Codzilla

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For Granny Moose and Judith Morgan, with love —David

For my nieces and nephews, the best school of fish I know, except they aren’t fish, just regular human kids —Jared

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Codzilla Text copyright © 2019 by David Zeltser Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Jared Chapman All rights reserved. Manufactured in China.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007. www.harpercollinschildrens.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018943092 ISBN 978-0-06-257067-3

The artist used Adobe Photoshop to create the digital illustrations in this book, which was hard since he was underwater.

Design by Chelsea C. Donaldson 19 20 21 22 23 SCP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

❖ First Edition

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A L L I Z D O C

by David

Zeltser pictures by Jared Chapman

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New N Ne ew art art TK ar TK - suggested sug uggest gest ge sted ed SSPREAD: PREAD PR EAD: EA D: fi fisssh h ente eentering en nte teri ringg sschool cch hoo ool wi ool w with ith th B Bertie ertie er tie ti squeezing sque sq ueez eezziin ng through tth hro ouggh the the doorway th do d oor oor o wa w y

Bertie was a big codfish.

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When you are big, it’s hard to fit in. And sometimes you don’t know your own strength.

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But Bertie was quite gentle, too. His favorite activity was reading in his school’s library. He especially loved the books about sharks.

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Maxwell was another cod in the school. His favorite activity was making Bertie’s life miserable.

“Hey, everyone, look at the monster,” he would say.

When Bertie would ask him to stop, Maxwell would always shout, “Hey, guys, what’s this beast’s name again?”

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“CODZILLA!” the other fish would reply.

And then they would laugh.

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Bertie tried swimming away from Maxwell.

He tried hiding.

He even tried playing dead.

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