Isle of Enchantment
Read Isle of Enchantment Online
Authors: Precious McKenzie,Becka Moore
Isle of
Enchantment
By Precious McKenzie
Illustrated by Becka Moore
© 2016 Rourke Educational Media
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.
www.rourkeeducationalmedia.com
Edited by: Keli Sipperley
Cover and Interior layout by: Renee Brady
Cover and Interior Illustrations by: Becka Moore
Library of Congress PCN Data
Isle of Enchantment / Precious McKenzie
(Rourke's World Adventures Chapter Books)
ISBN (hard cover)(alk. paper) 978-1-63430-390-3
ISBN (soft cover) 978-1-63430-490-0
ISBN (e-Book) 978-1-63430-584-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015933784
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Printed in the United States of America, North Mankato, Minnesota
Dear Parents and Teachers:
Rourke's Adventure Chapter Books engage readers immediately by grabbing readers' attention with exciting plots and adventurous characters.
Our Adventure Chapter Books offer longer, more complex sentences and chapters. With minimal illustrations, readers must rely on the descriptive text to understand the setting, characters, and plot of the book. Each book contains several detailed episodes all centered on a single plot that will challenge the reader.
Each adventure book dives into a country. Readers are not only invited to tag along for the adventure but will encounter the most memorable monuments and places, culture, and history. As the characters venture throughout the country, they address topics of family, friendship, and growing up in a way that the reader can relate to.
Whether readers are reading the books independently or you are reading with them, engaging with them after they have read the book is still important. We've included several activities at the end of each book to make this both fun and educational.
Are you ready for this adventure?
Enjoy,
Rourke Educational Media
Table of Contents
Pack Your Bags
My brother and I never stay home for long. Even though we're both 12 years old, I bet we've slept in our own rooms, in our own beds, maybe ten or 15 times. Okay, maybe I over exaggerate a bit. We're always bounding around the world, following our parents on their research trips. Our mom is a bird biologist. Our dad is a historian.
Most of the time it's pretty sweet. While Mom and Dad work, Tomas and I log onto our laptops and do our homeschool assignments even though we're thousands of miles from home. Sometimes we go on field trips. Sometimes we help with the research. Sometimes we help with camp.
Yeah, camp. For the research trips, we travel in groups with other professors and their families. We usually sleep in tents. Once in a while, we're lucky enough to travel in motorhomes. Those are nice.
They have full kitchens, an indoor shower, and real mattresses to sleep on instead of foam pads that go under a sleeping bag. Tomas says we look like a band of gypsies with laptops, binoculars, and specimen jars. But I don't mind. I think kids my age are lame. I'd rather hang out with adults.
Tonight, I'm doing laundry and packing my duffle bags for our next research trip. We're heading to Puerto Rico so Mom can study the elusive Antillean crested hummingbird. Mom is really excited about this trip, especially since it is the middle of winter here in Chicago. She told us to toss our swimsuits and flip flops in our bagsâwe're going to a tropical paradise.
Dad, of course, doesn't plan to spend much time on the beach. He wants to visit museums and soak up history. When he isn't teaching, or reading, he's in a museum archive. He loves museums so much he was even locked in one overnight because he didn't hear the closing time announcement. The museum guard thought everyone was out and locked up for the night. And there's Dad, reading about the Korean War, completely clueless. It
was pretty embarrassing to read about him in the newspaper the next day.
“You don't know, Marisol, that we won't need long underwear,” Tomas whined in my face as we packed our bags.
“Tomas. Stop. Listen to yourself. We are going to the tropics, not Siberia.” My brother gets a little stressed whenever we pack for a place we've never been before. He likes to be prepared and plan for every little detail.
Tomas pushed his round eyeglasses up his nose. He scratched his forehead. Even though we're twins, we look nothing alike. Tomas is short and kind of round. His green eyes are alert and cautious. I'm tall and, as Aunt Bernadette says, athletic. Tomas's dark hair is puffy and curly. Mine is dark and straight. Total opposites but we always have each other's backs.
Tomas ran his fingers through his curls. “Fine. How about jeans? A pair? Two?”
“Sure. In case we go out to eat or something.”
We both giggled at the idea. We never went out to eat. The research camps were usually hours from civilization. We had to eat whatever was at camp: plain rice, peanut butter sandwiches, dried fruit and nuts.
