Zooman Sam by Lois Lowry

at Steve and then ran around the yard while he chased her, trying to get even; Sleuth chased both of them, thinking that it was some sort of game. Sam watched them for a while and tried to figure out why it was that they seemed to be having so much fun when
he
wasn't having any fun at all.

    Finally he gave up and went back into the house. He found his mom in the kitchen. The mixer was whirring, and his mom had some batter smears on her nose.
    "You licked a bowl, didn't you?" Sam asked in a suspicious voice.
    "Sure did," his mother admitted. "Oatmeal cookie batter. Want some? I saved you a little."
    That was good news. Oatmeal cookie dough was Sam's favorite, and for a moment he was afraid that his mother had hogged it all, which would have ruined his morning entirely. She handed him a large wooden spoon still covered with gooey batter, and he began to lick.
    "I didn't go to 'Saturday Morning at the Movies' because I had to help Steve train Sleuth," Sam said, "but Steve and Anastasia are just fooling around."
    "I know," his mother told him. She walked over to the kitchen window and looked out into the yard. Steve and Anastasia were throwing
leaves at each other and laughing. Mrs. Krupnik smiled. "That's what being a teenager is like, Sam. When you have a crush on someone, you fool around and act silly. You'll do that someday."

    Sam shook his head. He licked the last bit of dough from the sticky spoon. "No," he said sighing. "I'm always going to be sad." He made a very sad face, with his lower lip sticking out, so that his mother could see what he meant.
    "My goodness!" she said, looking at his sad face. "Why?"
    For a minute, Sam couldn't even remember why he was feeling so sorry for himself. Then he remembered, but he didn't know how to tell about it because it was too complicated. It was about wanting to be the best, the most important, the Chief of Wonderfulness.
    Finally, because his mother was waiting, he tried to tell her about some of his sadnesses. "Because I always have to wear a zooman suit," he said at last, "and I don't have any pockets. And I have to wear hats every day. And my ears get folded."
    He thought some more. Then he remembered a really big thing. "And I have some very scary animals to do, still."
    "Like what?" his mother asked. "You already did lions and tigers. What could be scarier than lions and tigers?"

    Sam looked at the floor. "There are five," he told her in a low voice. "But I'm not going to say them."
    His mother picked him up. She sat down in a kitchen chair and arranged Sam on her lap. He could smell oatmeal cookies in the oven, and he could hear the clock chime in the hall. His cat wandered into the kitchen, looked around, arched her back, lay down on the dog's folded rug, and began to purr. Sam felt very cozy and comfortable.
    "Would you whisper them to me?" his mom asked.
    Sam remembered the five hats that he had been dreading. He had placed them in the very bottom of the plastic bag.
    He whispered the first one into his mother's ear.
    "Gulp," she said. Her eyes opened wide, and she shuddered.
    Sam whispered the second.
    "Wow," his mom whispered back. "Scary."
    Sam whispered the third, and his mom said, "Ooooh."
    He told her the fourth, and the fifth.

    His mother sat silently for a moment, holding him close. The oven timer made a beeping sound.
    "Let me get the cookies out, Sam," she said, "and then we'll decide what to do."
    "Okay." Sam climbed down from her lap.
    "Want to call Anastasia and Steve? Ask them if they'd like some milk and cookies."
    But when Sam went to the kitchen door and called, "Milk and cookies!" it was Sleuth who reacted. He leaped to his feet, knocking over a trash can filled with recyclables, so that cans and bottles fell clattering onto the brick patio; then he thundered to the porch with his ears flapping and his tail wagging, in hopes of a handout.
    "Dog trainers!" Sam called in his scolding teacher voice. "You have
not
been doing your best work!"

    "Remember