Late Lunch with Llamas Read online

  Dear Reader,

  Did you know there’s a Magic Tree House® book for every kid? From those just starting to read chapter books to more experienced readers, Magic Tree House® has something for everyone, including science, sports, geography, wildlife, history…and always a bit of mystery and magic!

  Happy reading!

  Here’s what kids and grown-ups have to say about the Magic Tree House® books:

  “Oh, man…the Magic Tree House series is really exciting!” —Christina

  “I like the Magic Tree House series. I stay up all night reading them. Even on school nights!” —Peter

  “Jack and Annie have opened a door to a world of literacy that I know will continue throughout the lives of my students.” —Deborah H.

  “As a librarian, I have seen many happy young readers coming into the library to check out the next Magic Tree House book in the series.” —Lynne H.

  #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

  #29: A BIG DAY FOR BASEBALL

  #30: HURRICANE HEROES IN TEXAS

  #31: WARRIORS IN WINTER

  #32: TO THE FUTURE, BEN FRANKLIN!

  #33: NARWHAL ON A SUNNY NIGHT

  For a list of Magic Tree House® Merlin Missions and other Magic Tree House® titles, visit MagicTreeHouse.com.

  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 © 2020 by Mary Pope Osborne

  Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2020 by AG Ford

  Llamas and the Andes excerpt copyright © 2020 by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce. Cover photograph copyright © 2020 by Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Creative. Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Penguin Random House LLC.

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

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Magic Tree House is a registered trademark of Mary Pope Osborne; used under license.

  Visit us on the Web!

  rhcbooks.com

  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.

  Trade ISBN 9780525648406

  Library Binding ISBN 9780525648413

  Ebook ISBN 9780525648420

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

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

  Penguin Random House LLC supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to publish books for every reader.

  a_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0

  To Henry and Rex Corbett

  Prologue

  1. Not So Simple

  2. Young Mountain

  3. That Bridge?

  4. Mountain Sickness

  5. Go Slow Fast!

  6. The Secret City

  7. Now or Never

  8. Ancient Magic

  9. Shadow of the Condor

  10. The Secret of Brave

  Excerpt from Llamas and the Andes

  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. Since then, they have traveled on many adventures in the magic tree house and completed many missions for Morgan.

  On their last four adventures, Jack and Annie learned great wisdom from heroes of the past.

  Morgan is now sending them on four more quests. On these journeys, they must save different creatures in the mysterious world of nature.

  The late-morning air smelled of honeysuckle. Wind chimes jingled in the summer breeze. Jack sat on the front porch. He was reading a book about whales.

  The screen door opened. “Hey,” said Jack’s sister, Annie.

  “Hey,” said Jack.

  “Guess what? We’re going on a picnic at the lake with Mom and Dad,” said Annie.

  “Great, I’m starving,” said Jack. He didn’t look up from his book.

  “Me too. We’re having tomato sandwiches and potato salad,” said Annie.

  “Cool,” said Jack.

  “Yikes, look!” said Annie. “A giant bird!”

  “Funny.” Jack kept reading.

  “Seriously! Super-big!” shouted Annie. “Look! Look!”

  Jack was sure Annie was kidding. But he couldn’t help himself. He looked up at the sky.

  “Whoa!” he said.

  An enormous black-and-white bird was circling above the house. It had a wingspan of at least ten feet!

  “I don’t believe it!” cried Jack. He jumped up from his chair. “It’s a condor!”

  “What’s that?” asked Annie.

  “The world’s biggest vulture!” said Jack. “Condors survive by eating mostly dead animals. Sometimes they hunt small living ones.”

  “Oh, that’s sad!” said Annie.

  “No. It’s nature,” said Jack. “Condors are amazing. But they don’t live in Pennsylvania!
How did it get here?”

  The condor flapped its wings and rose higher into the sky. It curved and glided toward the Frog Creek woods.

  “It’s a sign!” said Annie.

  “Come on!” said Jack. He grabbed his backpack.

  “Mom! Dad! We’re going to the woods,” Annie called through the screen door.

  “We’ll be back in time for the picnic!” yelled Jack.

  He and Annie hurried off the porch. They crossed their yard and ran down the sidewalk.

  “There it is,” said Annie, pointing.

  The condor was soaring above the trees. It vanished behind the treetops.

  “Go! Go!” yelled Jack.

  Jack and Annie ran down their sidewalk and dashed into the Frog Creek woods. Sunlight streamed between the trees. Jack and Annie ran through shadows and light until they came to the tallest oak.

  In the branches at the top of the oak was the magic tree house.

  “Yay!” said Annie.

  “Where’s the condor?” asked Jack.

  “Maybe we can see it from up there!” said Annie. She and Jack scrambled up the rope ladder and into the tree house.

  A book lay on the floor in a pool of sunlight.

  Jack picked it up. On the cover was a photo of tree-covered mountains rising above white clouds.

  “Wow, beautiful,” said Annie. She read the title of the book:

  Travel Guide: The Andes Mountains of Peru

  “Andes Mountains?” said Jack. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

  “Me too,” said Annie. “Uncle Josh went there, remember? To Machu Picchu!” She opened the cover of the travel guide. A folded piece of parchment fell to the floor.

  Annie picked it up. “A note from Morgan,” she said. She unfolded the note and read aloud:

  High on Old Mountain

  Is a creature to save.

  Bring back the small one.

  Find the secret of brave.

  When faced with great danger,

  Old legends will help you.

  Words from your book

  Will give you a clue.

  Annie looked up. “Okay,” she said. “Ready?”

  “Hold on,” said Jack. “Is that all she wrote?”

  “Yep,” said Annie. “We go to Old Mountain. We save the small one. Old legends will help us. Short and simple.”

  “Not so simple,” said Jack. “What is the small one? Plus, there are thousands of words in this book. How do we find the right clues? And what the heck is the ‘secret of brave’?”

  Annie sighed. “Let’s answer one question at a time. We can’t solve a problem until we know what it is.”

  “You sound like Mom,” said Jack. “Okay. Ready to go?”

  “Ready for anything!” said Annie.

  Jack pointed at the mountains on the cover of the travel guide.

  “I wish we could go to the Andes Mountains in Peru!” he said.

  The wind started to blow.

  The tree house started to spin.

  It spun faster and faster.

  Then everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

  Birdsong filled a mountain forest. The air smelled of cedar, pine, and woodsmoke.

  “Oh, wow!” said Annie. “I love our clothes!”

  She and Jack both wore bright red wool ponchos, brown cotton pants and shirts, leather sandals, and green knit caps with earflaps and purple tassels.

  “Colorful,” said Jack.

  “And warm!” said Annie.

  Their ponchos were heavy and hung down to their knees. Jack’s backpack had turned into a woven cloth bag. It hung by a strap across his chest.

  Annie and Jack looked out the window.

  “Oh, wow,” said Annie. “It’s really pretty here.”

  The tree house had landed in a tall pine tree in a forest of pines, cedars, and trees with huge hanging pods. Mountains rose on the horizon. Feathery clouds floated below their peaks.

  “The Andes Mountains,” said Jack. He opened their travel guide to the first page. He read aloud:

  The Andes are the longest mountain range in the world. They run from the top to the tip of South America, a distance of 4,350 miles. High in the Andes of Peru, tourists hike through cloud forests and mountain meadows.

  “Cloud forests and mountain meadows,” repeated Annie. “That sounds beautiful.”

  Jack turned the pages. He stopped at a photo of men and women dressed in red ponchos and hats. The caption said:

  Wool ponchos have been worn by natives of the Andes for many centuries.

  “Many centuries?” said Jack. “So, what century is this?”

  “I don’t know, but I have a feeling we came to a time long ago,” said Annie.

  “Me too,” said Jack. “But I’m not sure why I feel that way.”

  “Whoa, what’s that sound?” said Annie.

  “What sound?” said Jack.

  “Music! Hear it?” said Annie.

  Jack listened carefully. Sweet, airy music floated through the cloud forest.

  “It’s a flute, I think,” Jack said.

  “Let’s check it out,” said Annie.

  Jack put the travel guide into his bag. He followed Annie down the rope ladder. They stepped together into the tangled brush.

  The cloud forest buzzed with insect sounds. Hummingbirds and butterflies flitted among red and purple flowers. A pale green frog leapt over a tree root.

  “The flute music is coming from over there,” said Annie. Following the sound, Jack and Annie walked between the trees. They climbed over rocks and roots. They pushed through towering ferns.

  Soon they came to a clearing. They saw an elderly couple sitting outside a small hut.

  “We found the music,” said Annie.

  “Shh,” Jack whispered. “Don’t let them hear you.”

  The old man was sitting on the grass, playing a wooden flute. The woman was lifting potatoes out of a red-hot fire pit.

  “This feels like a long time ago, doesn’t it?” whispered Annie.

  “Yeah,” breathed Jack. “Look, llamas!”

  “Oh, wow,” whispered Annie.

  In a small meadow behind the hut, several llamas were quietly grazing. They had woolly white coats, long necks, and camel-like faces. Their curved ears were shaped like bananas.

  “They’re so cute,” whispered Annie.

  Jack had to agree. The llamas were cute.

  “I love llamas,” whispered Annie.

  “Who doesn’t?” said Jack.

  “No, I really love them,” whispered Annie.

  “Why do people keep llamas?” Jack wondered out loud.

  “Look it up,” said Annie.

  Jack pulled the Andes travel guide from his bag and searched in the index for llamas. When he found the right page, he and Annie read silently together:

  Llamas are the most important animal in the Andes. For centuries, they’ve provided mountain people with wool and carried their things. The Incas once believed llamas were protected by a star constellation shaped like a mother and a baby llama. Inca legend says that in early times, llamas could talk.

  “Cool! Talking llamas!” Annie said with a laugh.

  The old man and woman looked over at Jack and Annie. The man put down his flute. He and the woman stood up.

  “Hello! We come in peace!” Annie called. Smiling, she headed over to the couple.

  Oh, brother, thought Jack, following her. How would they explain who they were?

  “I’m Annie! And this is my brother, Jack,” said Annie. “We stopped to listen to your beautiful music.”

  The couple smiled and nodded. They seemed shy but friendly.

  “You have beautiful llamas, too
,” said Annie. “Don’t they, Jack?”

  “Um, yeah…we like llamas…a lot,” said Jack.

  “Where do you come from, Jack and Annie?” the man asked.

  “We’re visiting Peru from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania,” said Annie.

  The couple looked puzzled.

  “Right now we’re just hiking,” Jack said quickly. “Um, walking.”

  “You came from the valley and climbed up Young Mountain?” asked the man.

  Jack nodded. “Uh, yes,” he said. “That’s what we did.”

  “What a long way,” the woman said. Her dark eyes were kind. “Would you like something to eat?”

  Jack couldn’t resist. “Yes, thank you,” he said.

  The woman reached for two potatoes wrapped in leaves near the fire pit. “These are—”

  Before she could finish, cries came from the forest. “Grandmother! Grandfather!” someone howled.

  “Topa!” said the old man.

  A small barefoot boy ran into the meadow. He looked much younger than Jack and Annie. As he ran toward his grandparents, he waved his arms.

  “They took her away!” he cried. “They took Cria away!”

  “Who took her?” said his grandmother.

  “Two men!” Topa cried. “They had spears and helmets with feathers!”

  Spears? Helmets with feathers? We definitely came to a time long ago, Jack thought.

  “Royal guards,” the grandfather said.

  The old woman gasped and shook her head. “Oh, no!” she said. She hugged her grandson. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes! But they took Cria away!” the boy cried again. “Near the bridge! That’s where they stole her from me!”

  “Who is Cria?” said Jack. “Is she your little sister?”

  “No!” wailed Topa, raising his head. “Not my little sister! My baby llama!”

  “They stole your baby llama?” said Annie.