Children's Fiction Science & Technology
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Haywire Hovercraft
- Publisher
- Simon Spotlight
- Initial publish date
- May 2016
- Category
- Science & Technology, School & Education, Humorous Stories
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781481461955
- Publish Date
- May 2016
- List Price
- $23.99
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781481461931
- Publish Date
- May 2016
- List Price
- $8.99
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781481461948
- Publish Date
- May 2016
- List Price
- $6.99 USD
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 8 to 12
- Grade: 3 to 7
- Reading age: 8 to 12
Description
Billy Sure, inventor and CEO of Sure Things, Inc., must track down a haywire hovercraft that’s gone missing with his sister on board in the seventh book of a hilarious middle grade series!
Everyone is talking about Billy Sure, the boy genius and millionaire inventor whose inventions have become instant hits. From the All Ball that turns into any sports ball to the Gross-to-Good Powder that makes even the most disgusting foods taste great, Sure Things, Inc. can do no wrong! Now Billy wants to help other kids achieve their inventing dreams, so he solicits and selects new ideas to develop.
Billy and Manny know exactly what Sure Things, Inc.’s Next Big Thing will be—a hovercraft! But when they start to build it, they notice it’s a little…haywire. The hovercraft dips, dives, twirls, and spins, until one day, it’s gone entirely, and so is Emily! Can Billy find his sister and fix the hovercraft, or will this be a crash landing for Sure Things, Inc.?
Find out in this wacky story with funny black-and-white spot illustrations throughout!
About the authors
Luke Sharpe is not a millionaire, but he has been trying to invent a machine that can teleport people anywhere in the world since he was eight years old. He has so far been unsuccessful but he has vowed never to give up. When he isn’t working, Luke enjoys Hawaiian pizza and skateboarding. He lives near Chicago with his wife and son (named Billy, of course), their gecko, Eddie, and their aquarium full of exotic fish.
Look! Look what I've done!! The words of an eight year old as he holds up the drawing of a vibrant red fire engine. Oh Graham, that's wonderful.
Really? Oh this is good. You draw a picture and you get a reaction. I could get into this! And so it began. The seed was planted, further watered by bedtime rituals of propping pillows up against his bedroom wall getting into bed to get lost in a family member's reading of The Wind in the Willows.
An unintended lesson learned through those readings that our intrepid illustrator still calls upon in his illustration work is that the viewer will take different things from the illustration and he will add elements to the illustration that may go over some heads, but others will catch them and smile. There's always something to look at.
A graduate of the illustration program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Graham thought he would stick around the big smoke and in addition to his work as a designer at Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart, he would also cultivate his Flock of Seagulls hair style and work on his dance floor moves. But alas soon follicles started to recede and shoulder pads deflated, so Graham moved back to his hometown of Ottawa, Ontario to contemplate his next career move.
It was in Ottawa that Graham began his freelance illustration and graphic design career. A career that has spawned illustrations for such publishers as Orca Book Publishers, Scholastic Canada, and Meadowside Books of the United Kingdom, as well as numerous Canadian government agencies and private design firms.
He lives in Merrickville, Ontario with a circus star family: his juggling wife, a helldriver daughter, a canine cannonball, and a fire breathing cat.
Excerpt: Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Haywire Hovercraft (by (author) Luke Sharpe; illustrated by Graham Ross)
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Haywire Hovercraft
Home Again
I’M BILLY SURE—PIZZA lover, dog owner, and kid inventor. I do a lot of different things, including talking to my mom over video chat. Why do I talk to her over video chat? Because my mom has a super-confidential, TOP-SECRET secret—she’s a spy, and she’s always off doing spy things!
Yup, that’s right, my mom is a spy, complete with coded messages, hidden documents, secret missions . . . you know, all the cool spy stuff.
So sometimes, when she’s away on secret missions, the only way I can talk to her is over video chat. Like now.
“I miss you, Billy,” Mom says from my laptop screen. “I can’t believe it’s been two weeks!”
“Me too,” I say. “Wow. Two weeks already!”
Okay, so backstory. I didn’t always know my mom is a spy. In fact, I only just found out a few weeks ago. Mom used to claim she was a scientist doing research for the government. I thought this was true until my thirteenth birthday, when she surprised me by sharing her real profession. And then she surprised me even more by taking me to her agency’s Spy Academy, where I took spy classes and built inventions to save secret agents on dangerous missions.
This is all 100 percent real. Mom was so impressed with all the inventions my company, SURE THINGS, INC., has produced—inventions like the ALL BALL, which turns into any sports ball; the SIBLING SILENCER, which, uh, silences your siblings; and the STINK SPECTACULAR, which smells super gross but tastes super great. We’re also the company that created GROSS-TO-GOOD POWDER, which makes gross food taste delicious. (If you eat in my school cafeteria, you’re welcome!) Our latest invention is the NO-TROUBLE BUBBLE, an impenetrable bubble where nothing can get to you. (Not even those silenced siblings!)
But it’s been a while since Sure Things, Inc. has come out with a new product, what with my being away inventing at Spy Academy. That was a lot of fun, but I realized that I’m not cut out to be a full-fledged secret agent. I also missed my best friend and Sure Things, Inc.’s CFO, Manny Reyes. So I decided to come home, even if it meant going back to boring “normal” school and dealing with Emily, my boring “normal” older sister.
Like Mom said, it’s been two weeks since I got home from Spy Academy, and this video chat is the first time I get to catch up with her. Seeing her face is really nice. I can almost forget that she isn’t safe and sound at home, rather than possibly battling DANGEROUS NUNCHUK-WIELDING NINJAS in—well, who knows where the lair of dangerous nunchuk-wielding Ninjas is!
“It feels like I was just at Spy Academy,” I tell Mom, “although I’ve been pretty busy. That’s because I told everyone I was on vacation in Barbados, and I had to do a whole report on my trip to Barbados in social studies class. Thankfully, Manny helped me with that research.”
Mom laughs.
“Sorry about the extra assignment. Has the rest of school been all right?” she asks.
“It’s been okay. When I was away, the Fillmore Middle School Inventors Club elected a temporary president. Do you remember Clayton Harris?”
“Of course!” Mom says. “He was, um—”
“Not super cool, yeah,” I say. “The one whose favorite activity is going to the dentist. Well, he was elected club president, and I decided to let him keep that position. I still want to help the club, but I don’t have time to run the day-to-day details anymore. Besides, Clayton has done really well as the president. He’s found his place. He’s made new friends, he’s a good leader of the club, and he’s even become kind of popular—or at least less unpopular.”
Mom smiles widely. “That is WONDERFUL!” she says. “Who knows, maybe Clayton will be president of the country someday, all thanks to your club!”
I try to imagine Clayton running for president or nestled into Mount Rushmore or kissing babies, but all I can picture is the same kid who blew chocolate milk out of his nose at my birthday party.
“And how are things at Sure Things, Inc.? Is Emily still helping out?” Mom asks.
“Sure Things, Inc. is okay,” I say. “Manny and I are working on something really big—a hovercraft. And now we’re feeling the pressure to get this invention out as our Next Big Thing.” Just to fill you in, our hovercraft is going to be the coolest invention ever. It’ll really fly and it’ll change the face of transportation as we know it. There’s just one little problem. We haven’t quite figured out how to make it fly. Manny is waiting on some “QUALITY WINGED MATERIALS” to arrive from overseas. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but Manny says they’re the latest in hover technology.
“As for Emily, she and Manny got along okay while I was away, but she’s been in a pretty grumpy mood ever since I got home.”
“What now?” asks Mom. “I talked to her on her birthday a few days ago and she seemed perfectly happy.”
Right—Emily’s fifteenth birthday. She might have been all smiles on her video chat with Mom, but the day was anything but fun for me and Dad.
It started like this: Emily woke up and started whining for Dad to take her to get her learner permit. Honestly, I didn’t see why the permit was such a big deal. All it does is allow her to take a driver’s test next year when she’s sixteen—or to drive with an instructor now. It’s not like she can pick up her friends and drive to the mall by herself.
But anyway, Emily kept on complaining.
Dad tried to remind her that it was a weekend, so the drivers office was closed.
“It’s not fair,” she sniffed. “Mom took Billy on a trip for his birthday! No one’s offered me a trip. I want to go somewhere. And I can’t even get my stupid learner permit.”
“Actually, I was working the whole time I was at Spy Academy,” I tried to remind her, but Emily ignored me. Emily usually ignores things I say when they don’t support her argument. So she complained ALL DAY until the next morning when Dad took her to the drivers office first thing. Then Emily started pestering Dad about when he would take her out to learn to drive.
I tell Mom all of this and watch her expression change to a frown.
“I wish I could be there to teach her how to drive,” she says. “I always feel so guilty that work keeps me away from you kids.”
“It’s okay,” I tell her. “Dad will totally teach Emily how to drive, but he’s just a little busy right now. His artwork was accepted to an art gallery.”
My dad is an artist, and a pretty good one—if you consider close-ups of my dog Philo’s toenails “pretty good.” He has a studio in the backyard—a converted garden shed, actually, but he likes it. He can spend days at a time out there painting and be perfectly happy. I’ll never understand why a gallery is interested in his WACKY PORTRAITS, but I’m proud of him anyway.
I think Mom is thinking the same thing I am because she starts to laugh, which makes me laugh. In a few seconds we’re both roaring to the point of tears, imagining Dad at an art gallery showing fancy art-lovers some portraits of Philo’s butt!
“So what’s going on over at Spy Academy?” I ask when I stop laughing long enough to catch my breath. “How’s Agent Paul?”
Agent Paul is my mom’s partner on her spy missions. And oh yeah, he just happens to be an octopus.
“He’s doing SWIMMINGLY,” Mom replies, chuckling at her own silly joke, one I’m sure she’s made a hundred times before.
“But seriously,” she continues, “I’ve been keeping a very close eye on Drew. So far, at least, he seems to be behaving. He even helped us catch another online scam artist.”
I frown at the mention of Drew. At Spy Academy I became very close friends with him, but then Manny found out my new friend was actually the nephew of Sure Things, Inc.’s arch nemesis, Alistair Swiped, CEO of Swiped Stuff, Inc. That wouldn’t have been a problem, except Drew was trying to sabotage my inventions the whole time! Like uncle, like nephew, I guess. I let Mom know, but she thought it was best for Drew to stay at Spy Academy. Maybe some of his EVIL GENIUS can be tamed under careful supervision.
Now that I stop to think about it, it really is amazing how much has gone on in the couple of weeks since I got back. Just talking about all of it makes me tired . . . which reminds me that I’ve got a busy day of school and inventing ahead tomorrow.
“I think I’m going to go to sleep, Mom,” I say. “Lots to do tomorrow. We’ve really got to get this hovercraft out ASAP.”
“Okay, honey, get some sleep. I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom,” I say.
My monitor goes blank.
I’m always a little sad at the end of a video chat with Mom, but somehow, knowing the truth about her makes it all a bit easier. My mom is off saving people. And that’s pretty cool.
Other titles by
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Attack of the Mysterious Lunch Meat
The Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur Collection (Boxed Set)
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur; Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Stink Spectacular; Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Cat-Dog Translator; Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Best Test
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur vs. Manny Reyes Kid Entrepreneur
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Everything Locator
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur Is NOT A SINGER!
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Invisible Inventor
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur Is a Spy!
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the No-Trouble Bubble
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Best Test
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur and the Cat-Dog Translator
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