The Adventures
of
Mophie and Picholas
Book 1
A Very Strange Trip to the Park
By Joseph Pandolfi and Anthony Pandolfi
Illustrations by Becky Fawson
_________
For a FREE E-BOOK copy of Book 2 of
"The Adventures of Mophie and Picholas" series
"How the Kids Met Sylvester the Dragon"
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© - 2014 - Pandolfi Communications
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Meet Mophie and Picholas
Chapter 2
Off to the Park
Chapter 3
Hey, What’s Going on Here?
Chapter 4
Now What Do We Do?
Chapter 5
Sylvester to the Rescue
This book is dedicated to two very special children, who are a constant source of inspiration, amusement, bewilderment, and most of all…love.
Chapter 1
Meet Mophie and Picholas
Aside from their kind of unusual names, Mophie and Picholas were pretty much your average six-year-old girl and three-year-old boy. They lived in an average house, not too big and not too small, in an average town, not too big and not too small. But outside of their town, well nothing was average at all.
For example, just a hop, skip and a jump away was a place called the Kingdom of the Magic Horses. Yep, a real kingdom with—you guessed it—real magic horses. Horses that could fly, speak 743 languages, and even balance a baby
hippopotamus on the tip of their noses. And that’s just one of the surprises outside their town.
It was a beautiful spring Saturday, and Mophie and Picholas were trying to keep themselves busy in the house. But as hard as they tried, they were both getting a little bored. Mophie whispered something in Picholas’ ear. Picholas got up, walked over to their dad, and pulled on his pants leg.
“Hey, Daddy, me want to go to the park.”
“Hmm,” Dad said. “Well, I have a few things I have to get done, but I guess we could go in about a half hour.”
“Yeaaa!” yelled Mophie and Picholas.
Suddenly Picholas stopped. “What a half hour mean?” he asked with a puzzled look.
“It means pretty soon,” Mophie answered.
“Yeaaa!” Picholas shouted as the two of them started dancing around.
Chapter 2
Off to the Park
Mophie and Picholas changed into their play clothes. Mom packed snacks in case anyone got hungry, and with that,
they were ready to go.
About two blocks from their house, Mophie saw her friend Allison playing jump rope.
“Hi, Allison,” Mophie yelled, waving to her friend.
“Hi, Mophie,” Allison yelled back.
“Where are you going?”
“We going to the park,” Picholas answered, since he did not like being left
out of any conversation. “You come with us?”
“Please, Mom, can Allison come?” asked Mophie. “Please, please, please, pleeeeeeeeease,” she begged in a high-pitched voice.
As soon as Mom’s ears stopped ringing, she said, “Well, I guess if it’s okay with Allison’s mom—”
Before she finished her sentence, Allison went tearing into the house. She was back in less than a minute. “My mom said it’s okay with her.”
“Hooray!” the children all exclaimed.
Chapter 3
Hey, What’s Going On Here?
Mophie and Allison were talking a mile a minute as they walked, but Picholas managed to get in a few words as well. Everyone was really excited. As they turned the corner onto the street where the park was, the happy look on the children’s faces suddenly changed completely.
There was the park, right in front of them. But something was very, very wrong. There was ice all over the place! On the grassy hills, the trees, and all the rides in the playground. Ice. Super thick, shiny ice.
It was way too warm for ice to form outside. And what made the whole thing even stranger was that nothing else around them had a speck of ice on it. Not the street, or the cars, or the sidewalks, or anything.
“This is really weird,” said Mophie.
“Weally weird,” said Picholas.
Suddenly Mophie shouted, “Look, over there by the slides!”
They turned to look in the direction Mophie was pointing. And there was the answer to the mystery. Leaning against a big slide, with a sly grin on his face, was none other than Bratty Blunderpuss.
Bratty was 12 years old, and the biggest bully anyone had ever known. And to make matters even worse, he was the nephew of evil Queen Blunderpuss, the ruler of the Kingdom of Bleh, which was located many miles down the river
that ran through Mophie and Picholas’ town.
Queen Blunderpuss had super magic powers and a lot of issues. But instead of using her powers to help people, she used them to make people unhappy. She had given Bratty a magic spell to cover the park with ice, so nobody could play.
“You’re not playing in this park today,” hollered Bratty, and then he laughed a very wicked laugh indeed.
“I guess we’ll just have to go home,” said Mophie sadly.
“We not going home.” Everyone turned to look at Picholas. “Bwatty Bwunderpuss is a big poopy-head, and me gonna get him.”
This was very serious. Usually if Picholas was mad at someone, he would call them a cookie-head. But if he called you a poopy-head, watch out.
“Chaaaaaarge!” yelled Picholas, and with that he took off after Bratty.
Luckily, Dad caught up with him and picked him up. But the sight of that very angry little three-year-old must have really surprised Bratty, because he started to run away, slipping all over the ice with his arms and legs flying around in every direction. Yep, deep down, Bratty
was nothing but a great big coward, just like all bullies.
Chapter 4
Now What Do We Do?
“Well, he’s gone but the ice isn’t,” observed Allison. “We still can’t play.”
All of a sudden, Mophie hit herself on her forehead. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”
“Think of what?” asked Allison.
“Sylvester, of course,” replied Mophie.
“Of course,” said Picholas.
“Oh dear,” said Mom.
“Who’s Sylvester?” asked Dad and Allison.
But before anyone could answer them, Mophie cupped her hands
around her mouth, looked up, and called out, “Sylvester! We need you!”
In a split second, they could see a large flying object racing toward them. But it wasn’t an airplane, or a rocket ship, or even a giant bird. It was…a dragon!
A green dragon wearing a backwards baseball cap.
“Holy moly, that looks like a dragon,” Allison said, pointing to the sky. “That is so cool.”
“Hooray!” shouted Mophie and Picholas.
“Oh my goodness, it's really true!” exclaimed Mom.
“AYEEEEEEE!” screamed Dad.
“Whoa! What’s wrong with Dad?” Mophie asked Mom.
“Um, I may have forgotten to tell him the story about you guys and Sylvester,” she answered. “I really thought he was imaginary,?
?? she muttered to herself.
Chapter 5
Sylvester to the Rescue
“Hi, guys,” Sylvester said as he landed. “Having a problem?”
“You bet,” answered Mophie.
“Whoa, why is this park all covered with ice on such a lovely spring day?” asked Sylvester. “Wait, don’t tell me,” he sighed. “Queen Blunderpuss, right?”
“You got it,” said Picholas.
“Well, I can see why you called me,” Sylvester said. “I can definitely help you. Okay, I need all of you to move away from the park.”
As soon as they did, Sylvester flew up in the air and stopped right over the
middle of the park. Now, everyone knows that dragons can breathe fire. And that’s exactly what Sylvester did, breathing fire until he got just the right amount for what he wanted to do. Then he aimed at the park, and slowly but surely the ice began to melt.
Everyone started applauding. Soon, Sylvester was done. You would never have known that the park was covered in ice only a few minutes before.
“This is perfect,” said Mophie as she and Picholas gave Sylvester a big hug. “Thank you so much.”
“Like I told you when we first met, whenever you need anything at all,
you call for me and I’ll be there. Well, nice seeing all of you.”
“Uh, nice seeing you too,” answered Dad, still amazed that his children were friends with a dragon.
And with that, Sylvester lifted his wings and flew away. Soon the kids were in the playground, going from one ride to another, and then starting all over again.
“You know, Mophie, you never told me that you and Picholas knew a real live dragon,” Allison said.
“Well, it’s a long story,” answered Mophie. “You see one day—”
“Kids, I’m afraid it’s time for us to leave,” called out Mom.
“Oh, but what about the story of you and Sylvester?” Allison asked Mophie.
“Next time,” answered Mophie. “And believe me, it’s a really good one.”
#
Meet the Authors
The Adventures of Mophie and Picholas series is the result of the collaboration of the dynamic (and thoroughly charming) father and son duo of Joseph and Anthony Pandolfi. Joe and Anthony share a love of writing and photography, and a couple of years ago began creating poetry gift prints.
Ever the adventurers, they decided to explore new horizons, and journey into the world of children's books. “A Very Strange Trip To The Park” is the result of that endeavor, and the first book of The Adventures of Mophie and Picholas series.
For a FREE E-BOOK copy of Book 2 of
"The Adventures of Mophie and Picholas" series
"How the Kids Met Sylvester the Dragon"
click the link below:
Get Book 2 Free