This Book Is Not Good for You by Pseudonymous Bosch

Author:Pseudonymous Bosch
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Young Adult, Childrens, Fantasy, Adventure, JUV000000
ISBN: 9781409506317
Publisher: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Published: 2009-09-01T10:00:00+00:00

But the only animal in sight was a zebra ambling away. If there were any lions nearby, he didn’t seem very scared of them.

“Where are the lions? I want to see a lion!” shouted a child up front.

“Sorry—looks like they’re sleeping,” explained the tour guide. “Did you know the average lion sleeps over twenty hours a day? That’s why they call them the king of beasts—because they’re so lazy!”

The crowd tittered.

“Can you hear that ringing sound? Believe it or not, those are frogs croaking. We are now approaching Rainbow Rainforest.”

This was our friends’ cue to start paying attention. Cass, Max-Ernest, and Yo-Yoji all craned their necks, straining to look ahead.

Rainbow Rainforest definitely lived up to its name—at least if you weren’t expecting a real rainbow or a real rainforest.

As soon as they crossed into the (so-called) rainforest, hidden sprinklers drenched the tram with water; it was like driving through a torrential downpour in the tropics. (Or maybe just like driving through a car wash.) Meanwhile, a strategically placed floodlight created a prism effect—a rainbow. Of sorts.

Unlike SERENGETI SAVANNA, which was wide open with views in all directions, the rainforest was dense and dark and, if you were somebody like Max-Ernest, extremely claustrophobia-inducing. The leaves were so big, and the trees so tall, that you couldn’t help feeling small—as if you were looking at the world through the eyes of an ant.

“Out in the real world, more animal species live in rainforests than in any other type of environment—and that’s true here at Wild World, too. We have over twenty species of frogs, including one species that flies. And twelve kinds of monkeys—though no flying ones. You’ll have to visit the Wicked Witch of the West to find those!”

As the tram drove deeper into the rainforest, the park visitors experienced a kind of sensory overload. While tropical birds cawed from every direction, the frog croaking grew louder and louder until it was almost deafening. The last rays of sunlight penetrated the trees from above, casting shadows in the shapes of vines and leaves, and creating dizzying patterns of light and dark, brown and green. The air was so pungent—with honey and cinnamon and vanilla, but also with musk and mold and much fouler scents—that they had to hold their noses.

All in all, the rainforest was not an easy place to look for a hidden chocolate plantation.

The kids heard no shouts between invisible plantation workers. They caught no whiffs of chocolate floating through the air. They saw no tractor tracks buried in the mud. No secret messages tied to tree trunks. No signs of illicit activity whatsoever.

Then again, all those things could have been there—and they still might not have been able to detect them.

Boldly, Cass walked up the tram’s center aisle and asked the tour guide whether there had been an old zoo where Wild World now stood. But the tour guide said that if anything like that had ever existed, she didn’t know about it. And it certainly didn’t exist now.

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