Season of the Sandstorms: A Merlin Mission
Read Season of the Sandstorms: A Merlin Mission Online
Authors: Mary Pope Osborne
Tags: #Ages 6 and up
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M
any years ago, I journeyed overland from Greece to Nepal. On my trip, I traveled from Damascus, Syria, to Baghdad, Iraq, riding in a van through the desert. Just before sunset my traveling companion and I came upon a tea tent in the middle of nowhere. There, an old man and his great-grandson served tea to the few travelers who passed their way. The man and the boy invited us to share their dinner and camp near their tent. I’ll never forget their kindness, nor the brilliant sunset over the desert—nor the cold starry night that followed. It has been a joy to return to these memories while writing
Season of the Sandstorms
,
and I hope I can revisit the country of Iraq someday.
Text copyright © 2005 by Mary Pope Osborne.
Illustrations copyright © 2005 by Sal Murdocca.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House Childrenߣs Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.randomhouse.com/kids
www.magictreehouse.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Osborne, Mary Pope.
Season of the sandstorms / by Mary Pope Osborne; illustrated by Sal Murdocca.
p. cm. — (Magic tree house; #34)
“A Merlin mission.”
“A Stepping Stone book.”
SUMMARY
: Guided by a magic rhyme, Jack and Annie travel to ancient Baghdad on a mission to help the caliph disseminate wisdom to the world.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89456-5
[1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Brothers and sisters—Fiction.
4. Baghdad (Iraq)—History—Fiction. 5. Iraq—History—Fiction.]
I. Murdocca, Sal, ill. II. Title. III. Series: Osborne, Mary Pope.
Magic tree house series; v #34. PZ7.O81167Se 2005 [E]—dc22 2005000836
Random House, Inc. New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland
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.
v3.0
To Paul Caringella,
a scholar in the
House of Wisdom
Away, for we are ready to a man!
Our camels sniff the evening and are glad.
Lead on, O Master of the Caravan:
Lead on the Merchant-Princes of Baghdad.
—James Elroy Flecker
O
ne summer day, 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.
After Jack and Annie traveled on many adventures for Morgan, Merlin the magician began sending them on “Merlin Missions” in the tree house. With help from two young sorcerers named Teddy and Kathleen, Jack and Annie visited four mythical places and found valuable objects to help save Camelot.
On their next four Merlin Missions, Jack and Annie were told they must travel to real times and real places in history and prove to Merlin that they could use magic wisely. They have just
returned from a successful mission in the city of Venice over 250 years ago, and now they are waiting to hear from Merlin again….