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Authors: Mary Pope Osborne

Eve of the Emperor Penguin

BOOK: Eve of the Emperor Penguin
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Here’s what kids have to say to
Mary Pope Osborne, author of
the Magic Tree House series:

WOW! You have an imagination like no other.
—Adam W.

I love your books. If you stop writing books, it will be like losing a best friend.
—Ben M.

I think you are the real Morgan le Fay. There is always magic in your books.
—Erica Y.

One day I was really bored and I didn’t want to read. . . . I looked in your book. I read a sentence, and it was interesting. So I read some more, until the book was done. It was so good I read more and more. Then I had read all of your books, and now I hope you write lots more.
—Danai K.

I always read [your books] over and over . . .  1 time, 2 times, 3 times, 4 times. . . . 
—Yuan C.

You are my best author in the world. I love your books. I read all the time. I read everywhere. My mom is like freaking out.
—Ellen C.

I hope you make these books for all yours and mine’s life.
—Riki H.

Teachers and librarians love
Magic Tree House
®
books, too!

Thank you for opening faraway places and times to my class through your books. They have given me the chance to bring in additional books, materials, and videos to share with the class.
—J. Cameron

It excites me to see how involved [my fourth-grade reading class] is in your books. . . . I would do anything to get my students more involved, and this has done it.
—C. Rutz

I discovered your books last year. . . . WOW! Our students have gone crazy over them. I can’t order enough copies! . . . Thanks for contributing so much to children’s literature!
—C. Kendziora

I first came across your Magic Tree House series when my son brought one home. . . . I have since introduced this great series to my class. They have absolutely fallen in love with these books! . . . My students are now asking me for more independent reading time to read them. Your stories have inspired even my most struggling readers.
—M. Payne

I love how I can go beyond the [Magic Tree House] books and use them as springboards for other learning.
—R. Gale

We have enjoyed your books all year long. We check your Web site to find new information. We pull our map down to find the areas where the adventures take place. My class always chimes in at key parts of the story. It feels good to hear my students ask for a book and cheer when a new book comes out.
—J. Korinek

Our students have “Magic Tree House fever.” I can’t keep your books on the library shelf.
—J. Rafferty

Your books truly invite children into the pleasure of reading. Thanks for such terrific work.
—S. Smith

The children in the fourth grade even hide the [Magic Tree House] books in the library so that they will be able to find them when they are ready to check them out.
—K. Mortensen

My Magic Tree House books are never on the bookshelf because they are always being read by my students. Thank you for creating such a wonderful series.
—K. Mahoney

F
or many years, one of my favorite places to visit has been the Central Park Zoo in New York City. My husband, Will, and I love going there for one main reason: to visit the building where about sixty gentoo and chinstrap penguins live. The penguins always make us laugh—especially when they jump out of the water onto the edge of their pool. We also love watching their keepers call each penguin by name and hand-feed fish to them.

While I was writing this book, I combined my memories of watching the penguins at the zoo with my research on Antarctica. And I used my imagination to think about Jack and Annie searching for a secret of happiness to share with Merlin. I always mix these three things together to create a Magic Tree House book:
memory, research,
and
imagination.
But there’s one other ingredient that goes into my work on this series: joy. I love to write—and I love sharing Jack and Annie’s adventures with you. That’s one of my own personal secrets of happiness.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2008 by Mary Pope Osborne
Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Sal Murdocca

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

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.

Visit us on the Web!
www.magictreehouse.com
www.randomhouse.com/kids

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Osborne, Mary Pope.
Eve of the emperor penguin / by Mary Pope Osborne ; illustrated by Sal Murdocca. — 1st ed.
   p. cm.
Summary: The magic tree house takes Jack and Annie to Antarctica to search for the fourth secret of happiness for Merlin.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89462-6
[1. Tree houses—Fiction. 2. Voyages and travels—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction.
4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 5. Antarctica—Fiction.]
I. Murdocca, Sal, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.O81167Ev 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2008005769

Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

v3.0

For Nory van Rhyn,
who reminds me of Penny

    
Cover

    
Title Page

    
Dear Reader

    
Copyright

    
Dedication

    
Prologue

1. Smile

2. Lots of Ice

3. Short Grown-ups

4. Happy Campers

5. Lava Bombs

6. All Fall Down

7. The Emperor

8. A Good Story

9. Penny and Merlin

10. The Secret

    
More Facts About Antarctica

    
More Facts About Penguins

    
About the Author

    
About the Illustrator

Special Preview of
Magic Tree House #41:
Moonlight on the Magic

“Glittering white, shining blue, raven black;
in the light of the sun the land looks like a fairy tale.”

—Roald Amundsen,
the first explorer to reach
the South Pole, 1911

O
ne summer day in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, a mysterious tree house appeared in the woods. A brother and sister named Jack and Annie soon learned that the tree house was magic—it could take them to any time and any place in history. They also learned that the tree house belonged to Morgan le Fay, a magical librarian from the legendary realm of Camelot.

BOOK: Eve of the Emperor Penguin
11.45Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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