by Kate Messner
“You know what’s going to be amazing?” Max tapped a poster on the wall. It was about the Paul Taylor Dance Company’s performance in the World Trade Center’s outdoor plaza that night. After work, they planned to buy picnic food and stay to watch the show. Risha and Max had taken ballet lessons together when they were younger. Max was still dancing, but Risha had switched to gymnastics in fourth grade.
“That’ll be you someday,” Risha said, pointing to the men on the poster. She gave Max a fist bump.
“Here we go,” Mrs. Scott said as the elevator doors opened. She worked on such a high floor that it took two elevators to get there! When they stepped off the second one, Risha led them down the hall to the office. Mom’s company worked with big transport ships to make sure they were following rules and being safe. To be honest, Risha didn’t really want to do that kind of work when she got older. She was more interested in being a gymnast and an art teacher. But missing school to spend a whole day downtown with Mom was too great a chance to pass up.
They passed out the muffins, and there were a few left over. Mrs. Scott looked at her watch. “I’m going to take a muffin down to my friend at Port Authority. You can hang out in the conference room, and I’ll be right back.”
She brought Risha and Max to a big room, at least three times the size of Risha’s bedroom. It had a long table with fancy, cushy chairs that spun around. Best of all was the wall of windows that looked out toward the Empire State Building.
“Whoa!” Max said.
Risha smiled. She’d seen the view before and was excited to share it. She pulled her colored pencils and sketchbook out of her backpack. Later, she’d need to take notes for their career project, but for now, she wanted to draw the buildings outside.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Then I’ll introduce you to some people you can interview for your project,” Mom said, and closed the conference room door behind her.
“This rocks,” Max said. He polished off his muffin in three bites and pulled Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from his bag.
Risha looked up from her drawing and laughed. “Haven’t you already read that like three times?”
“Gets better every time,” he said.
Risha went back to work on her drawing. A few minutes later, she heard a sound like an airplane. It got louder and louder. She looked out the window.
A plane was flying low in the sky. Too low! Risha stared as it roared past the Empire State Building.
It was heading straight toward them.
Text copyright © 2019 by Kate Messner
Illustrations by Kelley McMorris, copyright © 2019 Scholastic Inc.
Photo ©: 127 bottom: Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897/The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This book is being published simultaneously in hardcover by Scholastic Press.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Messner, Kate, author. | McMorris, Kelley, illustrator.
Title: Night of soldiers and spies / Kate Messner ; illustrated by Kelley McMorris.
Description: New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2019. | Series: Ranger in time | Summary: Ranger the time-travelling Golden retriever and young Isaac Pope come together in 1776 during Washington’s retreat after the Battle of Long Island, and stays with him while he slowly recovers from Smallpox — but Ranger’s real mission comes later when Isaac is sent to spy out the Hessian troops’ intentions before the Battle of Trenton.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018038977 (print) | LCCN 2018040781 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781338134032 (Ebook) | ISBN 9781338134018 (pbk.) |
ISBN 9781338134025 (jacketed library binding)
Subjects: LCSH: Golden retriever — Juvenile fiction. | Time travel — Juvenile fiction. | Soldiers — Juvenile fiction. | Smallpox — Juvenile fiction. | Espionage, American — Juvenile literature. | Long Island, Battle of, New York, N.Y., 1776 — Juvenile fiction. | Trenton, Battle of, Trenton, N.J., 1776 — Juvenile fiction. | Adventure stories. | United States — History — Revolution, 1775-1783 — Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Golden retriever — Fiction. | Dogs — Fiction. | Time travel — Fiction. | Smallpox — Fiction. | Spies — Fiction. | Adventure and adventurers — Fiction. | Long Island, Battle of, New York, N.Y., 1776 — Fiction. | Trenton, Battle of, Trenton, N.J., 1776 — Fiction. | United States — History — Revolution, 1775-1783 — Fiction. | GSAFD: Adventure fiction. | LCGFT: Historical fiction. | Action and adventure fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ10.3.M5635 (ebook) | LCC PZ10.3.M5635 Ni 2019 (print) | DDC 813.6 [Fic] — dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038977
First printing 2019
Cover art by Kelley McMorris, © 2019 Scholastic Inc.
Cover design by Shivana Sookdeo and Stephanie Yang
e-ISBN 978-1-338-13403-2
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