Gustav Gloom and the People Taker (9781101620748) by Kristen (ILT) Adam-Troy; Margiotta Castro

getting fuller with every bite her shadow ate. “I didn’t say it could eat for me!”
    â€œYou eat for it,” Gustav said.
    â€œBut I can’t eat shadow food!”
    â€œAnd your shadow can’t eat real food,” Gustav replied, “but if you were home and ate so much that you got fat, wouldn’t your shadow get fat, too?”
    Fernie’s mouth opened and closed without making any sound.
    â€œAnd,” Gustav continued, “if you stopped eating and got skinny, wouldn’t your shadow get skinny, too?”
    Fernie’s mouth continued to open and close without any sound coming out. The revelation that every time in her life that she’d ever had a bowl of macaroni and cheese she’d been feeding not only herself but the dark shape that followed her around was so amazing that she knew she’d never eat macaroni and cheese again without being reminded with every bite that she was filling up not just her own stomach but another, darker one.
    â€œMy shadow always eats for me,” Gustav said. “It’s not like there’s ever any real food in the house for me. There’s no money here, and none of the shadows could ever go shopping even if there was.”
    Fernie considered that tremendously sad, but that wasn’t what bothered her right now, not with her feet both stuck to the floor as if nailed there. “How come Snooks’s shadow can step away from him and run around by itself and Harrington’s shadow can step away from him and run around by itself and even Mr. Notes’s shadow can step away from him and run around by itself, but mine won’t let me walk away from this spot?”
    â€œThat is odd,” Gustav agreed, a look of worry on his serious face. “I can walk away from mine. Just look.”
    He stepped away from the two shadow legs of his shadow self and strutted around in circles, while the shadow Gustav, completely unbothered by his antics, continued to devour its shadow meal.
    Fernie tried again, just in case she’d been doing something wrong. But as much as she tugged, her feet remained planted where they were, attached to her shadow feet.
    Great-Aunt Mellifluous said, “I must admit, that’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.”
    Fernie grabbed her right leg with both arms and pulled with all her strength. It remained stuck to the floor. “You mean to say that you’ve never seen anything like this before?”
    â€œNever,” Great-Aunt Mellifluous said. “Shadows all over your world may be able to decide whether they want to stay with their people or leave them behind, but I’ve never at any point in my shadow life seen one that could hold its human in place. Maybe because I’ve never seen one that wanted to.” It turned to the shadow girl. “You’re being rude. Let Fernie go.”
    The shadow Fernie swallowed its latest bite of pizza and spoke in a voice that sounded just like the real Fernie’s, only grayer and angrier. “When I’m done eating.”
    â€œI said
now
,” Great-Aunt Mellifluous com-manded.
    The shadow Fernie rolled its eyes and threw down its shadowy pizza slice, which instantly turned into gray smoke and sank back into the surface of the table like a thrown rock sinking into the surface of a pond. The shadow girl disappeared as well, or at least went off someplace where it could sulk in privacy.
    Fernie lifted one slippered foot off the floor and then the other, relieved at being able to move her legs again. The drawback, of course, was that she didn’t cast a shadow right now—and that felt every bit not right.
    When she turned to Gustav and Great-Aunt Mellifluous to see what they had to say about this, she found the pair exchanging alarmed looks.
    Gustav grabbed her by the wrist. “Come on. We have to get you home.”
    His sudden urgency so completely took Fernie by surprise that she didn’t