A Perfect Time for Pandas Read online

  Magic Tree House® Books

  #1: DINOSAURS BEFORE DARK

  #2: THE KNIGHT AT DAWN

  #3: MUMMIES IN THE MORNING

  #4: PIRATES PAST NOON

  #5: NIGHT OF THE NINJAS

  #6: AFTERNOON ON THE AMAZON

  #7: SUNSET OF THE SABERTOOTH

  #8: MIDNIGHT ON THE MOON

  #9: DOLPHINS AT DAYBREAK

  #10: GHOST TOWN AT SUNDOWN

  #11: LIONS AT LUNCHTIME

  #12: POLAR BEARS PAST BEDTIME

  #13: VACATION UNDER THE VOLCANO

  #14: DAY OF THE DRAGON KING

  #15: VIKING SHIPS AT SUNRISE

  #16: HOUR OF THE OLYMPICS

  #17: TONIGHT ON THE TITANIC

  #18: BUFFALO BEFORE BREAKFAST

  #19: TIGERS AT TWILIGHT

  #20: DINGOES AT DINNERTIME

  #21: CIVIL WAR ON SUNDAY

  #22: REVOLUTIONARY WAR ON WEDNESDAY

  #23: TWISTER ON TUESDAY

  #24: EARTHQUAKE IN THE EARLY MORNING

  #25: STAGE FRIGHT ON A SUMMER NIGHT

  #26: GOOD MORNING, GORILLAS

  #27: THANKSGIVING ON THURSDAY

  #28: HIGH TIDE IN HAWAII

  Merlin Missions

  #29: CHRISTMAS IN CAMELOT

  #30: HAUNTED CASTLE ON HALLOWS EVE

  #31: SUMMER OF THE SEA SERPENT

  #32: WINTER OF THE ICE WIZARD

  #33: CARNIVAL AT CANDLELIGHT

  #34: SEASON OF THE SANDSTORMS

  #35: NIGHT OF THE NEW MAGICIANS

  #36: BLIZZARD OF THE BLUE MOON

  #37: DRAGON OF THE RED DAWN

  #38: MONDAY WITH A MAD GENIUS

  #39: DARK DAY IN THE DEEP SEA

  #40: EVE OF THE EMPEROR PENGUIN

  #41: MOONLIGHT ON THE MAGIC FLUTE

  #42: A GOOD NIGHT FOR GHOSTS

  #43: LEPRECHAUN IN LATE WINTER

  #44: A GHOST TALE FOR CHRISTMAS TIME

  #45: A CRAZY DAY WITH COBRAS

  #46: DOGS IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

  #47: ABE LINCOLN AT LAST!

  Magic Tree House® Fact Trackers

  DINOSAURS

  KNIGHTS AND CASTLES

  MUMMIES AND PYRAMIDS

  PIRATES

  RAIN FORESTS

  SPACE

  TITANIC

  TWISTERS AND OTHER TERRIBLE STORMS

  DOLPHINS AND SHARKS

  ANCIENT GREECE AND THE OLYMPICS

  AMERICAN REVOLUTION

  SABERTOOTHS AND THE ICE AGE

  PILGRIMS

  ANCIENT ROME AND POMPEII

  TSUNAMIS AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS

  POLAR BEARS AND THE ARCTIC

  SEA MONSTERS

  PENGUINS AND ANTARCTICA

  LEONARDO DA VINCI

  GHOSTS

  LEPRECHAUNS AND IRISH FOLKLORE

  RAGS AND RICHES: KIDS IN THE TIME OF CHARLES DICKENS

  SNAKES AND OTHER REPTILES

  DOG HEROES

  ABRAHAM LINCOLN

  PANDAS AND OTHER ENDANGERED SPECIES

  More Magic Tree House®

  GAMES AND PUZZLES FROM THE TREE HOUSE

  This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2012 by Mary Pope Osborne

  Jacket art and interior illustrations copyright © 2012 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 the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the 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!

  randomhouse.com/kids

  MagicTreeHouse.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89878-5

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

  v3.1

  To Andy Boyce, who loves pandas

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  1. The Fourth Thing

  2. Silly Food

  3. The Sleeping Dragon

  4. Get Suited Up!

  5. Bing-Bing

  6. The Dragon Wakes

  7. Jack the Giant

  8. One Panda at a Time

  9. Totally All Right

  10. Panda Bread

  11. Breaking the Spell

  12. One Penguin at a Time

  Author’s Note

  Excerpt from Pandas and Other Endangered Species Fact Tracker

  Prologue

  One summer day in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, a mysterious tree house appeared in the woods. It was filled with books. A boy named Jack and his sister, Annie, found the tree house and soon discovered that it was magic. They could go to any time and place in history just by pointing to a picture in one of the books. While they were gone, no time at all passed back in Frog Creek.

  Jack and Annie eventually found out that the tree house belonged to Morgan le Fay, a magical librarian from the legendary realm of Camelot. They have since traveled on many adventures in the magic tree house and completed many missions for both Morgan le Fay and her friend Merlin the magician. Teddy and Kathleen, two young enchanters from Camelot, have sometimes helped Jack and Annie in both big and small ways.

  Now Teddy and Kathleen are in urgent need of Jack and Annie’s help. While Merlin and Morgan were away from Camelot, Teddy accidentally put a spell on Penny, Merlin’s beloved penguin, turning her into a statue. Teddy is sure he will be banished from Camelot unless Jack and Annie can help save Penny.

  Teddy and Kathleen have found an ancient spell that will undo Teddy’s accidental magic. To make the spell work, Jack and Annie must find four special objects, each from a different time and place. They have found three of these objects—and now they are waiting to find out where they must go next, and what they must find….

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Fourth Thing

  Jack heard knocking on his door. Teddy and Kathleen were knocking! They were calling to him! He had to help them save Penny! Jack tried to cross his room … but his legs wouldn’t move. He couldn’t get to the door!

  The knocking grew louder. “Jack?” his dad called.

  Jack opened his eyes. Where was he?

  “Jack, get up! School!” came his dad’s voice.

  What a dream, thought Jack. He quickly sat up in bed. He’d overslept!

  “Jack? Are you awake?” said his dad, peeking into his room.

  “Yep, thanks, Dad!” said Jack.

  “Better hurry,” said Jack’s dad. He closed the door.

  Jack hopped out of bed. Where’s Annie? he wondered. They had planned to go to the tree house before school! Today was the day to find the fourth thing to save Penny.

  Jack pulled on his jeans and a T-shirt and rushed out of his room. Annie charged out of her room at the same moment. “We overslept!” she said.

  “No kidding,” said Jack. �
��Hurry! We have to get to the tree house before school starts.”

  “I know!” said Annie.

  Annie and Jack charged down the steps. They rushed into the kitchen.

  “Good morning, sleepyheads,” their mom said. “You have just enough time for breakfast. I made you egg sandwiches.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” said Jack. “But would you mind if we take them with us? We have to head to school early. We have a special project.”

  “You guys really seem to love school,” their dad said.

  “Yep, school’s great,” said Jack.

  Their mom wrapped up their sandwiches and put them in a paper bag. She handed the bag to Annie. “You two have a good day,” she said.

  “Thanks, Mom!” said Annie.

  Jack and Annie hurried to the front door and stepped outside into the moist spring air.

  “We have exactly twenty-five minutes before we have to head to school,” Jack said.

  “No problem,” said Annie. “Hold on.” She put their sandwiches in Jack’s backpack. “Okay. Let’s go!” They raced across their yard and charged up the sidewalk. They ran across the street and headed into the Frog Creek woods. They ran between trees full of new green leaves until they came to the tallest oak.

  The magic tree house was high up in the branches. Annie grabbed the rope ladder and started up. Jack followed. Inside the tree house they both sat on the floor, catching their breath.

  “Whew … it’s all still here,” gasped Annie.

  Dusty rays of morning light shone through the tree house window onto the three things they’d already found to help Teddy and Kathleen: a rose carved out of an emerald from India, a dried white and yellow flower from the Swiss Alps, and a goose-feather quill pen from President Abraham Lincoln.

  “I hope Teddy and Kathleen were able to translate the last part of the rhyme,” said Jack. “Do we have a new note?”

  They both looked around the tree house. “Aha!” said Annie. She pointed to a book and a small scroll lying in the corner.

  Jack picked up the book, and Annie grabbed the scroll. “Interesting,” said Jack. He showed the cover of the book to Annie.

  “Cool, China!” said Annie.

  “We’ve been there before,” said Jack. “Remember the emperor who burned the books and tried to have us killed?”

  “That was more than two thousand years ago,” said Annie. “Maybe we’re going to a different time now.”

  Annie unrolled their scroll and read aloud:

  Dear Jack and Annie,

  We haven’t yet finished translating the last lines of the secret rhyme to reverse the statue spell Teddy cast on Penny. But we do know the fourth object we need to break the spell. And we know that it can be found in Southwest China. It is:

  A healthy food, grainy and good,

  baked with love, tough as wood,

  round in shape, the color of sand,

  given to those who have lost their land.

  Once you have found the last object, please hurry to Camelot. Morgan and Merlin will return by break of day tomorrow!

  —Teddy and Kathleen

  “Healthy food in China?” said Annie. “That shouldn’t be hard to find.”

  “But don’t you think it sounds kind of weird?” said Jack. “How can anyone eat something that’s tough as wood?”

  “Good question,” said Annie. “But we’ll have fun looking for it. I love the food we get with Mom and Dad at Chinatown Palace, don’t you?”

  “Yeah … but …,” said Jack.

  “Okay!” said Annie. “Now, did Teddy and Kathleen send a potion or anything else magical to help us?”

  Jack looked around the tree house again.

  “There!” he said. A small glass bottle glinted in a shadowy corner. Jack picked it up, and he and Annie stepped to the window and read the writing on the bottle’s label.

  Use only once. Take one sip and grow to five times your size. The magic lasts for one hour.

  “Five times our size?” said Jack. “That would make us about as tall as a house.”

  “Talk about weird,” said Annie.

  “Yeah, but it actually sounds like fun,” said Jack.

  “More fun than when we became teeny-tiny in India,” asked Annie, “after we saw the cobras?”

  “Lots more,” said Jack, “especially if we have to get away from cobras again.” He put the rhyme and the tiny bottle into his backpack, then took a deep breath. “Okay! All set?”

  “Ready,” said Annie.

  Jack pointed to the cover of the guide book. “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.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Silly Food

  It was daylight outside. A rooster crowed in the distance. The air was damp and cool.

  “Good, it’s really early,” said Jack. “So we have a whole day and night until break of day tomorrow to do our mission.”

  “Perfect,” said Annie. “And look—we get to wear our own clothes for once.”

  “Oh, man,” said Jack. He was still in his jeans and T-shirt, and his backpack was still a backpack. “Is that a mistake?”

  Jack and Annie looked out the window together. Mountains rose majestically above the town they had landed in. The tree house was in the tallest tree in a grove at the edge of a quiet street. Along the street were shops and other buildings—and a few cars.

  “Cars!” Jack said with relief.

  “No mistake,” said Annie. “Our clothes didn’t change because we came to China in modern times.”

  Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out some paper money. “Cool, my clothes didn’t change, but my money changed from dollars to Chinese money.”

  “Perfect,” said Annie. She looked out the window again and read some signs from the buildings: “Wolong Town Bank, Wolong Town School, Wolong Town Bicycle Shop. I think we landed in Wolong Town.”

  “Wow,” said Jack. “How did you figure that out?”

  Annie laughed. “So let’s go look for some Wolong Town food.”

  “Okay, but the food we have to find doesn’t sound like normal food,” said Jack. “ ‘Grainy and good’ but ‘tough as wood’?”

  Annie smiled. “You always find something to worry about,” she said. “Come on.”

  Annie headed down the tree house ladder. Jack packed away their book in his backpack and followed her. Together, they stepped out from the grove of trees and headed down a busy sidewalk.

  Vendors were setting up stalls to sell crafts and pottery. Some girls and boys were passing by, carrying book bags. They were dressed in jeans, T-shirts, and sweatshirts.

  “See, kids just like us, on their way to school,” said Annie.

  “Except we took a detour to have breakfast halfway around the world,” said Jack.

  “Speaking of breakfast—how about going there?” Annie pointed to a restaurant with tables outside.

  “Garden Paradise?” Jack said, reading the sign. “Sounds like a good place to start.”

  Jack and Annie crossed the street to the restaurant. Tables were set up near potted bamboo plants. A waiter poured tea for someone reading a newspaper. Jack glanced at the front page of the paper and saw the date.

  “It’s May 12, 2008,” he said.

  “Cool,” said Annie.

  The waiter nodded at Jack and Annie. Then he led them to a table that had two small bowls on it. “Green tea?” he asked. “Or yak butter tea?”

  Jack and Annie answered together: “Green!”

  The waiter left and came back with a teapot. He poured pale green tea into two small bowls. Then he gave Jack and Annie menus and went to check on other customers.

  “Yak butter tea?” Jack said. “I don’t think so.”

  Annie giggled as she looked at her menu. “Hmm! How about some green bean jelly? I don’t
think so.”

  Jack scanned his menu. “Aha! What about chicken feet?”

  “Eww!” said Annie.

  “Okay. How about this?” Jack said gleefully. “Fried stinky tofu?”

  “EWW!” said Jack and Annie together. They laughed loudly, and Annie nearly fell out of her chair.

  Jack saw the waiter frowning at them from across the garden. “Shhh,” Jack said. “We’re being rude.”

  “Sorry, sorry,” Annie whispered in the direction of the waiter. “We have funny-sounding food at home, too,” she said to Jack. “Like hot dogs.”

  “Oh, yeah. How about sour cream?” said Jack. “Or squash?”

  “Ahh! Squash!” Annie laughed.

  “Okay, okay. Let’s get serious now,” said Jack. “We have a mission.” He took the little scroll from his pack, unrolled it, and read:

  A healthy food, grainy and good,

  baked with love, tough as wood,

  round in shape, the color of sand,

  given to those who have lost their land.

  “It’s a riddle,” said Annie.

  “It is,” said Jack. “Maybe we should just ask the waiter for help.” He waved politely in the waiter’s direction.

  When the waiter came to the table, he gave them a tight smile. “Are you ready to order now?” he asked.

  “Actually, we have some questions,” said Jack.

  The waiter nodded.

  “Do you serve food that’s the color of sand?” Annie asked.

  The waiter stared at her.

  Jack felt awkward. “Or, um, food that’s … like, um, as tough as wood?” he said.

  “Food like sand and wood?” the waiter said.

  “Not exactly—” Jack said.

  “Are you trying to be funny?” the waiter interrupted. He gave Jack a fierce look.

  Sinking down in his chair, Jack shook his head.

  “Well, the answer is no,” said the waiter. “We do not have such silly food!”

  “Oh. Okay,” said Jack.

  “Is there something else you would like?” the waiter asked.

  “No thanks,” said Jack. He could feel his face turning red.