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    ElsBeth and the Pirate's Treasure, Book I in the Cape Cod Witch Series
    ElsBeth and the Pirate's Treasure, Book I in the Cape Cod Witch Series
    ElsBeth and the Pirate's Treasure, Book I in the Cape Cod Witch Series
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    ElsBeth and the Pirate's Treasure, Book I in the Cape Cod Witch Series

    By J Bean Palmer and Melanie Therrien

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    About this ebook

    Recipient of the prestigious Mom's Choice Award honoring excellence and a 2015-2016 New Book Award winner. When Halloween approaches, a never-quite-forgotten pirate's treasure awakens some serious trouble in the sleepy Cape Cod town. ElsBeth Amelia Thistle, who happens to be the youngest witch on the Cape, and her friend Johnny Twofeathers, chief-to-be of the local Wampanoag tribe â together with a cast of spirited classmates and curious magical creatures (including two troublesome fairies from the old country) â must face off against dangerous outsiders, and the notorious pirate Billy Bowlegs, to restore the balance of past and present, good and evil. Includes nineteen full-color illustrations.

    Ypulse Book Editor (subsequently with Publishers Weekly): I don't usually do this, but Pirate's Treasure got such rave reviews from my two nephews and my sister I felt I had to pass it on. What makes my nephews' recommendations so remarkable is that they're sort of reluctant readers.

    One in particular devours comics but mostly 'reads' the illustrations. 'Star Wars' books are their favorites. And hey, anytime two boys jump up and down (literally) and implore me to read something, I listen.

    My nephew said all of the kids in his third grade class love this book, bar none. My sister said they read it aloud together as a family and she thought it was fabulous, too. Really fabulous, and they all can't wait for the next one.

    It's like "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" crossed with Sarah Plain and Tallâ sort of. Earthy and homemade feeling, the writing and story read like local folklore but with contemporary characters. I can see why it's a hit with younger readers and I, too, liked it a lot.

    Reading ElsBeth and the Pirate's Treasure made me wonderâ what exactly made this work for both the girls and boys in my nephew's posse? Is it the fact that ElsBeth's class share the spotlight and together are the main characters?

    I wish there were more titles that crossed gender lines. We talk a lot about finding books that boys will like because they are traditionally harder readers to please, but what about books that boys and girls can enjoy together? Maybe books that simply allow girls and boys to share the stage is the answer.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublishereBookIt.com
    Release dateApr 26, 2016
    ISBN9781456620783
    ElsBeth and the Pirate's Treasure, Book I in the Cape Cod Witch Series

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      Book preview

      ElsBeth and the Pirate's Treasure, Book I in the Cape Cod Witch Series - J Bean Palmer

      Chapter 1

      Cape Cod, Near the Elbow

      Cape Cod, Massachusetts is one of those places in the Western World that has a history, a long history. Not all of it can be explained.

      Perhaps, just perhaps, we’ll find out that is a good thing.

      Right now, all seems ideal here. It’s another lovely fall day in this postcard-perfect Cape Cod town. Everything is in harmony, nothing out of place.

      But is some sort of trouble brewing just beneath this calm surface?

      Let’s visit the local schoolroom and see what’s happening with Cape Cod’s youngest witch, her school friends and the local inhabitants. Those who are magical, and those who are not.

      Chapter 2

      The Little Red Schoolhouse

      ElsBeth Amelia Thistle was, at this moment, feeling more than a little upset.

      Now that she was in second grade, she was discovering several things not exactly to her liking.

      First of all, her teacher Ms. Finch was a mean old fogy.

      Last year ElsBeth had the cotton-candy-sweet Mrs. Bottomley, and that had worked out just fine. But Ms. Finch was a horror.

      This teacher was like something out of those scary movies ElsBeth’s grandmother would never let her watch.

      And to make matters worse there was this annoying boy Robert Hillman-Jones, who was absolutely driving her crazy.

      The worst part of it was that ElsBeth was a witch — granted a small one — but nevertheless a broom-toting, card-carrying, bona fide witch.

      ElsBeth, though only seven years old, knew several excellent spells, and if anyone ever deserved to be made into a frog, Robert Hillman-Jones was it.

      But she was not allowed to do anything about it. Spells were only to be used for good. And she wasn’t supposed to use any magic without supervision.

      It was so frustrating.

      Ouch! squealed ElsBeth, as Hillman-Jones poked her in the ribs for about the tenth time during arithmetic, the one class where Ms. Finch tolerated not the least bit of inattention.

      Ms. Finch went to great pains to ensure the students took arithmetic very SERIOUSLY and were ABSOLUTELY SILENT throughout.

      At this unheard-of outburst, Ms. Finch turned slowly away from the blackboard, screeching the chalk for what seemed like ages.

      The class held their breath as one.

      The teacher’s beady eyes looked up behind her thick glasses, black and horn-rimmed, and chained to her head with multi-colored plastic beads.

      Ms. Finch was what some people unkindly referred to as tough on the eyes.

      What was that, Miss Thistle? Did you have something to add to today’s lesson in multiplication, perhaps? Ms. Finch hissed this question sarcastically through tight, thin lips.

      All heads turned to ElsBeth.

      No, Ms. Finch, replied ElsBeth.

      But before she could stop herself she let slip, Robert Hillman-Jones jabbed me in the ribs.

      At this forbidden backtalk, Ms. Finch leapt forward at an alarming speed and swept down the row of shocked students, mouths open like train-wreck observers. She stopped short at ElsBeth’s seat.

      "I heard that. Apologize at once," she said.

      "I will not have children in my class telling tales. And trying to get perfectly innocent, dear, young boys into trouble."

      ElsBeth pressed her lips firmly together and sat hard on her hands — so she didn’t say anything that would inflame Ms. Finch further. Or worse yet, cast a spell in the middle of arithmetic class.

      ENTER THE CAT

      Fortunately, at just that moment, her grandmother’s unnaturally large, inky-black cat Sylvanas chose to make an appearance on the windowsill.

      The impressive feline sent a sharp, taunting hiss of his own in Ms. Finch’s direction.

      The schoolteacher, thoroughly distracted by this newest interruption to the seven’s multiplication table, forgot about ElsBeth for the moment.

      Ms. Finch stepped cautiously toward the window, nervously flapping her fingers and calling out, Scat!

      In response to this ridiculous effort to shoo him away, Sylvanas yawned widely. He slowly arched his back, stuck his nose in the air, and plopped rather theatrically onto Amy Clark’s desk.

      Amy, a small timid girl with pale hair and pale eyes and dressed in pink frills, was so alarmed she pushed back away from her desk. And her chair abruptly tipped over into Nelson Hamm.

      Nelson, a skinny kid with glasses, was at that moment wholly entranced by Amy in all her pinkness, and because of this was completely startled.

      He jumped up, too quickly, and tried to catch Amy, but missed by a long shot, and proceeded to knock his desk into Frankie Sylvester beside him.

      Frankie was chunky, but a solid fellow, and was always more than ready to get into a fight.

      Nelson’s clumsiness called for action. Frankie immediately shot up into a classic boxing stance and shoved his puny classmate over.

      Unfortunately, Nelson’s thin body presented little resistance to his powerful classmate, and Nelson flew in a slow, graceful curve — directly into Veronica Smythe.

      Veronica, at that particular moment, was pleasantly daydreaming about being a teenager, with make-up, hip clothes and a boyfriend.

      She was not happy to be reminded she was still only in second grade, and being bumped into by a skinny boy with glasses whose ears stuck out the sides of his head.

      Veronica let out a surprisingly loud shriek for a second-grader, at which the rest of the class, until then unaffected, jumped up and began to run around in circles, in the general belief that a mouse must have gotten loose in the classroom.

      This idea was transmitted by Veronica’s piercing shriek, and Carmen Alverez’s cry, Aaah! It’s a mouse!

      Carmen,

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