PROLOGUE
LINDSEY GOMEZ
I ripped off silver birthday wrapping paper, lifted a pale pink box lid, and tore through a bunch of sparkly tissue.
There it was.
âA CAMERA? NO WAY!â I cried.
âWhat do you mean no way ?â Dad joked. âAll we ever give you are cameras.â
âYeah, I know,â I said, smirking. âThis makes camera number twenty-two in my collection!â
Kids at school know me as âphotographer at largeâ because I snap photos for the school paper. I try to show up at all soccer games, school musicals, and spelling bees. And now that Iâm a member of the Monster Squad, photography comes in handy more than ever. Iâm working on a photo scrapbook of all our Monster Squad adventures.
Monster Squad is this top secret group formed by genius B-Monster movie director Oswald Leery. A few months back, Leery and his sidekick, Walter Block, invited four of us Riddle Elementary fifth-graders (and superfans of the B-Monster movies) to join him and track down B-Monsters in the real world.
How do B-Monsters get out into the world, you ask? Well, when a Leery B-Monster movie is screened from an original movie reel, the B-Monster has the ability to escape. If you were stuck in a movie reel, wouldnât you want out?
When Leery explained this all to me, I jumped right on the bandwagon because . . . well, I couldnât think of a single reason not to. I could not turn away the chance to hunt down B-Monsters and take photos at the same time! After all, my grandpa Max was the original photographer and cinematographer for all of Leeryâs movies.
And I inherited his photography geneâbig time.
An entire wall of my bedroom is covered with cool B-Monster photos that my grandpa took on and off the movie set. He has shots of B-Monsters attacking, eating, and flying warp speed into the ozone layer. My favorite shot shows a bunch of glowing robot props from They Came from Planet Q âwith Grandpa posing in the middle.
I inherited more than a photo gene from Grandpa though; I inherited most of his camera collection, too. Many of the cameras are old-fashioned, like the ones that take sepia-toned pictures (brown and white instead of black-and-white), but they work like new. There are Polaroid-type cameras (where the picture comes right out); cameras with long-range lenses; and cameras that have a special âB-Monster Visionâ knob.
âWas this really one of Grandpaâs cameras?â I asked my parents. âIt looks so plain.â
âCame from his secret stash, I guess,â Mom explained. âIt was at the bottom of a box in the attic, all wrapped up in brown paper with a bunch of other movie props. At first we thought it was broken. The lens was scratched a bit and that dial on top was covered with grime. But then your father found this new repair shop . . .â
âReely Good Things!â Dad piped up. âItâs a brand-new store at Petroglyph Mall down on the lower level. They sell cameras and DVDs. I saw some B-Monster movies in the shop. I wouldnât be surprised if they have some original reels there!â
âOriginal reels?â I gulped.
I knew what that meant. A new B-Monster could be released at any moment. The squad already eliminated three. I wasnât really sure I was ready for number four.
My dad knows Petroglyph Mall like the back of his hand. Heâs the head of security there. Twenty-six different guys report to him! He knows all the store owners, which is a major bonus, because they offer cool discounts and specials, like offering to fix my new camera.
âThanks for this,â I said, squeezing my arms around both Mom and Dad at the same time. âYou get the best presents.â
âWell . . .â Mom shrugged. âYouâre the best daughter.â
Dad nodded at the camera. âLooks pretty interesting . . .â
âMore like pretty strange ,â I said. âWhat are all