Freddie Ramos Gets a Sidekick Read online

  Mr. Vaslov wants to give Freddie’s old shoes to someone else, but Freddie doesn’t think anyone else needs Zapato Power. He takes care of Starwood Park—it’s his job to find out what’s making holes in the doors and the fence. But when Freddie hurts his ankle and can’t use Zapato Power, will someone else solve the mystery and be the hero?

  The tenth book in the awardwinning Zapato Power series has more mystery, a new invention, and a big surprise!

  Albert Whitman & Co.

  More than 100 years of Goods Books

  www.albertwhitman.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  Jacket art copyright © 2020 by Albert Whitman & Company

  Don’t miss the first nine Zapato Power books!

  Freddie Ramos Takes Off

  Freddie Ramos Springs into Action

  Freddie Ramos Zooms to the Rescue

  Freddie Ramos Makes a Splash

  Freddie Ramos Stomps the Snow

  Freddie Ramos Rules New York

  Freddie Ramos Hears It All

  Freddie Ramos Adds It All Up

  Freddie Ramos Tracks Down a Drone

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.

  Text copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline Jules Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Albert Whitman & Company

  Illustrations by Keiron Ward

  First published in the United States of America in 2020 by Albert Whitman & Company

  ISBN 978-0-8075-9562-6 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-8075-9566-4 (ebook)

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Printed in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 LB 24 23 22 21 20

  Design by Valerie Hernández

  For more information about Albert Whitman & Company, visit our website at www.albertwhitman.com.

  To teachers and librarians. Thank you for the hard work you do on behalf of children everywhere.

  —JJ

  Contents

  1. My Goggles Are Missing

  2. The Smaller Shoes

  3. Another First Grader

  4. What Happened to the Fence?

  5. The Hole in My Door

  6. Big Blue Boot

  7. Amy Is Brave

  8. A Good Team

  1. My Goggles Are Missing

  The sky was blue. The grass was green. The air was in-between. Not too hot and not too cold. It was a perfect day for running fast! ¡Muy rápido! I stood by the overhead train track behind my home, Starwood Park Apartments, feeling a smile on my face. My favorite thing to do after a long day at school was to race the train in my super-powered purple sneakers.

  I reached into my pocket for my silver goggles. My smile disappeared. Where were my goggles? They weren’t in my jeans, and I needed them to protect my eyes when I zoomed ninety miles an hour. Did they fall out again? This was the second time in two days!

  I touched my purple wristband to turn on my super speed. If I retraced my steps, maybe I could find them.

  My silver goggles were not on the sidewalk. Were they on the stairs going down to Starwood Elementary? I was just about to search when I heard a voice.

  “Freddie!”

  Gio, my first-grade neighbor, was calling me. This was not a good time. I wanted to find my goggles so I could have fun racing the train.

  “FREDDIE!” Gio called again.

  A superhero should always help others first. I hurried back to Building G, where Gio was waving his arms.

  “Puppy is missing!” Gio said.

  “¿Otra vez?” I asked.

  Puppy was lost yesterday too.

  “You should use a leash,” I told him.

  “I do!” Gio said. “Puppy pulled it out of my hands when I stopped to tie my shoe.”

  Gio’s dog liked to chase squirrels. You needed super speed to keep up with a dog who kept running off.

  I took off in a cloud of invisible smoke.

  Luckily, Puppy hadn’t run too far away. But I found the other thing I was looking for in Puppy’s mouth. My silver goggles! Ugh!

  “Give those back!” I told Puppy.

  Puppy was not a good listener. He wouldn’t drop my goggles until Gio came over with a doggy treat. By then, they were too slobbery to put on my face. Yuck!

  “Lo siento,” Gio said. “Puppy likes to chew things.”

  “And run off,” I added.

  “He’s not as fast you.” Gio sighed. “I wish I was.”

  Gio was always saying that. He wanted to vanish in a puff of smoke the way I did.

  “Do you think I’ll get faster when I’m bigger?” Gio asked.

  “Sure,” I said. “Eat vegetables. My mom says they make you grow.”

  “Thanks, Freddie!”

  Gio left with Puppy, and I headed over to see my friend, Mr. Vaslov, with my drippy goggles. I held them by the strap so I didn’t have to touch dog slobber.

  Mr. Vaslov opened his toolshed door. “What happened, Freddie?”

  I told him how Puppy had found my goggles before I could.

  He handed me a towel to wipe them off.

  “It sounds like you need a tracker for those goggles.”

  “Can you make one?” I asked.

  Mr. Vaslov invented my super-powered purple sneakers and the wristband that controls my super speed, super bounce, and super hearing. Compared to that, a tracker sounded easy.

  “I could.” Mr. Vaslov blinked behind his wire glasses. “And so could you, Freddie.”

  Me? Could I be an inventor too? ¡Qué buena idea!

  “Let’s get started!”

  “Tomorrow,” Mr. Vaslov said. “Today, I’m finishing another project.”

  “What?” I looked at Mr. Vaslov’s worktable and saw my first pair of purple shoes with silver wings on the side. They were too small for my feet now. Was Mr. Vaslov fixing them to give super speed to someone else?

  2. The Smaller Shoes

  Mr. Vaslov pointed at the small sneakers. “They’re almost ready for a new owner.”

  When Mr. Vaslov made bigger shoes for me, he put the smaller ones on a shelf in his toolshed. Why couldn’t they stay there? Starwood Park didn’t need two superheroes.

  “Zapato Power is a big responsibility,” I said. “Are you sure you want to give special shoes to someone else?”

  Mr. Vaslov smiled. “I took a chance when I picked you, and it turned out all right.”

  “Why did you pick me?” I asked.

  He counted on his fingers. “First, I saw how much you liked running.”

  I grinned. Even before I had Zapato Power, I used to race the train, just for fun.

  “Second,” Mr. Vaslov said, “I thought you were someone I could trust, not someone who would brag about having superpowers or use them to hurt, rather than help, people.”

  Mr. Vaslov was right about me. But was there really another kid at Starwood Park he could trust?

  “Third—” He lifted a purple shoe from the worktable. It looked small compared to mine now. “Back then, your feet were just the right size for these!”

  “So you’re looking for someone who is responsible and has small feet,” I said.

  “Yes!” Mr. Vaslov laughed. “Do you have any suggestions?”

  Hmmm. Some superheroes had partners. Batman had Robin. If I chose the person who got the smaller shoes, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

  “Can I think about it?” I asked Mr. Vaslov. “I don’t want to pick the wrong person.”


  “Hold on, Freddie.” Mr. Vaslov held up his hand. “You won’t be making the final choice. You’ll just be helping.”

  There were lots of kids at Starwood Park with small feet. Deciding wouldn’t be easy. Maybe Mr. Vaslov would give up and put the shoes back on the shelf.

  “Come over tomorrow, Freddie.” Mr. Vaslov walked me to the door. “We’ll discuss making a tracker that works with your wristband.”

  I waved goodbye and went home to 29G.

  WHEET! WHEET!

  My guinea pig, Claude the Second, stood up in his cage to greet me. He was hungry.

  WHEET! WHEET!

  I opened the refrigerator to take out a bag of baby carrots. Claude the Second ate two and so did I.

  When Mom came home from work with her boyfriend, David, she saw me and my guinea pig chomping away.

  “¡Cómo me encanta!” Mom kissed my cheek. “My son eating vegetables! This is what I like to see.”

  My mom also likes seeing me eat lasagna and being nice to David. Before Mom started dating David, we never ate lasagna. Since he started coming for dinner, we’d eaten it a lot.

  “How was school, Freddie?” David asked as we sat down.

  Why did grown-ups always ask kids about their day? I could never remember the boring parts, and the exciting parts weren’t easy to explain.

  Mom had said I should look at David’s face and do the best I could.

  “My day was fine,” I said. “We learned cartwheels in gym.”

  David smiled, showing all his teeth. He seemed happy that I talked to him. Mom looked happy too. It was weird how grown-ups liked to know what kids did in school. It was also weird how I was getting used to eating lasagna and having David over for dinner every night.

  The next morning, I zipped my goggles into my backpack before I left for Starwood Elementary. I didn’t want to take any chances with my pockets before I had a tracker. On the way, I stopped by Mr. Vaslov’s toolshed to say hello. He wasn’t alone.

  Gio was inside talking to him.

  “Purple shoes with wings on the side!” Gio pointed at Mr. Vaslov’s worktable. “They look just like Freddie’s!”

  Mr. Vaslov winked at me. What did that mean? Did Mr. Vaslov think Gio should have super speed?

  3. Another First Grader

  I had to get Gio out of there before Mr. Vaslov made a huge mistake. Gio wasn’t responsible. He couldn’t take care of Zapato Power shoes! He couldn’t even take care of his dog!

  And Gio was a big talker. He thought it was his job to tell everybody everything he knew. The whole neighborhood had heard about my mom’s boyfriend from Gio. Mr. Vaslov couldn’t trust Gio to be quiet about super shoes with super speed.

  “Let’s go to school!” I grabbed Gio’s hand and pulled him out of the toolshed.

  “What’s the hurry, Freddie?” Gio asked.

  We went down the steps to the school and through the playground. It was so early, there was only one other student there. A girl in Gio’s class named Amy Escobar. She was walking slowly with her eyes down, like she was searching for something.

  “Did you see my sunglasses?” Amy asked.

  “The pink ones?” Gio answered.

  Outside of school, we always saw Amy in sunglasses. She liked to wear them even more than I liked to wear goggles.

  “Yes!” she said. “You found them?”

  “No,” Gio said, “but I know what they look like.”

  “Oh.” Amy’s face fell.

  “Ask Freddie to look,” Gio said. “He found my dog yesterday.”

  “Will you?” Amy asked. “They’re somewhere outside. Maybe up at Starwood Park.”

  Did I have enough time before the bell? With my super shoes, I could be back in two blinks.

  A pair of pink sunglasses were on the ground by Building C, where Amy lived.

  “Thanks, Freddie!” Amy’s face lit up when I came back.

  Real superhero jobs didn’t happen too often at elementary school. Most of the time I used my super speed for bringing back lost stuff. That was okay. I liked seeing people smile.

  The rest of the day was nice. We didn’t have any tests, lunch was beef tacos, and in gym, Mr. Gooley let us do cartwheels and handstands.

  “Look at me!” Maria said. “I did two in a row!”

  Maria was my partner for gymnastics. She was also Gio’s older sister and my next door neighbor. We did a lot of things together. I thought about telling Mr. Vaslov that IF he had to give the small Zapato Power shoes to someone, Maria would be better than Gio. Then I remembered Maria’s feet were too big, like mine.

  “How many cartwheels can you do, Freddie?” she asked.

  Maria challenged me until Mr. Gooley blew the whistle.

  “Practice on your own,” Mr. Gooley said as we left class.

  “We will,” Maria promised.

  After school, I went to the overhead track behind Starwood Park. I wanted to race the train and make up for yesterday, when all my running had been about a lost dog and lost goggles.

  I stopped short.

  Somebody had beat me there. Amy was waiting on the grass, wearing her pink sunglasses, with her arms out like the wings of an airplane. As soon as the train rumbled by, she started running.

  “Does that look familiar?” a deep voice asked.

  Mr. Vaslov was behind me. He was sitting on his red electric scooter—the one he used to get around Starwood Park when his bad knee was bothering him. We watched Amy together.

  “She likes to run, just like you do,” Mr. Vaslov said.

  Was Mr. Vaslov thinking of another first grader for the small Zapato Power shoes? A girl who wore pink sunglasses? Not Gio?

  I didn’t want to ask. If I asked, it might help Mr. Vaslov decide. And I didn’t want him to make up his mind yet.

  Right now, I was the only one who helped Mr. Vaslov do his job of taking care of Starwood Park. If someone else had super-powered shoes, Mr. Vaslov wouldn’t need me. I wouldn’t be special anymore.

  4. What Happened to the Fence?

  Mr. Vaslov and I went back to his toolshed to start work on my goggle tracker.

  “Okay, Freddie,” Mr. Vaslov said. “Let’s identify the problem.”

  That was easy. My goggles kept falling out of my pocket and getting lost.

  “What is the solution?”

  “We make a tracker so I can find them,” I said.

  “And how do you want it to work?”

  I scratched my head. “Could it make a noise, so I’d know where my goggles are?”

  “Do you want a loud sound or a soft sound?”

  Why did I have to answer so many questions before I got started?

  “An invention needs a plan,” Mr. Vaslov explained. “It’s part of the process.”

  Scientists like to be organized and do things step by step. If I wanted to be scientific, I had to use some brain power.

  “Let’s look at your wristband, Freddie.”

  We examined the buttons. There was one for super speed and one for super bounce. To get super hearing, I rubbed both of them until they got warm.

  “Could we add a button?” I asked.

  “A big one or a little one?” Mr. Vaslov asked.

  Making decisions was hard work. By the time I left the toolshed, I needed a run to clear my mind.

  Finally, the space by the overhead track was free. No Amy. No Gio. No lost Puppy. Only me, the grass, and the train rumbling by.

  I spread out my arms, pretending to be an airplane.

  I raced to the station and back.

  It would have been great if I’d been as alone as I thought.

  “Freddie?” Amy asked. “Is that you?”

  She was standing right there, when I stepped out of a puff of smoke.

  “Have you seen my sunglasses?”

  Again? Amy’s sunglasses were like Gio’s dog—always missing. Mr. Vaslov shouldn’t give Amy super speed, either. The smaller shoes should stay on a shelf forever.

&n
bsp; “Could you help me look?” Amy asked.

  Amy went in one direction, and I went in the other.

  Her sunglasses were not on the sidewalk or the stairs. I tried the grass near Building F. Lots of kids played there because a wooden fence protected that side of Starwood Park from a busy street.

  I searched for something pink sticking out of the grass. No luck. Then I looked closer to the fence. Instead of sunglasses, I found something strange. Holes in the fence. Mr. Vaslov liked everything at Starwood Park to look nice. He would want me to investigate this.

  I counted. There were four holes, as round as nickels and deep. Why would someone put holes in the fence?

  And where were Amy’s sunglasses?

  “Freddie!” Amy waved from the sidewalk. “I found them.”

  Amy was happy. But I was still puzzled about the fence. Should I talk to Mr. Vaslov?

  My stomach was growling. I decided to go home for dinner first.

  “Lávate las manos,” Mom said. “We’re eating soon.”

  “Where’s David?” I asked as soon as my hands were clean.

  “It’s Thursday night,” Mom said.

  Last week, David told us he would be busy on Thursday nights for a while. He said it was a surprise.

  The table felt empty with only two people. I could hear the clock ticking on the wall. Mom was lost in her thoughts, and so was I.

  Who put the holes in the fence by Building F? Could I wait to tell Mr. Vaslov? If I fixed things myself, Mr. Vaslov would see I was the only hero Starwood Park needed. Maybe he would change his mind about giving someone else Zapato Power shoes.

  After all, wasn’t it better for only one kid to have super speed? Me.

  5. The Hole in My Door