Bubba and Squirt's Mayan Adventure E-Book

Sherry Ellis

• Herausgeber: Dancing Lemur Press LLC
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 81

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

An ancient Mayan civilization!

That's what Bubba and Squirt find when they travel through the mysterious vortex for another wild adventure. There they meet archeologists who are unearthing priceless artifacts.

But someone is stealing them. And an encounter with the Tate Duende awakens magic within Bubba. Throw in the mysterious Alux and a new discovery and things get sticky.

Will Bubba and Squirt solve the mystery, or will they be stuck forever in the jungles of Belize?

Leseprobe

Sherry Ellis

DANCING LEMUR PRESS, L.L.C.

Pikeville, North Carolina

http://dancinglemurpress.com

“Highly-recommended for fans of middle-grade Latin American fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and Mayan Indian culture.” - June McCrary Jacobs, author

“It is a very exciting book… It is right for middle-grade readers who aren’t advanced but are just starting reading chapter books.” – Kids Book Buzz, 5 stars

“Readers will be mesmerized by the story. They’ll eagerly turn the pages to see what happens next.” - children’s author, Deanie Humphrys-Dunne

“From wild action to education to recipes, Ellis’s Mayan Adventure bringsit all in this entertaining read.” - Virginia Wright, author

“An engaging narrative that's alternately told from the first-person perspectives of Bubba and Squirt.” – Nikki Elson, author

“The interesting characters and a plot that keeps spinning in interesting directions will be loved by both kids and adults alike.” – Jemi Fraser, author

“…if a child loves a book that is full of action and suspense as well as mysterious, then I would suggest they give this book a read.: - Whispering Stories reviews

“Every page holds something exciting or intriguing, making this a hard book to put down.” – Tonja Drecker, author of Music Boxes

“Bubba and Squirt are delightful characters… I recommend Bubba and Squirt’s MAYAN ADVENTURE for Middle Grade Readers and older readers.” – Beverly Stowe McClure, award winning children’s author

Copyright 2020 by Sherry Ellis

Published by Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.

P.O. Box 383, Pikeville, North Carolina, 27863-0383

http://dancinglemurpress.com

ISBN 9781939844712

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system in any form–either mechanically, electronically, photocopy, recording, or other–except for short quotations in printed reviews, without the permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Cover design by C.R.W.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Ellis, Sherry, author.

Title: Bubba and Squirt's Mayan adventure / Sherry Ellis.

Other titles: Mayan adventure

Description: Pikeville, North Carolina : Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.,

[2020] | Includes bibliographical references. | Audience: Ages 7-12. |

Summary: When Bubba and Squirt travel through the mysterious vortex to

an ancient Mayan civilization, they meet archaeologists who are

unearthing priceless objects, encounter a magical being, and solve a

mystery. Includes historical notes, recipes, and glossary.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020001147 (print) | LCCN 2020001148 (ebook) | ISBN

9781939844705 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781939844712 (ebook)

Subjects: CYAC: Adventure and adventurers--Fiction. | Antiquities--Fiction.

| Magic--Fiction. | Brothers and sisters--Fiction. |

Belize--Antiquities--Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.E458 By 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.E458 (ebook) |

DDC [Fic]--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001147

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001148

Dedication:

For Barb and Bob who were part of my own Mayan Adventure.

Also available:

Bubba and Squirt’s Big Dig to China

Print ISBN 9781939844507

EBook ISBN 9781939844514

Winner of the…

Reader’s Favorite Book Award

Pinnacle Book Achievement Award

Litpick Book Review Award

Book Excellence Awards Finalist

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Bubba: We Get Flushed Down the Hole…Again

Chapter 2 - Squirt: A Dark and Creepy Maze

Chapter 3 - Bubba: The Place is Busted

Chapter 4 - Squirt: Trouble With the Locals

Chapter 5 - Bubba: Robbers Want Art Facts

Chapter 6 - Squirt: We Might Need an Umbrella

Chapter 7 - Bubba: Stuck in the Mud

Chapter 8 - Squirt: Monkey Business

Chapter 9 - Bubba: Chased by a Dude With Backward Feet

Chapter 10 - Squirt: Say What?

Chapter 11 - Bubba: The Sneaky Stone Thing

Chapter 12 - Squirt: Bubba’s Big Find

Chapter 13 - Bubba: More Running

Chapter 14 - Squirt: The Codex Decoded

Chapter 15 - Bubba: Party Time

Chapter 16 - Squirt: Home Again

Mayan Indians

Altun Ha

Additional Resources

Recipes

Glossary

Bibliography and Maps

About the Author

CHAPTER 1

BUBBA: WE GET FLUSHED DOWN THE HOLE…AGAIN

I ran for my life. Vines slashed my face as my feet pounded the jungle path. My heart raced. I could barely breathe. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I saw it was closing in. The Tata Duende—the goblin of doom. There was no way I could escape.

“Bubba, you need to start at the beginning. Explain how you got there and what you were doing.”

Sorry for the interruption. That’s my big sister, Squirt. She’s always butting in. But she has a point. Would you like to know how I ended up in that terrible situation? Good, I’ll tell you.

It started with a shovel. A magic shovel. Grandpa Joe bought it at a garage sale. Squirt didn’t believe me when I said I’d dig a hole to China with it. But I showed her. I dug that hole. And after it swallowed us up, we found ourselves on the other side of the world, in Xian, China, surrounded by Terracotta Warriors. And guess what else? We met the ghost of the first emperor of China! He wouldn’t let us go home until we found his missing burial disk.

That was in June. A month ago. The hole is still there, covered with branches, under the sycamore tree in the woods behind our house. Squirt said she never wanted to go down there again, but that was before the dream.

Squirt and I had gone to Grandpa’s house to learn some cool magic tricks. Like how to stick a pencil up your nose and pull it out of your ear. While we were there, I spotted something. It looked like one of those elf toys people put on a shelf for Christmas. Except a lot uglier. This one was made of stone. It sat cross-legged, wearing nothing but a funny hat, loincloth, and a necklace. It had big ears, narrow eyes, and a wide nose. The thing looked like a grumpy old troll.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Grandpa’s blue eyes sparkled. “An alux.”

“Ah-loosh?” I said, sounding out the word.

“A Mayan gnome. Like an Irish leprechaun.”

I’d learned about the Mayan people in school last year. They live in Mexico and Central America. I didn’t know they had gnomes, though. “Do aluxes have pots of gold and slide down rainbows?”

Grandpa laughed. “No, but they can be mischievous.”

Squirt rolled her eyes. “How? They’re nothing but stone statues.”

“Magic. The ancient Mayans made them with clay and blood.”

“Blood? Ewww. Gross!”

Grandpa nodded. “A drop of blood formed a bond between the alux and its creator. After it was made, the creator offered it prayers and gifts. That’s how it came to life. If the maker took care of it, the alux protected him and his property.”

“By doing what?”

“By flying off the shelf and knocking the bad guys in the head,” I said.

Grandpa patted my back. “That’s a good guess, Bubba.” He picked up the alux and held it in his hand. “This little guy sat in someone’s cornfield, guarding it. If something bad wandered in, he would’ve thrown stones to scare it away.”

“Yeah, right. If it sat in a cornfield, birds pooped on it.” Squirt took the alux out of Grandpa’s hand. She stared at it a moment before putting it back on the shelf. “Like I said, it’s a statue. Nothing more.”

Grandpa frowned. “You’d better be careful, Squirt. Aluxes don’t like to be disrespected.”

“What’s it going to do? Throw stones at me?”

“Probably give you diarrhea because you touched it after it got pooped on,” I said.

Squirt’s green eyes narrowed as she gave me one of her fire-breathing-dragon looks.

“Have you ever heard the story of the Cancun bridge?” Grandpa asked.

Squirt and I shook our heads.

“Workers tried to build a bridge in Cancun, Mexico, but it kept collapsing. They figured it was because an alux who lived there was guarding the area. A Mayan priest came and held a ceremony. Then they built a house for the alux. After that, the problems stopped.”

Squirt crossed her arms. “Are you making this up?”

“No. Come here. I’ll show you.” Grandpa went to his computer and did a search. A picture of a stone hut sitting on top of a pyramid came up. It was under a bridge, right next to the road. “There it is.”

Squirt shrugged. “Whatever. That’s a coincidence.”

Grandpa and I looked at each other. We knew differently. It was magic.

“Where did you get the alux?” I asked.

“From your great-great-grandpa Jacob. A Mayan magician gave it to him.”

“In Mexico?”

“No. In Central America. Belize.”

Let me tell you about Great-Great-Grandpa Jacob.

I come from a family of magicians. Great-Great-Grandpa was one of the best. I never met him in person, but the stories Grandpa tells about him are impressive. Like how he could escape from a locked underwater vault, like Houdini. He was good at hypnotizing people, too. He could get in their heads and make them do anything.

Which brings me to the part about the dream. It happened after our visit to Grandpa’s house. In the dream I was in a jungle, walking along a dirt path. I had no idea where I was or why I was there. Then something popped out of one of the bushes in front of me. I gasped. The alux! But it was alive with brown skin and arms and legs that moved like mine. Our gazes locked before it turned and ran down the path.

“Wait!” But it didn’t listen. I chased it through the jungle until we came to a clearing where a giant stone pyramid stood. The alux ran to it and climbed steps that led to a door at the top. It went through and disappeared. I followed. When I got to the door, I peeked in, but I only saw darkness.

“Hello?” I called.

No answer.

I walked in. “Hello?”

“Hello, Bubba.”

I spun around. And guess who it was? Great-Great-Grandpa Jacob! He stood in the corner, surrounded by a white light and wearing a gray suit. His mustache and twinkling blue eyes looked exactly as they do in the picture that sits on our living room table.

“Uh, hi,” I said. “The alux. Where…?”