by Annie Bryant
Memento: (p. 162) noun—something special that reminds you of something that happened in the past
Peruse: (p. 174) verb—to read something very carefully
Definitions adapted from Webster’s Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Random House.
Montana-Rama!
Big Fun Facts about Big Sky Country
What do you mean there’s a Spanish Mountain next to Idaho?
The name “Montana” comes from the Spanish word for mountain: “montaña.”
Move over, Nessie!
Flathead Lake, seven miles south of Kalispell, Montana, is said to be home to the legendary Flathead Lake Monster. The first reported sighting of this large, underwater animal was in the late 1880s. Since then, many people think they’ve glimpsed the colossal creature, but no one has yet identified it. Is it a sea monster? A dinosaur? Or just a really big fish? YOU decide!
Reserve a space for me!
Montana is home to seven Native American reservations: Blackfeet, Crow Creek, Flathead, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, Northern Cheyenne, and Rocky Boy’s. Every August, Montana residents celebrate the state’s Native American heritage at the Crow Fair and Rodeo, a festival featuring parades, horse races, and traditional costumes and dancing.
Let it snow . . .
The largest snowflake ever recorded was found at Fort Keogh, Montana, in 1887. Unbelievably, this fabulous flake measured eight inches thick and nearly fifteen inches across. With snowflakes like that, no wonder Montana is called “Big Sky Country!”
Huckleberry Haven
Trout Creek, Montana, is home to the Huckleberry Festival, started almost thirty years ago. People from all over the world attend to taste and buy these berries, which are indigenous to the Pacific Northwest. The Festival features huckleberry ice cream, huckleberry pizza, huckleberry cheesecake . . . and who could forget the Miss Huckleberry Pageant?
Dino-mite!
Buried beneath Montana’s breathtaking canyons and mountain ranges are tons (literally!) of fossilized dinosaur bones. In fact, Montana is an especially good place to look for the bones of duckbilled dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs. And these fossils really “rock”: the first hadrosaur unearthed in Montana was nicknamed “Elvis”!.
The Big Bad Truth
An Avery Madden Crazy Critters Exclusive
After hearing all those fairytales my mom read to me as a kid, I thought I had the scoop on wolves: BIG and BAD. I mean, just ask the three little pigs if you need the proof! But that bad reputation isn’t entirely true, says William T. Wolf, a long-time resident of Montana who also just so happens to be a member of this noble species. Since these furry gray guys usually get such a bad rap, I decided to give him a shot at setting the record straight—as long as there’s no howling involved!
Avery Madden: So which are you, Will, big or bad?
William T. Wolf: Well, if you put it that way, I guess I’ll go with big. Around my parts—that’s western Montana, mostly—we’re members of the species canis lupus, although you can just call me a gray wolf. And since you’re so stuck on this size issue, I’ll have you know that I’m about five and a half feet long, from the tip of my nose to the end of my tail.
AM: Whoa, you’re bigger than me!
WW: But what I’m tryin’ to tell ya, Avery, is that we might be big, but we’re not all bad. In fact, from our point of view, you humans seem pretty scary!
AM: Really? Puny little us?
WW: Well sure. Back around sixty-five years ago, you guys pretty much drove my family out of its home. Thanks to human hunting, by 1940 there were no gray wolves in Montana anymore.
AM: Wow, I never thought of it that way. I guess who’s “bad” all depends on how you look at it. So one last question: if you’re not really bad, then what are all those forty-two gleaming white teeth for?
WW: The better to talk with you, my dear.
Share the next
Adventure
Time’s Up
Katani knows she can win the business contest. But with school and friends and family taking up all her time, has she gotten in over her head?
Check out the Beacon Street Girls at
beaconstreetgirls.com
Aladdin M!X
Here’s an excerpt from the
next adventure,
Time’s Up
They have harnesses and stuff, right?” Maeve asked in a tremulous voice. “I mean, to catch you if you fall off?” At the words “fall off,” Katani swallowed hard. She too felt nervous at the sight of the ginormous, gray climbing wall. I can’t believe I’m actually going to climb it, she thought. But she reached down and gave Maeve’s clammy hand a reassuring squeeze. “Chillax, girlfriend. Look at Avery. She can’t fall.” Sure enough, Avery, the most athletic of the group of friends, was already securely harnessed and had started her climb.
Katani tried to distract herself from her fears of looking like a total spaz on the wall by concentrating on her favorite magazine, T-Biz! A Magazine for Teen Entrepreneurs. As she flipped another page with her free hand, a colorful ad suddenly caught her eye. “This is incredible!” she blurted out loud, before she could stop herself.
“Whoa! That’s the spirit, Katani!” Avery shouted encouragingly, giving the Kgirl a thumbs-up as she dangled in her harness.
Katani looked up, slightly embarrassed by her outburst but glowing with excitement about what she had read. “No, no, it’s not that, Ave. Forget the wall. It’s this contest—an ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ contest for middle-school students! Listen . . .” But Avery was already facing the wall and the pint-size climber hadn’t heard a word she had said. Katani figured Avery was probably too busy trying to beat the boy next to her up the wall.
“You better put that magazine away, Miss Fashion Biz, and listen to the instructor, or you’ll be hanging every which way when it’s your turn,” warned a suddenly serious Maeve, her big blue eyes glued to the climbers scrambling up the wall like little spider people. Maeve gasped as one climber slipped and fell away from the wall.
But Katani couldn’t care less about the rock climbers. In fact, she wished she had stayed home. T-Biz! was seeking “the next generation of business leaders.” This was so up her alley. Kgirl Enterprises was her ultimate fantasy. She should be home now writing up her “detailed, viable business plan” instead of climbing like a giant bug up some craaazy wall. Why had she agreed to come? The contest offered “an opportunity for all young entrepreneurs to fulfill their dreams.” Katani looked around to see if she could find a quiet place to keep reading.
A sudden blur on the rock wall grabbed her attention. “That girl just fell ten feet!” she yelped.
Maeve, who had been waving for Charlotte and Isabel to come over, spun around. The little girl was now hanging in midair. Maeve’s legs began to tremble.
“She’s fine,” a boy standing behind the girls said. Maeve turned around to see two of their friends from school. “Hey! Dillon and Nick! What are you doing here?”
“How can Isabel just stand over there and draw?” Katani commented, glancing over at Isabel, who was intently sketching one of the climbers. “My hands are shaking so much, I don’t think I could hold a pencil!” she said as she quickly zipped her magazine in the pocket of her sweatshirt. While she liked Dillon and Nick, no way was she ready to share that she was going to enter the T-Biz! entrepreneur contest with the two most popular boys at Abigail Adams Junior High. Dillon could be a big tease, and she didn’t want to be his latest target. She could just hear him in the cafeteria announcing, “Katani’s going to be on the next Oprah. Uh-huh!”
Collect all the BSG books today!
Also . . . Our Special Adventure Series:
Be sure to read all of our books:
BOOK 1 - worst enemies/best friends
BOOK 2 - bad news/good news
BOOK 3 - letters from the heart
BOOK 4 - out of bounds
BOOK 5 - promises, promises
BOOK 6 - lake rescue
BOOK 7
- freaked out
BOOK 8 - lucky charm
BOOK 9 - fashion frenzy
BOOK 10 - just kidding
BOOK 11 - ghost town
BOOK 12 - time’s up
BOOK 13 - green algae and bubble gum wars
BOOK 14 - crush alert
BOOK 15 - the great scavenger hunt
BSG Special Adventure Books:
charlotte in paris
maeve on the red carpet
freestyle with avery
katani’s jamaican holiday
isabel’s texas two-step
Coming soon:
BSG SPECIAL ADVENTURE - ready! set! hawaii!
BOOK 16 - sweet thirteen
Special thanks to Big Sky Resort for allowing us to use its name and location as a fictional setting in this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALADDIN MIX
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
First Aladdin M!X edition September 2009
Text copyright © 2007 by B*tween Productions, Inc.,
Home of the Beacon Street Girls.
Beacon Street Girls, KGirl, B*tween Productions, B*Street, and the characters Maeve, Avery,
Charlotte, Isabel, Katani, Marty, Nick, Anna, Joline, and Happy Lucky Thingy are registered trademarks of B*tween Productions, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ALADDIN is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and related logo is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ALADDIN M!X and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Designed by Dina Barsky
The text of this book was set in Palatino Lynotype.
Manufactured in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Library of Congress Control Number 2009921937
ISBN 978-1-4169-6441-4
ISBN 978-1-4169-9654-5 (eBook)