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Authors: Mary Pope Osborne

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“Good-bye now,” said Morgan, smiling. “Have a safe journey home to
your
family.”

“Thanks,” said Jack.

“See all you guys again soon—
real
soon, we hope!” said Annie.

“We hope so, too!” said Teddy.

“Good-bye,” said Kathleen.

Jack and Annie left the garden cottage and hurried back to the tree house.

They climbed up the rope ladder. Jack grabbed the Pennsylvania book and opened it to a picture of the Frog Creek woods.

“Wait, I see Merlin and Penny! Look!” Annie pointed toward Merlin in the distance. He was still walking through the apple orchard with Penny at his side.

“They look like a little family now, too,” said Jack.

“Yeah, they do. I should take their picture,” said Annie. She aimed her camera at Merlin and Penny and took a picture. Then she sighed. “Okay, home now.”

“Bye, Penny,” Jack said softly. Then he pointed in the book to the words
Frog Creek.
“I wish we could go there!” he said.

The wind started to blow.

The tree house started to spin.

It spun faster and faster.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.

“We’re home,” Annie said. “That was a great trip.” She and Jack were back in the Frog Creek woods.

“Yeah. I hope we see Penny on our next mission,” said Jack.

“If we see Merlin, we’ll probably see Penny,” said Annie. “I think those two are a team now. At least we have a picture of them—and a picture of Teddy, Kathleen, and Morgan.”

Annie held up her camera and clicked through the photo display. “Oh, no!” she said. “I don’t believe it!”

“What?” said Jack.

“All my pictures are gone!” said Annie. “No Antarctica! No Merlin or Morgan! No penguins!”

“Really?” said Jack. “Maybe you can’t keep the pictures you take on a magical trip.”

“I think you’re right,” said Annie. “I only have
one picture. I took it right before we left home.” She held up her camera to show Jack. It was a picture of him. He had a grin on his face.

“That’s when I saw the streak of light over the woods,” said Jack, “and I knew the tree house was back.”

“Well, at least I captured
that
moment,” said Annie, sighing.

“Yep.” Jack put the Antarctica book on the floor of the tree house and pulled on his pack. Then he climbed down the rope ladder. Annie followed. As they started tramping over the fallen leaves, the woods were growing dark. Jack felt a little cold and hungry.

“So the fourth secret is
take care of someone who needs you,
” said Annie. “I guess that could mean lots of things. Like take care of a sad person, a baby, a puppy, or a new kid in school …”

Jack nodded. “Yep,” he said. “And maybe it works the other way, too.”

“What do you mean?” said Annie.

“I think sometimes you can make other people happy by letting
them
take care of
you,
” Jack said.

“Oh, right,” said Annie. “It seems to make Mom and Dad happy to take care of us.”

“Like when they tell us to wear scarves and gloves,” said Jack.

“And make us dinner,” said Annie.

“And tell us to be home before dark,” said Jack.

“We better hurry,” said Annie.

“Yep, let’s go make Mom and Dad happy—” said Jack, laughing.

“By letting them take care of us!” said Annie.

The wind shook the tree limbs, and leaves fluttered to the ground. Geese honked overhead as Jack and Annie hurried home through the chilly November twilight.

• Today Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent in the world.

• The land area of Antarctica is more than 5 million square miles.

• More than 99 percent of Antarctica is covered with thick ice.

• Ninety percent of all the world’s ice can be found in Antarctica.

• In winter, the sea around Antarctica freezes and the continent becomes much bigger.

• Much of the land is unreachable by humans in winter.

• Mount Erebus is the most active volcano in Antarctica, with daily eruptions.

• Mount Erebus was named after Erebus, a god from Greek mythology who was the son of Chaos. Erebus was the god of darkness, and Antarctica is in darkness for much of the year.

• The continent of Antarctica was first seen by humans less than 200 years ago.

• In the twentieth century, more than forty permanent stations were built in Antarctica by people from many countries.

• For over fifty years, the United States has had a full-time research site called McMurdo Station.

• There are six kinds of penguins in Antarctica: the Adélie, chinstrap, gentoo, macaroni, king, and emperor.

• Only emperor penguins can winter on Antarctica, because only they can survive the cold.

• In the winter, thousands of emperor penguins march inland and create colonies on the ice of Antarctica. There the female penguin lays her egg. Then she marches north back to the sea to get food for her chick.

• While the female is gone, the male penguin stays with the egg and protects it from the brutal
weather. For the next two months, the male penguins all huddle together against the howling winds. Not until their mates finally return do the hungry males head to the sea to eat.

Mary Pope Osborne
is the award-winning author of many novels, picture books, story collections, and nonfiction books
.
Her bestselling Magic Tree House series has been translated into many languages around the world. Highly recommended by parents and educators everywhere, the series introduces young readers to different cultures and times in history, as well as to the world’s legacy of ancient myth and storytelling. Mary Pope Osborne is married to Will Osborne, a co-author of many of the Magic Tree House Research Guides and librettist and lyricist for
Magic Tree House: The Musical
, a theatrical adaptation of the series. They live in northwestern Connecticut with their Norfolk terriers, Joey and Mr. Bezo. You can visit Mary, Will, and even Joey and Mr. Bezo on the Web at
www.marypopeosborne.com
.

Sal Murdocca
is best known for his amazing work on the Magic Tree House series. He has written and/or illustrated over two hundred children’s books, including
Dancing Granny
by Elizabeth Winthrop,
Double Trouble in Walla Walla
by Andrew Clements, and
Big Numbers
by Edward Packard. He has taught writing and illustration at the Parsons School of Design in New York. He is the librettist for a children’s opera and has recently completed his second short film. Sal Murdocca is an avid runner, hiker, and bicyclist. He has often bicycle-toured in Europe and has had many one-man shows of his paintings from these trips. He lives and works with his wife, Nancy, in New City, New York.

Here’s a special preview of
Magic Tree House #41
(A Merlin Mission)
Moonlight on the Magic

Available now!

Excerpt copyright ©
2009
by Mary Pope Osborne.
Published by Random House Children’s Books,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BOOK: Eve of the Emperor Penguin
13.71Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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