One minute he was traveling headfirst down the ramp, well on his way to becoming the world’s greatest stuntman, and the next—the next minute he was launched headfirst into the wall, or a secret room behind it. Timmy had set out to discover what it must have felt like to be Evel Knievel, flying high over the Snake River Canyon, but instead he had discovered Vincent Shadow’s secret attic invention laboratory. Continues... Excerpted from Vincent Shadow #2: The Top Secret Toys by Kehoe, Tim Copyright © 2012 by Kehoe, Tim. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.