The Explorers: The Door in the Alley - Softcover

Kress, Adrienne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1101940085 ISBN 13: 9781101940082

Verlag: Random House Children's Books, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

Featuring a mysterious society, a secretive past, and a pig in a teeny hat, this is the first book in a new series for fans of The Name of This Book Is a Secret and The Mysterious Benedict Society.
 
Knock once if you can find it—but only members are allowed inside.

This is one of those stories that starts with a pig in a teeny hat. It’s not the one you’re thinking about. (This story is way better than that one.)

This pig-in-a-teeny-hat story is filled with adventure and danger. There are missing persons, hired thugs, a mysterious box, a hidden key, famous explorers, a risk-averse boy, and a girl on a rescue mission. Not to mention secrets that are not meant for the faint of heart. But if you are feeling bold, or maybe even a little italic, and if you enjoy derring-dos (and doing dares), this just might be the story for you!

Don’t miss the sequel: The Explorers: The Reckless Rescue. And it’s really not a big deal, but if you find a pig in a teeny hat, please return him to the Explorers Society as soon as humanly possible. Thank you.

“[A] wildly funny adventure. . . . Animals in teeny hats, Wonderland-style logic, and loads of wordplay and sarcasm will keep readers giggling all the way through.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Exhilarating. . . . Fans of a Series of Unfortunate Events will be drawn to this.” —Booklist

“A rollicking read, full of derring-do and old-fashioned villainy.” —School Library Journal

“Funny, offbeat, and subversive . . . occasional footnotes and other humorous asides from the omniscient narrator break the fourth wall and ramp up the playfulness.” —The Horn Book

“Narrated with a smart, brisk tone and plenty of snark . . . The Door in the Alley packs plenty of twists, turns and danger.” —Shelf Awareness

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Adrienne Kress is a writer and an actress born and raised in Toronto. She is the daughter of two high school English teachers, and credits them with inspiring her love of both writing and performing. She also has a cat named Atticus, who unfortunately despises teeny hats. She is the author of The Explorers: The Door in the Alley and The Explorers: The Reckless Rescue. To find out more about Adrienne go to AdrienneKress.com and follow @AdrienneKress on Twitter and Instagram.

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Chapter 1

 

 

In which we meet Sebastian.

 

 

This story begins, like most stories do, with a pig wearing a teeny hat. And I’m sure right now you’re thinking to yourself, I’ve read this story before. But please let me assure you that this isn’t that pig in a teeny hat story you’re reading, but the other one. The one you haven’t read. Yet.

 

Unless you’ve read this story before.

 

And also, I’m lying. I must confess that this story doesn’t literally begin with a pig wearing a teeny hat, but figuratively does. This story actually begins with Sebastian coming home from school. Because that’s a pretty regular thing that Sebastian did, school being a regular thing that one does when one is twelve.

 

Well, okay, I guess technically this story began with me telling you it begins with a pig in a teeny hat, but let’s pretend that it began with Sebastian coming home from school.

 

Yes?

 

Excellent.

 

So, this story begins with Sebastian coming home from school.

 

Sebastian had to take the Y train and the number 42 and the Blue Express to get to and from school. He also had to walk for twenty minutes. It wasn’t that his school was across the country or anything, but the city he lived in was really big. And he went to a special school that happened to be far away from where he lived. It was for grades four to eight and focused on math and the sciences. Sebastian, you see, had always been rather good at math and science.

 

It wasn’t really that surprising that he was. As he had learned, thanks to science, his skills had kind of been hardwired into his DNA from the beginning. Both his parents worked at the university in the physics department. His older brother was studying to be an actuary, and his brother’s twin sister was already an accomplished engineer who specialized in bridges.

 

It was a family of pragmatic minds, and Sebastian fit in perfectly. He was able to contribute to conversations around the dinner table and was equally as amused as his parents and brother and sister were by the usual math- and science-related jokes told during their meals together. He was happy in his family, happy in his school, and sure about his place in the world and his future on the planet. He had the goal of being a neurosurgeon when he grew up. And, yes, his cousin and best friend, Arthur, teased him about being a zombie: “Brains! Brains!” But that was okay--he felt confident that his life choices were wise and good ones.

 

He was equally as confident that the path he took every day to and from school was wise and good. It was the quickest and most efficient, and what could be wiser and . . . gooder . . . than that? The trains and buses he chose were not only the ones with the fewest stops, but also the ones with the least amount of walking distance between transfers. And the walk from the station to school was by far the shortest route.

 

But Arthur. Oh, Arthur. Arthur, though Sebastian’s cousin, had a recklessness to him. It was probably what interested Sebastian most in his friend, and what frustrated him most as well. And it was, obviously, Arthur who messed everything up.

 

On the day that changed it all, Arthur had accompanied Sebastian back to his house. This happened on occasion, though always with a quick call home to Sebastian’s parents, of course, to confirm that such spontaneity would be welcome. Arthur was generally a lot of fun to be around, but that day he was a little grumpy. He had gotten a C on his biology exam and was in a ranting kind of mood.

 

“I think Mrs. Brown just has it in for me.”

 

Sebastian had kept quiet for most of the rant, but this was getting ridiculous. “That makes no sense.”

 

“What?” Arthur asked, clearly surprised at the interruption.

 

“Well, did she grade your paper wrong? Were there questions you got right that she said you didn’t?”

 

Arthur stopped walking. Sebastian sighed. He stopped walking too. He glanced at his watch, which was the kind of watch that you set by a satellite and therefore is never wrong. Stopping was not part of the getting-home-efficiently plan.

 

“You could be on my side, you know,” said Arthur, his lower lip twitching so subtly that Sebastian wouldn’t have noticed it had he not accidentally been staring right at it.

 

“I’m not not on your side,” Sebastian answered honestly.

 

“Well, you’re not not not on my side either.”

 

“I just don’t understand how she has it in for you.”

 

“Oh, for . . . You know what, Sebastian? Never mind.”

 

And then Arthur did something that was truly shocking. He turned down the wrong street. It was the street that ran parallel to the correct street, the street that in two more turns would take them directly to Sebastian’s front door. This street, Sebastian had observed back when he’d been mapping out his route at home, was not a good street. This street wasn’t even really a street. It was a dead end. It would mean they’d have to walk up it and then back down it again.

 

A complete waste of time.

 

“Arthur, come on!” Sebastian called out after him.

 

But it was too late.

 

Oh, how too late it was.

 

He could have continued home on his own, but Sebastian knew that was the wrong move to make at a time like this. His cousin was upset, and Sebastian was a good friend, so, reconciled to the waste of time, he followed Arthur.

 

This street was very similar to the correct street. Terraced brownstones lined both sides, wrought-iron gates kept trespassers at bay, and leafy green-turning-gold trees canopied overhead. Arthur was almost two-thirds of the way down the street, and Sebastian had to jog to catch up.

 

“I’m sorry,” he said when he did.

 

“Yeah?” Arthur stopped and glared at him. “For what?”

 

“For . . .” Darn. Arthur knew him too well. “Okay, I don’t know what for.”

 

“Yeah. I know.”

 

“Can we just forget all this and go home?”

 

Arthur stood silently for a moment. And then he nodded. “Would be nice if you had my back once in a while, though.”

 

Sebastian was thrown by that comment. “I do.”

 

“Yeah, not really. You always take . . . logic’s side.” Arthur continued up the street.

 

Sebastian personally considered that a compliment, though the way Arthur said it, it was clearly not meant to be taken as one. But he didn’t really have time to process what he was supposed to feel. Instead he called out: “Hey! You can’t go that way, there’s a dead end!”

 

“No, there’s an alley up ahead. I can see it.”

 

There was? Sebastian was surprised--he hadn’t noticed an alley when he’d set his route, but he shrugged and kept walking. An alley would make up some much-needed time.

 

Sure enough, as Sebastian caught up with Arthur, he could see that his cousin was right. There was indeed a dark, narrow alley that opened up onto...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Random House Children's Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1101940085
• ISBN 13: 9781101940082
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland