"What does a kite have that you do not?" replied Ling Wu.
"A string!"
Ling Wu looked to the east. "And what is your string, miserable frog?"
Jon thought, thought harder than he ever had before—harder, even, than when he had learned to levitate. What held him to Earth the way a string holds a kite?
The answer was easy: It was his family, of course.
He concentrated still harder—so hard, he heard clickings and grindings and squeakings inside his brain, then finally a few bars of serene music.
"Close your eyes, heathen ant," Ling Wu said. "Good-bye, forever."
Jon did as directed and heard temple bells. After a few seconds he opened his eyes and looked around. Ling Wu was gone. Jon looked west. A sliver of green gossamer cloud was vanishing high in the sky.
"Thank you and good-bye," Jon called out softly.
He dropped the paint buckets, needing them no longer, and shouted for Smacks, who scampered down the fifty-four steps, then scampered back up, barking louder than ever.
Jon, his feet on the ground, his heart firmly tied to the earth, followed his best friend home.
Another acclaimed story by Theodore Taylor
The Maldonado Miracle
A small town gets a big miracle.
TWELVE-YEAR-OLD JOSE MALDONADO USED TO dream of becoming a fine artist. But this son of a poor Mexican farmer now focuses on survival, not art. After Jose's mother died, his father left to work in the United States, leaving Jose on his own in Mexico. When it's time for father and son to reunite, things go terribly wrong. Jose's attempt to cross the border is harrowing, and his stay at a migrant worker camp turns into a nightmare, forcing him to flee for his life. Hiding out in a church seems a wise thing to do, until the blood dripping from Jose's wounded shoulder lands on a statue of Christ. Now everyone thinks the statue itself is bleeding. Jose's accidental "miracle" kick-starts a media frenzy—and threatens the future of an entire town.
Theodore Taylor's uncompromising look at the power of love, hope, and redemption inspired the Showtime movie The Maldonado Miracle, which garnered major critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.
Also look for Theodore Taylor's forthcoming
ICE DRIFT
A chilling survival story
THE YEAR IS 1868, AND FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD ALIKA and his younger brother, Sulu, are hunting for seals on an ice floe attached to their island in the Arctic Ocean. Suddenly the ice starts to shake, and they hear a loud crack—the terrible sound of the floe breaking free from land! The boys watch with horror as the dark expanse of water between the ice and the shore rapidly widens and they start drifting south—away from their home, their family, and everything they've ever known.
Throughout their six-month-long icebound journey down the Greenland Strait, the brothers face bitter cold, starvation, and most frightening of all, vicious polar bears. Their thrilling story of adventure and survival is a moving testament to the bond between brothers—and to the strength of the human spirit.
Theodore Taylor, The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor
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