1 Kid in a Candy Store

Stink and The Incredible Super-Galactic Jawbreaker Megan McDonald illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

Kidina Candy Store

Gigantic! Super-colossal! Inter-galactic! Stink stood smack in the middle of the Whistle Stop Candy Shop. Shelves all around him were chock-full of sourballs, penny candy (that cost ten cents), licorice shoelaces, gummy money, candy pebbles, spooky-eye gumballs, wax fangs, buttered-popcorn jellybeans, bottle caps, chocolate Scottie dogs, and mood lollipops. Then he saw it. Right smack in the middle of it all. Hello! Welcome to Planet Jawbreaker!

Super-galactic jawbreakers! Stink reached to pick one up. It was an earth, a globe, a world unto itself. A speckled, sparkling planet. Bigger than a marble. Bigger than a Super Ball. Bigger than a golf ball. World's largest jawbreaker! Or at least the biggest Stink had ever seen in his whole entire seven years on the planet. Stink's sister, Judy, ran up to him. "Look, Stink, they have bubblegum baloney and lollipops that play music and real-and-true rain-forest gum and best of all... gummy brains! I can't decide WHAT you're getting me!"

"Your brains are gummy if you think I'm buying you stuff," Stink told his big sister. Sometimes big sisters were so double-triple- quadruple bossy.

"C'mon, Stink. Don't be a sourball. You have a big fat five-dollar gift certificate." "I earned it! Dad took me to the college, and I was in a study for short people. I had to answer really hard questions." "Stink, I can't help it if I'm not short! Please, pretty please, with gummy brains on top? Just one candy cell phone? Purple candy corn? A diamond- ring lollipop? I know, I know! If you won't buy me candy, how about this How-to-Make-Your- Own-Gum kit?" "No, no, no, no, and nope." "C'mon, Stinker. Just one teeny-weeny piece of candy? How much can one piece of penny candy cost?" "Ten cents. Some penny candy costs twenty- five cents." "Huh? How can something that costs a penny cost a quarter?" "Beats me," said Stink. Stink's sister, Judy, was in a mood. She slumped down on the car-seat couch in the corner