Free Moon Ring (9781452126777) by Randy Duburke

I t was hot, hot, hot. The hottest night yet that summer.
    Maxine and Grandma were trying to catch a breeze on the porch.
    “Sure is hot,” said Maxine.
    “Mmmm,” said Grandma. “And sure is some blue moon.”
    “What’s a blue moon?” Maxine asked.
    “Second full moon in a month, sweetie,” said Grandma.
    “Hardly ever happens. Magic loves blue-moon light.”
    “Where’s the magic?” Maxine wanted to know.
    “All around you,” said Grandma. “Just feel it!”

    That night, something strange
fell from the sky.
    It landed in the grass,
sparkling and glowing.
    Where had it come from?
    What could it be?

    Could it be magic?
    Blue-moon magic?
    Maxine decided to try it out.
    “I wish…” she whispered, “I wish… I wish…”
    “I wish it was cooler!”
    And suddenly…
    WHOOSH!

    It
was
cooler!

    The penguins taught Maxine how to catch fish
and the right way to walk.
    Maxine taught the penguins how to dance.

    A seal gave her a great ride—until…
    “ YIKES! ” Maxine screamed. “I wish I was outa here!”
    And suddenly…
    WHOOSH!

    She
was
.
    So were Seal and Penguin.

    Penguin had never seen such unusual birds.
    Seal was amazed to be so far off the ground.
    Maxine loved riding with the giraffes—until…

    “ YIKES! ” screamed Maxine. “I wish I was in New York City!”
    And suddenly…
    WHOOSH!

    She
was
.
    So were Seal and Penguin and Giraffe.

    Seal was astonished by the wildlife.
    Penguin marveled at the lights.
    Giraffe headed straight for the tallest thing in sight—the Empire State Building.

    The view from the top was splendid.
    “I wish Grandma could see us,” said Maxine.
    And that was Maxine’s fourth wish.
    At that very moment, the moon ring leapt out of her hand and into the sky.
    “Oh, no!” said Maxine.
    How will I ever get home now?
    But suddenly…
    WHOOSH!

    The moon went down, and the sun rose up,
    and Maxine was sitting in her very own bed.
    She raced to the kitchen.

    “You’ll never believe where I went last night!”
    Maxine told her family all about her adventures.
    “That sure was some dream, honey,” said Ma.
    “Mighty fine imagination,” said Dad.
    “Weird,” said Louis.

    But Maxine and Grandma knew better.

Randy DuBurke was born in Washington, Georgia, but grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives today. He has been drawing ever since he can remember, and at the age of six, announced to his mother that he was going to be an artist.
    As a kid, Randy loved storytelling and movies and comics—the comics, it seemed to him, were simply films on paper—and his first “illustrations” were of Batman
and Star Trek. Later he was influenced by N. C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle.
    Randy's illustrations have appeared in the
New York Times Book Review
,
Mad Magazine
, D.C. and Marvel comics, and science fiction magazines. This is his first book.

With love to my mother, Katie,
the inspiration for Maxine
and the model for Grandma
    Special thanks to Ted, Betsy, Susan, Christy, Fred, Anna, Tayyar, Yan, Sennur, Maija, Rickie, Evilio and Colin
    Copyright ©2002 by Randy DuBurke.
All rights reserved.
    Book design by Christy Hale.
The illustrations for this book were rendered in pen and ink and acrylic on Fabriano 300-pound coldpress watercolor paper.
    ISBN 978-1-4521-2677-7
The Library of Congress has cataloged the previous edition under ISBN 0-8118-3487-5
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