The Narwhal Problem

By Debbie Dadey and Tatevik Avakyan

Kiki and her friends get caught up in a code war to try and meet a narwhal in this sparkling Mermaid Tales adventure.

All the merkids are super-excited! Two famous narwhal scientists are visiting Trident City with their daughter, Nadine. Best of all, someone is going to get to show Nadine around the city while her parents are in meetings! But who? All the merkids want to be the one, so how are they going to decide who gets to do it?

Mrs. Karp, their teacher, decides to organize a code-breaking contest, but with the competition getting fierce, it is more like a code war! Even Kiki, Echo, and Shelly are fighting! Is there a way that everyone can win?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aladdin
• Release date: Jun 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781481487160

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

Cover: The Narwhal Problem, by Debbie Dadey, illustrated by Tatevik Avakyan

For my Tennessee critique group—Rick Starkey, Ann Starkey, Rinda Beach, and Donna L. Martin—thanks for all your support!

And to Huria, Ruby, Penny, and Abbie, thanks for being mermaid fans.

A Special Visitor

WHAT’S SPLASHING?" Kiki Coral asked her merfriends. It was five minutes before school started, and they were floating in the large front hallway of Trident Academy. All around them merkids talked and laughed. One group practiced walking on their hands. An angel shark glided near the carved ceiling, part of the new school security program.

Echo’s dark eyes sparkled as she leaned in and whispered to Kiki and Shelly Siren, My mom is in charge of some special visitors to our city. Echo’s mother was Dr. Eleanor Reef, who ran the Conservatory for the Preservation of Sea Horses and Swordfish. Merpeople from all over the ocean came to visit it.

Kiki pushed her long black hair away from her face. Who are they?

Echo tugged her merfriends across the marble floor to a quiet corner.

Have you ever heard of the Calypso family? Echo asked.

Kiki couldn’t believe her ears. You mean the most famous scientists in the ocean are in Trident City?

Shelly gasped. Shelltacular! Aren’t they narwhals? I’ve never seen one in real life.

Kiki nodded. She’d always been fascinated by pictures of narwhals and their long horns, but since they lived in cold waters, she’d never met any. Of course, Dr. Roscoe and Dr. Ethel Calypso weren’t ordinary narwhals: They had written practically every book in the science section of their library! Kiki had already read at least half of them. She even owned one herself.

Most narwhals are shy and rarely seen by merfolk, Echo told them. But my mother went to the Arctic University. Ethel Calypso was her roommate!

Do you think your mother will let us meet her old roommate? Shelly asked.

"I can ask, but I know they