McTavish On The Move Chapter Sampler

ON THE MOVE
ON THE MOVE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either
products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2019 by Meg Rosoff

Original illustrational style and cover art copyright © 2019 by Grace Easton
Interior illustrations by copy artist David Shephard,
based on and in the style of Grace Easton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or

stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic,
electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
First US edition 2022

First published by Barrington Stoke, Ltd. (Great Britain), 2019
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2021947460

ISBN 978-1-5362-1376-8
22 23 24 25 26 27 LBM 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in Melrose Park, IL, USA
This book was typeset in Lora.
Candlewick Press
99 Dover Street
Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
www.candlewick.com
CONTENTS
1. A Nice Day at Work 1
2. A New Job 12
3. Not a Small Problem 15
4. Doom and Gloom 21
5. The New House 27
6. Getting Ready to Move 38
7. Great Movers 42
8. Fear and Trembling 52
9. New School 63
10. GOTCHA! 71
11. The Most Well-Behaved Dog in the World 78

1
A NICE DAY AT WORK
At six p.m. precisely, Pa Peachey stepped

in through the front door singing a happy
little tune.
“La, la, la,” he sang. “Tra-la, tra-lee, oh
happy me!”
Ollie and Ava sat at the kitchen table
doing homework. They glanced at each
other in alarm.
The Peachey family was used to Pa
Peachey returning from work cranky and
crabby and crotchety. They were used to him
mumbling and grumbling and muttering. But
singing and smiling? Humming a happy tune?
“La-di-da, la-di-dee, oh what joy it is to
be!” Pa Peachey sang.
Betty stared at her father with concern.
“Are you feeling quite well, Pa?” she asked.
“Quite well?” Pa Peachey answered.
“Why, I am more than quite well! I am full of
the joys of spring!”
Ava’s eyes widened with horror.
Pa Peachey began to sing once more.
“If you’re happy and you know it, clap your
hands,” he sang happily.
Nobody clapped. Ava and Ollie clutched
each other in fear.
On his bed under the stairs, McTavish
tilted his head, amazed. Never since McTavish
2
joined the Peachey family had Pa Peachey
come home from work in a good mood.
“Hello, darling,” Ma Peachey said
cautiously. “Are you feeling quite well?”
“Quite well? Quite well? Why does
everyone keep asking if I’m feeling quite well?
As a matter of fact, I am feeling superb. I am
feeling devil-may-care and happy-go-lucky.
I’m feeling joyous, optimistic, and downright
delighted. Why, I am in such high spirits, I
might dance a merry little dance!”
Ava covered her face with her hands.
“Perhaps you should sit down, Pa,” Betty
said, her brow furrowed.
“Perhaps we should call a doctor,” Ollie
said. “Or the police.”
McTavish stood up. He padded across the
room and sat at Pa Peachey’s feet. He looked
up at Pa Peachey’s face.
3
Pa Peachey certainly looked like the same
person who had left for work this morning in
his usual grumpy mood. But perhaps he had
been hit by a bus. Perhaps a blow to the head
had changed his personality or given him
amnesia. Perhaps Pa Peachey had forgotten
his reputation as the world’s crankiest man.
“Did you have a nice day at work?” Ma
Peachey asked in a worried voice.
“As a matter of fact, I did,” said Pa Peachey,
smiling broadly.
The Peachey children froze. They stared
at one another in disbelief.
“You had a nice day at work?” Ollie gaped.
“Are you sure?”
“Really?” said Ava. “You had a nice day”—
she pronounced the words carefully—“at
work?”
5
“Indeed I did,” Pa Peachey said with a
huge grin.
The Peachey children shuddered.
McTavish pricked his ears, alert to this
strange turn of events.
For a long time, nobody said a word. The
silence was so silent, you could hear a pin
stand still.
After a few minutes, Pa Peachey became
impatient.
“Doesn’t anyone want to know why I had
a nice day at work?”
The Peachey children did not want to
know.
Pa Peachey had never had a nice day
at work. Not ever. Pa Peachey hated work
almost as much as he hated weekends and
holidays. He was crabby on Mondays and
irritable on Tuesdays. On Wednesdays he
6
was glum. On Thursdays and Fridays he was
just plain cranky. Pa Peachey complained
about beautiful summer days. He moaned
about Christmas. He hated weddings and
birthdays. In short, Pa Peachey was not
known for his cheerful disposition.
The Peachey children did not mind Pa
Peachey’s personality. They were used to it.
What they did not like was unexpected
change.
“If you are going to be happy all of a
sudden,” said Ollie, “I wish you would give us
time to prepare.”
“If you are planning to be jolly,” Ava said,
“I’d appreciate at least a week’s notice.”
“Are you running a fever, Pa?” Betty asked
with concern.
“What has it come to,” moaned Pa
Peachey, “when a man with a new job isn’t
7
allowed to be cheerful in his own home?”
“A new job!” exclaimed Betty.
“Tell us,” said Ma Peachey.
“Well,” said Pa Peachey, “if you must
know—”
“We must!” shouted all the Peacheys at
once.
“I have been offered a new job.”
“A new job!” Betty leaped up and hugged
her father. “That is wonderful news!”
Ma Peachey frowned. “What sort of
new job?”
The Peacheys fell silent once more. They
tilted their heads. They squinted their eyes.
They concentrated hard.
The fact was that not one of them
understood what Pa Peachey did at work,
despite his many attempts over the years to
explain.
8
“It has to do with . . .” Pa Peachey began.
The Peacheys leaned in, attentive.
Pa Peachey looked at the ceiling. “It’s
rather like . . .”
The Peacheys all frowned with
concentration.
Pa Peachey looked down at the floor. “It’s
very much concerned with . . .”
Nobody even dared blink.
Pa Peachey closed his eyes for a long
moment. At last he opened them and sighed.
“Never mind,” he said. “The new job is
rather like the old job—only more so.”
All the Peacheys nodded wisely.
Pa Peachey hesitated for a moment
and then went on. “Perhaps I should also
mention—not that it is at all important,
influential, or significant in any way, not that
any of you will even be terribly interested—”
9
“Yes?” Betty said with a slight narrowing
of the eyes.
“That the new job will be . . .”
“Yes?” Ava said with the beginnings of
a frown.
“The new job will be?” said Ollie with a
suspicious glare.
“The new job will be,” Pa Peachey said, “in
a different place.”
“A different place?” Ollie gasped. “What
does that even mean? Paris? Albania? Idaho?
Shanghai?”
Ava frowned. “When you say ‘a different
place,’ what sort of different place do you
have in mind?”
Betty looked puzzled. “Does ‘a different
place’ mean ‘a place’ that is ‘different’?”
McTavish listened carefully. As a rescue
dog, he knew it was his sworn duty to rescue
10

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ON THE MOVE

Text copyright © 2019 by Meg Rosoff

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or

First US edition 2022

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2021947460

Printed in Melrose Park, IL, USA

This book was typeset in Lora.

1. A Nice Day at Work 1

3. Not a Small Problem 15

4. Doom and Gloom 21

5. The New House 27

6. Getting Ready to Move 38

8. Fear and Trembling 52

11. The Most Well-Behaved Dog in the World 78

A NICE DAY AT WORK

At six p.m. precisely, Pa Peachey stepped

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