Title: THE MAGNIFICENT GLASS GLOBE
Author: N.R. Bergeson
Pub. Date: April 10, 2017
Publisher: TantrumBooks
Format: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 273
Eleven-year-old Mary Tucker dreams of visiting the Amazon. But if her father, a museum curator, has his way, she might be a grandmother before she ever gets the chance.
One day, while mischievously exploring the museum’s warehouse with her brother Ike and best friend Helen, Mary stumbles across an old travel trunk belonging to her grandfather.
Inside, they discover an nondescript glass globe. Curious about the simple object, Mary touches the globe, and is shocked when the room is suddenly consumed by the most amazing view of Earth.
The magnificent globe lets the friends zoom closer and closer toward the earth’s surface, eventually bringing them close enough to touch the trees. That's when the globe entirely disappears, and they find themselves falling.
Suddenly, they're far from home, in place that's either a paradise, or the place where they will die.
Sleep, water, and food become precious and scarce. A native tribe may hold the keys to their survival as well as clues to help them get back home. But it won’t be easy. The rain forest is a big place, and when others find out what the globe can do, Mary, Ike and Helen will need a plan, allies, and a little luck.
“Mom?” Mary asked. “Is that you? What happened? Why’s it so loud? Why’s everything green?”
Mary felt so confused, and she needed answers. But Mom didn’t reply to any of the questions. She simply stood there, silently watching. As Mary’s focus cleared, the details of Mom’s face finally came into view.
Mary screamed, and Mom hurriedly jumped away.
Only it wasn’t Mom. It wasn’t even another person! With a jolt, Mary snapped wide awake, the grogginess she felt immediately evaporating.
A monkey?
Mary screamed again, and the gray little monkey, with its black mask-patterned face, moved even further away. When it had moved far enough away, the monkey turned to her and bared its teeth.
Mary sat up quickly, frightened yet anxious to know where she was. She clearly wasn’t in her bedroom.
As soon as Mary was upright, her whole body lost its balance and started falling into thin air. She cried out, and instinctively flailed her outstretched arms, hoping to grab onto anything.
Luckily, her hand caught hold of a branch. Mary held on with all of her might as she regained her balance. Nearby, several of the little monkeys congregated, chattering loudly.
She was in a tree! How could that be possible?
Sure enough, as Mary scanned her immediate surroundings, she saw nothing but branches and leaves in every direction.
This wasn’t one of her imagined adventures. As real as her imagination had been able to make things feel, it paled in comparison to what she was experiencing now.
With a sudden surge of vertigo, Mary realized what it meant. This was no imagined tree, and she was truly somewhere high above the ground. She’d climbed plenty of trees before, and didn’t think she was afraid of heights. But her stomach told her otherwise. Judging by what she could see, this tree was much bigger than any she’d ever climbed before. She braced herself and slowly looked down, searching for the ground. The thick leaves made it nearly impossible to see, but Mary found a small gap, just wide enough to give her a glimpse of the ground below.
Mary’s fears were confirmed when she saw that she was more than one hundred feet above the ground. Dizziness surged through her, and she clung to the nearest branch for dear life. She was most definitely afraid of heights after all. Squeezing her eyes shut, Mary tried to push out all thoughts of plummeting to the ground.
Her head was ringing. She tried to focus, and figure out how she had ended up in such an enormous tree. It was impossible for her to climb this high. Panic set in and her thoughts were a jumble. Yet amidst all the confusion, a voice echoed in her mind.
“Let go, Mary!”
Ike’s voice. He’d been yelling at her to let go of something. But what?
With a flash of recognition, it all came back. Mary recalled the old travel case and the globe. She remembered touching the globe in an attempt to escape from the old janitor.
“Oh, no,” she gasped in disbelief.
Impossible as it seemed, the globe had brought her to the rainforest. What other explanation could there be?
N. R. (Nils) Bergeson is the author of the “Magnificent Glass Globe” series. Nils was born in California but spent his childhood at the foot of the beautiful mountains of northern Utah. From an early age, he was fascinated with the wider world, prompting him to earn a degree in international studies from Utah State University, followed by a Master’s degree in Public Administration/International Management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
He knew early on that his interests were as wide as the world itself, and that he’d find real joy living overseas. Since 2002, Nils has only spent four years living in the United States. He was a missionary in Siberia, spent time in Romania as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, and has worked for several years in Colombia, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, and now Indonesia as a U.S. diplomat/international development worker. He’s traveled to more than 60 countries with his wife, Emily, and their three young children. Nils’ love for writing, which began in the second grade, complements his globetrotting ways well. He hopes his writing will instill a desire in his readers to take advantage of modern opportunities to see the world, learn new languages, and expand their cultural experiences. We live in a wonderful world, and it’s just waiting for us to see it.
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