Books vs. Looks

By Debbie Dadey and Tatevik Avakyan

Kiki wants to start a book club, but Pearl tries to steal the spotlight with a rival fashion club in this sparkling Mermaid Tales adventure.

Kiki misses her brother, Yuta, who lives on the other side of the ocean. To help keep in touch, the two of them start a book club, and Kiki decides it would be fun to expand the club for all of Trident Academy.

But Pearl doesn’t want anything to do with a boring book club. Instead, she decides she’s going to make the best club ever: a fashion club! Pearl will do anything to make sure the other students join her club instead of Kiki’s, and offers free food, candy, and even prizes to draw them in. But will it be enough?

Who will win the battle of the clubs?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aladdin
• Release date: Sep 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781481440837

Debbie Dadey

DEBBIE DADEY taught first grade before becoming a librarian.  It was while teaching that she first realized how much she wanted to write a book for reluctant readers.  Her first book, co-authored with fellow teacher Marcia Thornton Jones, was the result of a very bad day. Since then, Debbie and Marcia have collaborated on more than 125 books with sales of over forty million copies. Their books include the Keyholders series, beginning with This Side of Magic and The Other Side of Magic.  Debbie lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband, three dogs, and three children.

Book preview

Contents

MAP OF TRIDENT CITY

CAST OF CHARACTERS

1 A SPECIAL LETTER

2 DR. BOTTOM

3 CLUB FLUB

4 CLASH OF THE POSTERS

5 THE BEST CLUB EVER

6 FLOATING WITH STYLE

7 FRIEND STEALER!

8 PEARL’S PRIZES

9 A SWEET SURPRISE

10 FASHION FORWARD

11 RUNWAY TIME!

12 A FIN-TASTIC FINISH

KIKI’S GUIDE TO STARTING A BOOK CLUB

PEARL’S GUIDE ON HOW TO START A BUBBLING BEAUTY BUNCH CLUB

SCENES OF SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS

THE MERMAID TALES SONG

AUTHOR’S NOTE

GLOSSARY

FLOWER GIRL DREAMS EXCERPT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT DEBBIE DADEY

To Ava and her grandmother, Karen Thurby Browder

A Special Letter

KIKI CORAL WAS SWIMMING to her dorm room after school one Friday when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Miss Coral, Madame Hippocampus announced. You have a letter.

Thanks, Kiki said as Madame handed her a kelp envelope. Kiki smiled as she raced down the Trident Academy hallway. She bumped into a mergirl from her third-grade class.

Watch out, for shark’s sake! Pearl Swamp snapped.

Sorry, Kiki said, still clutching her letter. Her heart pounded in excitement. Kiki loved getting notes from her family in the Eastern Oceans. It made going to school so far away, in the Western Oceans, a little easier.

She soared through her doorway and swam straight to her killer-whale skeleton bed. Once she had curled her purple tail among the gray heron feathers, Kiki ripped open the letter.

Dear Kiki,

Hi! How is school? I wish I could go 2 Trident 2.

Guess what? My f riends started a book club! We are reading a scary book. I will show it 2 u when u get home!

Miss u,

Yuta

Kiki read the letter twice and blinked back a tear. Her brother Yuta was a year younger than she was. She had been very close to him ever since they were small fry. Now that she went to school so far away, she really missed him.

Kiki glanced around her dorm room. Rainbow-colored jellyfish lamps hung from the curved ceiling, and a small waterfall tinkled gently in a corner. One whole wall glittered with plankton. A magnificent coral reef made up another wall. Kiki knew she was lucky to have such a fin-tastic space all to herself. At home her brothers had to share bedrooms.

But living all by herself could be lonely. Sometimes she wished she had someone to