“Billy?” said his dad again. “Who are all these people?”
“My new friends.”
The sheriff was surrounded, but he didn’t seem the least bit concerned. In fact, he was grinning.
“There is nothing that any of thee can do to be rid of me.”
“Billy?” said Walter. “I think we need that sharkodile again.”
“Ha!” scoffed the sheriff. “Thy hideous monster shall not scare me away a second time, Sir William.”
“Maybe not,” said Billy. “But he might carry you away. In my mind, I just imagined him with dragon wings.”
Billy did his two-finger taxicab whistle.
From overhead came the leathery sound of flapping dragon wings.
The flying sharkodile swooped down and plucked the Sheriff of Nottingham right off the ground.
“No!” screamed the sheriff. “Curses and foul language! Puteth me down! Puteth me down!”
The sheriff tried to shake free, but it was no use. His pantaloons were firmly clamped in the sharkodile’s mammoth jaws. The prehistoric creature screeched merrily and carried the sheriff into the moonlit night.
“Huzzah!” shouted Robin Hood, tossing his hat up into the air. “We hath seen the last of that vile varlet.”
“What was that?” exclaimed Billy’s dad. “And what if he comes back?”
“I don’t think he can, Dad,” said Billy. “He isn’t real.”
“So that guy’s not really Robin Hood?” asked Billy’s dad.
His mom shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Just relax, sweetheart. Lighten up. Go with the flow.”
Billy wrote a quick epilogue to make certain his parents forgot all the crazy characters they’d met on the island and all the wild things there—except, of course, the important stuff.
Like blueberry pie.
And how it had felt when they first fell in love and carved their initials in the silvery bark of a beech tree.
All the characters said good-bye to Billy and Walter before the boys left the island.
“If you ever need us again,” Hercules told Billy, “you know where to find us.”
“We shall be slumbering peacefully betwixt our pages,” added Robin Hood.
“Simply open our books and read,” said Maid Marian, “and we shall once more be at your side.”
Hercules squirmed in his tight leggings and tugged at the collar of his ill-fitting tunic. “But next time, I hope to be wearing my loincloth and lion cape.”
“And,” said Tom Sawyer, “I reckon I’ll be whitewashing another fence.”
Billy and Walter rowed Billy’s parents back across the lake.
During the crossing, Billy had a funny thought: Nick Farkas racing down to the Lake Katrine Public Library first thing in the morning to check out every single Pollyanna book ever written.
As for Dr. Libris? No way was Billy ever going to work for that creepy loon.
When they reached the dock, Billy’s mom and dad climbed out and, holding hands, strolled up to the cabin, laughing and talking the whole way.
“The end,” said Walter. “Until tomorrow. I still want to go treasure hunting.”
Billy did, too—although he figured he didn’t really need to find any treasure. Neither did his parents. They all just needed to remember what they already had.
For Billy, that meant never forgetting he had a pretty amazing imagination that could make even the impossible seem real. He could create his own sideways staircases.
“Hey, Billy?”
“Yeah, Walter?”
“Tomorrow, after we go treasure hunting, can we go back to the Red Barn?”
“Why?”
“Well, I’m not one hundred percent certain how your magical mind works and all, but I was wondering: Can you write me up some free waffle fries?”
Billy smiled. “Who knows, Walter? Maybe I can.”
Writing this book, I had the chance to go back and reread some of the greatest stories ever told, all of them crafted by masterful magicians, authors who created characters so real and full of life, they will remain with us forever. Here’s a list so you can read them, too.
(in order of appearance in the text)
The Island of Dr. Moreau
by H. G. Wells
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum
The Adventures of Pinocchio
by Carlo Collodi
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
The Labors of Hercules
by Peisander
The Hobbit (or There and Back Again)
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Moby-Dick (or The Whale)
by Herman Melville
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
(originally part of the Arabian Nights)
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown, in Nottinghamshire
by Howard Pyle
“The Three Billy Goats Gruff”
(Norwegian folktale)
Aesop’s Fables
by Aesop
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Aladdin
(originally part of the Arabian Nights)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
by Victor Hugo
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne
Pollyanna: The Glad Book
by Eleanor H. Porter
The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas
The Time Machine
by H. G. Wells
Holes
by Louis Sachar
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Journey to the Center of the Earth
by Jules Verne
The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
by Edgar Allan Poe
“Jack and the Beanstalk”
(traditional English folktale)
Mary Poppins
by P. L. Travers
Le Morte d’Arthur
by Sir Thomas Malory
Glinda of Oz
by L. Frank Baum
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
by Dr. Seuss
I was very fortunate to have two terrific editors from Random House Children’s Books to help me cut out the boring bits and make the magic make sense: Jennifer Arena and Shana Corey.
And before either of them lent me a firm editorial hand, the best first editor in the world gave me all sorts of help: my wife, J. J. Myers.
Speaking of the Myers family, I would also like to thank my agent and cousin-in-law, Eric Myers. Your dad was, and always will be, so very proud of you.
I’d also like to thank everybody at Random House who helped me put this magic trick together: Nicole de las Heras, who has been the brilliant designer for all my Random House books and brought the unbelievably incredible cover illustrator Gilbert Ford to the island; associate publishing director Michelle Nagler; Laura Antonacci and Adrienne Waintraub, who’ve helped libraries, even the one in Alex-andriaville, Ohio, discover my books; assistant editor and star of the future Paula Sadler; publicist extraordinaire Lydia Finn; and copy chief Alison Kolani (who had to deal with a guy who never aced any of those SAT punctuation tests).
Working on this book, I thought about all those who, through the years, helped me discover the magic of writing.
Mostly, I thought about teachers. Like the one in fourth grade who let me pass around homemade comic books to my classmates.
Or the seventh-grade English teacher who wrote encouragingly in the margins of my composition book, “You will make your living as a writer someday.”
And, most especially,
my freshman English teacher at Notre Dame Catholic High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, an extremely cool cat named Schaack Van Deusen, who opened my eyes to Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and a world of wonderful writing. He let me know that writing stories and acting in plays with the drama club were just as cool as playing sports.
If it weren’t for these teachers and mentors, this book, and all the others I have written, would never have been possible.
Finally, thanks, once again, to you. As Samuel Johnson so famously said, “A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
CHRIS GRABENSTEIN
is the coauthor (with James Patterson) of the number one New York Times bestseller I Funny. He is also an award-winning author of books for children and adults, a play-wright, a screenwriter, and a former advertising executive and improvisational comedian. Chris was a writer for Jim Henson’s Muppets and is a past president of the New York chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the CBS TV movie The Christmas Gift, starring John Denver. He lives in New York City with his wife, three cats, and a rescue dog named Fred, who starred in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Broadway.
You can visit Chris (plus Fred and the cats) at ChrisGrabenstein.com. He also loveshearing from readers, so send your email to
[email protected].
Chris Grabenstein, The Island of Dr. Libris
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