Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur

by Mordecai Richler

  But you’ll look sweet, on the seat,

  Of a bicycle built for two.

  Jacob Two-Two, his eyes glued to the TV set, suddenly began to rock with laughter.

  “Jacob,” his mother exclaimed, delighted, “are you feeling better?”

  Everybody raced off to the kitchen to bring Jacob Two-Two his favorite foods.

  “Good old Jake,” Daniel said.

  “Hurray for my little brother,” Noah said.

  “Am I ever relieved,” Emma said.

  “Me too,” Marfa said.

  But there was even more to come on TV the next morning. “Sssh,” Jacob Two-Two said, watchful.

  Further investigation of the hitherto unexplored Rocky Mountain peak had revealed a huge winding trench dug in a hidden valley. Paleontologists were convinced that this was evidence of an earlier civilization, most likely Indian, maybe fifty thousand years old. It would, however, take them years of research to decipher the coded message of the winding trench, obviously an appeal to ancient gods, composed in a language no longer known to man. For if it was read in English it just didn’t make sense. It was gibberish. Then they showed a picture of the winding trench taken from a helicopter. The message looked like this:

  Some dinosaur, Jacob Two-Two thought, laughing out loud again. Some dumb dinosaur. “Yippee for Dippy!” he cried out.

  From Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas

  By Cary Fagan, illustrated by Dušan Petričić

  “‘What’s that out there?’ Cindy pointed past the rail of the ship. ‘There’s something there in the mist.’

  Jacob could just make out the carved figurehead of a mermaid. ‘It’s a ship, it’s a ship!’ he cried. As it became more visible, Jacob could see that it was a very old ship, the kind with three tall masts and big sails. He could also see cannons – dozens of them – lined up along the ship’s side….”

  First published by McClelland & Stewart, 1987

  Published in this edition by Tundra Books, 2009

  Text copyright © 1987 by Mordecai Richler

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Dušan Petričić

  Published in Canada by Tundra Books

  75 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A 2P9

  Published in the United States by Tundra Books of Northern New York, P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901

  Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 2008911578

  All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Richler, Mordecai, 1931-2001

  Jacob Two-Two and the dinosaur / Mordecai Richler; illustrated by

  Dušan Petričić.

  eISBN: 978-1-77049-074-1

  I. Petričić, Dušan II. Title.

  PS8535.I38J24 2009 JC813′.54 C2008-908041-6

  We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

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