Read Dragon of the Red Dawn: A Merlin Mission Online
Authors: Mary Pope Osborne
Tags: #Ages 6 and up
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F
or many years, I have admired Japan’s literature and art. I collect books of Japanese poetry, and I also collect books of old Japanese prints that show people going about their everyday lives. Japanese art and poetry were my inspiration for writing this book, because I wanted to
live
in the scenes the artists and poets created. I wanted to ride on a fishing boat, sip tea in a teahouse, see cherry-blossom petals float down a river. When I’m writing a book, I feel as if I am living in another time and place. Working on this particular Magic Tree House adventure, I couldn’t wait to get to my writing desk every day … to visit the world of my dreams.
This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2007 by Mary Pope Osborne
Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Sal Murdocca
Temporary tattoo illustrations copyright © 2007 by Sal Murdocca
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Random House and colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc. Magic Tree House is a registered trademark of Mary Pope Osborne; used under license.
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows:
Osborne, Mary Pope.
Dragon of the red dawn / by Mary Pope Osborne; illustrated by Sal Murdocca.
p. cm. — (Magic tree house; #37)
“A Merlin mission.”
“A Stepping Stone book.”
Summary: When Merlin is weighed down by sorrows, Jack and Annie travel back to feudal Japan to learn one of the four secrets of happiness.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89459-6
[1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Happiness—Fiction.
4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction.
5. Japan—History—Tokugawa period, 1600-1868—Fiction.]
I. Murdocca, Sal, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.O81167Dr 2007 [Fic]—dc22 2006017188
v3.0
For Griffin Loehr van Rhyn,
a good friend of Jack and Annie’s
Cover
Title Page
Dear Reader
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
1. For Merlin’s Sake
2. The Imperial Garden
3. Basho
4. Sushi and Sumo
5. An Excellent Student?
6. The Banana Tree
7. Clang, Clang, Clang!
8. In the Red Dawn
9. Flowers of Edo
10. Journey of a Thousand Miles
More About Basho, Edo, and Haiku
Special Preview of Magic Tree House #38: Monday with a Mad Genius
Now I shall dream,
Lulled by the patter of rain
And the song of the frogs.
—poem from old Japan,
translated by Lafcadio Hearn