THAT NIGHT AT DINNER, PEARL asked her parents if they’d heard about the treasure in Trident City. “That’s just a silly old legend,” Mrs. Swamp said, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“Actually,” began Mr. Swamp, setting his glass of comb jelly tea on the marble table, “I’ve seen the ship. It’s beyond Whale Mountain and the Big Volcano.” Whale Mountain was a big underwater mountain shaped like the hump on a whale’s back.
Pearl slapped the table gleefully. “I knew it!” She couldn’t wait to tell that know-it-all Shelly that the treasure was real.
“But the ship is haunted,” her dad said in a quiet voice.
Her mom laughed. “Don’t be silly! There’s no such thing as a haunted ship.”
Her dad raised his eyebrows, picking up his glass. “Maybe not, but there’s something spooky about that ship. Frank at work told me he swam by there one day and heard ghosts moaning. He said that over the years many merpeople have disappeared into that ship and have never been seen again.”
Pearl’s mom sighed. “You know Frank likes to make things up.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Pearl’s father said. “Merfolk stay away from it anyway, because the ship’s wood is rotting. It’s so old that the whole place is dangerous.”
Pearl nodded and took another sip of her cuttlefish chowder. All she could think about was a big treasure chest full of diamonds and rubies.
Debbie Dadey is the author and coauthor of more than one hundred and fifty children’s books, including the series The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids. A former teacher and librarian, Debbie now lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with her wonderful husband, three children, and three dogs. She recently went to Jamaica and thought she saw a mermaid there! If you see any mermaids, let her know at www.debbiedadey.com.
Aladdin
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
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Also by
Debbie Dadey
MERMAID TALES
BOOK 1: TROUBLE AT TRIDENT ACADEMY
BOOK 2: BATTLE OF THE BEST FRIENDS
BOOK 3: A WHALE OF A TALE
BOOK 4: DANGER IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA
BOOK 5: THE LOST PRINCESS
BOOK 6: THE SECRET SEA HORSE
Coming Soon
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALADDIN
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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First Aladdin paperback edition January 2014
Text copyright © 2014 by Debbie Dadey
Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Tatevik Avakyan
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Book design by Karin Paprocki
Jacket designed by Karin Paprocki
Jacket illustrations by Tatevik Avakyan
The text of this book was set in Belucian Book.
Library of Congress Control Number 2013943924
ISBN 978-1-4424-8264-7 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-8263-0 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-8265-4 (eBook)