Floors #3: The Field of Wacky Inventions (15 page)

T
rilogies can be a daunting task (fun to start, harder to finish), but they are made less so when I find myself surrounded by talented friends. As we come now to the end of our time in the Whippet Hotel, these people made the task both a joy and a triumph: David Levithan, Lauren Felsenstein, Chris Stengel, Peter Rubie, Susan Schulman (to whom this book is also dedicated), Erin Black, Janet Robbins, and Bess Braswell.

Chris Turnham created whimsically wonderful artwork for the entire series, and Jesse Bernstein brought the audiobooks to life.

For my close friends, who put up with all my Ms. Sparks moments and still decide to keep me around:
Skip Pritchard, Mike Wilcox, Jeff Green, Jeremy Gonzalez, Jeffrey Townsend, Marcus Wilcox, Matt McKern, and Squire Broel.

Fellow friends who are also authors and know the sharp curves and exhausting moments along the way — David Shannon and Jon Scieszka.

For moms — Remy and Oma — you always read my books and say nice things, and that’s 100 percent of what is hoped for. Hugs.

And above all to Reece Carman, for her boundless imagination and big heart. She made the Whippet Hotel possible. She really did. XOXO.

Patrick Carman
is the author of many acclaimed bestselling series for children and young adults, including The Land of Elyon, Floors, Atherton, Skeleton Creek, and Trackers. He lives with his family in Walla Walla, Washington.

www.patrickcarman.com

Copyright © 2013 by Patrick Carman

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.,
Publishers since 1920
. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carman, Patrick.

The field of wacky inventions / Patrick Carman. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Floors ; bk. 3)

Summary: Leo and Remi have gotten used to the strangeness of the Whippet Hotel, but when the entire top floor is hoisted into the sky and transported to the field of wacky inventions, they find that they must compete against a number of foes to solve a puzzle or lose their beloved hotel forever.

ISBN 978-0-545-25521-9 (jacketed hardcover) 1. Hotels — Juvenile fiction. 2. Puzzles — Juvenile fiction. 3. Adventure stories. [1. Hotels, motels, etc. — Fiction. 2. Puzzles — Fiction. 3. Adventure and adventurers — Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.C21694Fie 2013

[Fic] — dc23

2013006690

First edition, October 2013

Cover art © 2013 by Chris Turnham
Cover design by Christopher Stengel

e-ISBN 978-0-545-57648-2

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.