Category: Young Adult/Teen Publisher: Anthony G. Wedgeworth
ISBN-10: 0578047101
Type: Fiction
Pages: 86
Copyright: September 15, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780578047102
An uncovered wooden carving creates bad luck for a child who then passes it along to the entire city.
Pruva, a stranger to Shoreview,shows up and uncovers a cursedidol. Gaz, Bik and Fawn trade withPruva, which begins a series ofevents that cause Gaz nothing buttrouble. His dealings with the idolnot only gets him in hot water athome, but it looks like it might justdestroy the entire city.
The three young nums will need tofind a way to save the city beforeit's too late!
Excerpt
Gaz fell to his knees and began looking under stools, behind vases, and around anything else the idol could have rolled under. Out of the corner of his eyes Gaz spotted movement from under a quilt, which covered a rocking chair.
It was odd that it would have fallen off the table and rolled all the way under the chair. In fact, it would have had to roll in from the back of the chair, seeing that the quilt blocked the front.
Now on his hands and knees, Gaz quickly reached under the quilt to grab the idol. But his hand was met with a sharp stab to his palm.
“Ouch!” Gaz said, retracting his hand. A tiny cut near his thumb bled from the gash. “It cut me!” he exclaimed to his friends.
“Knock it off, Gaz,” Bik ordered. “I want to finish cleaning up the shop early. Mother and I are trying to get the house ready for father’s return home.”
“But the little thing poked me!”
“Just pick it up and set in on the shelf,” Bik said.
Clinching his fist to stop the bleeding, Gaz quickly pulled back the quilt to expose the idol. Unfortunately, there was nothing under the rocking chair to expose.
“It’s gone.” Gaz’s head spun around as he searched for the idol. “Where did it run off to?”
Faun prepared to close her book for the evening as she peered at her friend who was crawling on his hands and knees. “Gaz, you’ll do anything to get out of work.”
“No, seriously. It ran off,” he replied.
Bik lifted a burlap sack of grain out of the corner to place it in a more visible location. “Gaz, stop playing. Grab the idol off the table and set it in the front window.”
Frustrated, Gaz popped up to his feet. “I would, if it was on the table!” he shouted and pointed at the thick wooden table.
There, standing up in the center of the table was the small idol statue.
“But…” Gaz said with a gasp. “…it wasn’t…” Flustered, Gaz stomped back to the table and snatched up the idol. He then poked his finger at the small statue to see if he could make it move. Without any reaction to his jabs, Gaz knocked the head of the idol against the table’s hard surface a few times. Again, no reaction. The idol was just that, a carved wooden idol.
Gaz sighed and held it up near his face. “I’m going to keep an eye on you,” he said to the squatting little wooden man, before addressing Faun. “Do you know what this idol is for?”
Faun shook her head. “No. We can research it tomorrow.”
“Baka’s idol is bad luck,” Bik said with a laugh. “So you two should get along just great.”
“Very funny,” Gaz said sarcastically, although the thought of it being unlucky had crossed his mind. “Can I bring this home to see if my pa knows what it is?”
Bristlecone Magic is a YA Christian fantasy about family, friends, neighborliness, love, magic and yes, even tragedy. The story takes place in Clinton County in upstate New York.
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