Images

SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2014 by Stuart Gibbs

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Book design and cover illustration by Lucy Ruth Cummins

Jacket design and principal illustration by Lucy Ruth Cummins Burlap flap illustration by Thinkstock.com

The text for this book is set in Adobe Garamond.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gibbs, Stuart, 1969–

Poached / Stuart Gibbs. — First edition.

pages cm

Summary: Twelve-year-old Teddy Fitzroy is the prime suspect when FunJungle’s newly acquired koala goes missing, thanks to a prank staged by middle school bully Vance Jessup.

ISBN 978-1-4424-6777-4 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4424-6779-8 (eBook)

[1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Zoos—Fiction. 3. Zoo animals—Fiction. 4. Bullies—Fiction. 5. Family life—Texas—Fiction. 6. Texas—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.G339236Po 2014

[Fic]—dc23

2013000539