The Mythomaniacs - Jules Bass (speld decodable readers TXT) 📗

a sign in the window and they waited for the hooded man to come back and claim him. During the week that followed Marlo ignored the elegant puss; never petted him even once, and left it to Gilbert to do the feeding and to change the litter box he’d made. The following Saturday Gilbert looked for the cat’s owner in the audience, while Marlo was performing, but he was nowhere to be seen. Odd. Surely it was his cat? Had he abandoned it?

Two weeks later Gilbert took the sign out of the window. He had become very attached to the cat and it was obvious that the yellow-eyed man wasn’t coming back. The moment the sign came down, Marlo and the cat became inseparable.

“How come the big change in Marlo, dad?” Gilbert said.

“It’s possible that she didn’t want to form an emotional bond with the cat and then have him taken away from her.”

Marlo now took over all the chores of having him as a pet. He slept curled up next to her head on her bed, followed her everywhere and sat quietly at every one of her performances. Marlo instinctively understood the cat’s moods and desires perfectly. She knew the difference between an “I’m hungry for chicken look,” an “I’d like some cheese look,” and an “I’ve had enough petting warning glance.”

One day Henry peeked into the shoppe and saw the white cat licking Marlo’s cheek. And then he saw something he had never seen before: Marlo smiled, for the first time in her life.

“There’s no doubt about it, Virginia,” Henry said to his wife, “ever since that white cat showed up Marlo’s been a different person.”

“It’s almost magical.”

“I just hope the owner doesn’t come back one day. I don’t think Marlo could bear to part with him.”

That’s when Henry got the idea for a new fairy tale. Had he known that the writing of this new story would change everyone’s life, including his own (and become damning evidence in his son’s trial for kidnapping and possible murder), he would have kept it locked in his mind and never set it to paper. We’ll get to that part shortly, but to make sense of it all you must know the story of The Cat Who Could Change Colors. Gilbert drew all of the pictures and they bound one special copy as a birthday present for Marlo. She read it every night before she went to bed and always fell asleep with the cat in her arms and a smile on her lips.

 

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JULES BASS has produced several animated films, including The Hobbit, The Last Unicorn, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, as well as several hit animated television shows such as ThunderCats. Jules has written two children's books for Barefooot Books: Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon and Cooking With Herb. They have been translated into seven languages and reprinted in paperback. Herb received a "Pick Of The Lists" from American Bookseller, Lifeworks Magazine's the "Real Life Award," IRA-CBC "Children's Choices Award", "top-of-the-children's list" at American Book Sellers Association. The London Times called Herb one of the best books of the season. It was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Award and praised by Paul McCartney as: "A magical read for all new thinkers, young and old..." Herb made his television debut on The Food Network.

 

Bass' new novel for middle-grade readers from Eltanin Publishing, The Mythomaniacs, takes place in Devon, in the south-west of England, and from there transports the reader into many worlds of fantasy including a quest that leads back to Arthurian times.

 

To learn more please visit www.julesbass.com

 

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Publication Date: 02-14-2014

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