Dear Parents and Teachers Rourke’s Adventure Chapter Books engage readers immediately by grabbing their attention with exciting plots and adventurous characters Our Adventure Chapter Books offer longer more complex sentences and chapters With minimal illustrations readers must rely on the descriptive text to understand the setting characters and plot of the book Each book contains several detailed episodes all centered on a single plot that will challenge the reader Each adventure book dives into a country Readers are not only invited to tag along for the adventure but will encounter the most memorable monuments and places culture and history As the characters venture throughout the country they address topics of family friendship and growing up in a way that the reader can relate to Whether readers are reading the books independently or you are reading with them engaging with them after they have read the book is still important We’ve included several activities at the end of each book to make this both fun and educational Are you ready for this adventure Enjoy Rourke Educational Media
Table of Contents The Forbidden City Alone in a Crowd The Dragon’s Back Buried Ghosts Mirrors in the Sky What’s in the Wall Meeting a Mongol Sounds in the Night Thieves
Chapter One The Forbidden City The Forbidden City Jaden said Grace crossed the hotel room to see what her brother was holding What are you talking about It’s one of the places on this card You mark where you want to go and show it to the taxi driver if he doesn’t speak English The Forbidden City Doesn’t it sound cool Jaden grinned Right I saw something about that Grace picked up the China guidebook from the desk and flipped a few pages It’s number one on the top experiences list for China It says it’s a big palace Lots of history Mom would like that Their mother was a history professor at a university in Seattle But she wasn’t with them on this trip She and Dad would be returning in a month to pick up their new adopted sister On this visit it was only Dad Grace and Jaden It says the palace has legend and intrigue too Grace added Intrigue is like mystery right Jaden asked leaning over her shoulder And it says it’s easy to get lost Getting lost was Jaden’s favorite pastime
No getting lost in China please Their dad called out from another room in the hotel suite He came into their room Seriously kids We’ll have plenty of excitement while hiking the Great Wall But first are you ready to go to the orphanage I still say if we have to get another kid we should get a Dad ruffled his hair Maybe next time if there is a next boy Jaden grumbled time One brother is enough Grace said In fact it’s one too many Jaden stuck out his tongue at her Remember we’re just going to an orphanage here in Beijing to drop off some presents Dad said We won’t be meeting your new sister yet I don’t understand why we can’t Grace said I don’t really either Dad said But adopting a child takes a long time and there are many rules to follow He kissed the top of Grace’s head This visit is so you can see where you came from and Jaden can see where his sisters are from And so you can write your article Grace said Dad grinned I always enjoy mixing business and pleasure he said Dad wrote about travel and food for magazines He often turned their vacations into research trips for his articles Grace looked out the window while Jaden tried to find his shoes The city seemed endless packed full of buildings and cars and bicycles and people It was spread out on a flat plain with mountains in the distance The day before they had spent 11 hours on an airplane flying from Seattle in America to Beijing China For the first time since she was a baby Grace was back in the country where she was born Her American parents adopted her when she was eight months old They were white Her eight
