Bella by Ellen Miles Read Free Book Online Page A

into his half of the deck. It might be good if he learned to shuffle, too.
    He opened the little box of cards and shook them out. “Oops!” They slid out of his hands and spilled all over the floor of the van.
    “What do you have there, Charles?” Aunt Amanda looked at him in the mirror again.
    “Just some cards.” Charles scooped up as many as he could reach. He wasn’t ready to tell anyone that he was learning magic. He wanted to surprise everyone once he had some great tricks ready. He split the deck into two parts and tried shoving them together, but most of them fell into his lap. He scooped them up again and tried another way, the way Sammy did it where he flipped the corners together. That was even worse. The ace of spades, the queen of hearts, and the four of diamonds ended up inside Moose’s crate.
    Charles kept picking up the cards and practicing. But by the time Aunt Amanda turned off the main highway and drove up a long, bumpy dirt road, he had still not learned to shuffle. When the van came to a stop, he shoved the cards into his backpack and zipped it shut. “Is this it?” he asked. “Is this Camp Bowser?”
    “That’s right,” said Aunt Amanda. “Welcome.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Ellen Miles loves dogs, which is why she has a great time writing the Puppy Place books. And guess what? She loves cats, too! (In fact, her very first pet was a beautiful tortoiseshell cat named Jenny.) That’s why she came up with a brand-new series called Kitty Corner. Ellen lives in Vermont and loves to be outdoors every day, walking, biking, skiing, or swimming, depending on the season. She also loves to read, cook, explore her beautiful state, play with dogs, and hang out with friends and family.
    Visit Ellen at www.ellenmiles.net.

Copyright
    No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
    Copyright © 2011 by Ellen Miles.
Cover art by Tim O’Brien
Cover design by Steve Scott
    All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. Lexile is a registered trademark of MetaMetrics, Inc.
    First printing, February 2011
    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
    e-ISBN: 978-0-545-32459-5