Guardians of Ga'Hoole

by Kathryn Huang

  hordonphonk: n. (Krakish) supremely beautiful snake

  hukla-hukla: exclamation. snake-speak for “young owls will be young owls”

  issen: n. (Krakish) ice

  issen blauen: n. (Krakish) blue ice, used to make goggles; also the goggles themselves

  issen vintygg: n. (Krakish) deep ice

  kerplonken: adj. (Krakish) all over; broken; useless

  kraal: n. (Krakish) pirate

  Krakish: n. the ancient language of the Northern Kingdoms

  lochinvyrr: n. (Krakish) a code of honor between the hunter and the hunted

  moon blink: v. to expose for long periods to the full shine of the moon, forcing owls’ minds to become confused and incapable of making simple decisions; to destroy an owl’s will and individual personality, making him or her perfectly obedient

  mu: n. a very soft metal that blocks magnetic fields

  nachtmagen: n. bad magic originating in the time of legends

  new: v. (of the moon) wax; have a progressively larger part of its visible surface illuminated, so that it appears to increase in size

  Nimsy Night: n. the festival held on the shortest night and longest day of the year

  nooties: n. flavorful nuts that grow on the Great Ga’Hoole Trees during the time of the Copper-Rose Rain

  owl stone event: n. an event of great significance in the development of a young owl

  owlipoppen: n. little owl dolls made from down and molted feathers for chicks to lie with in the hollow; also used as decoys by the Guardians during the invasion of the canyonlands

  pyte: n. a unit of measurement roughly equal to the wingspan of a Whiskered Screech

  racdrops: exclamation. short for raccoon droppings; one of the worst curse words an owl can say

  riffle: v. to ruffle one’s feathers so as to accentuate the white spots (Spotted Owls only)

  ryb: n. teacher

  scroom: n. the disembodied spirit of an owl who has died but has not made his or her way to glaumora

  scroomsaw: n. owl soul

  shatter: v. to expose an owl to flecks under “certain conditions” that cause the owl to become massively disoriented and lose his or her sense of self; the gizzard becomes like a stone, and the owl becomes incapable of sorting out emotions and feelings, sometimes causing delusions

  Short Light: n. in the Northern Kingdoms, the two days surrounding the longest night of the year, when the sun never rises more than the tiniest bit above the horizon

  shred: v. to dart in and out of the edges of a fire, a colliering flight maneuver

  skog: n. (Krakish) singer, storyteller

  slipgizzle: n. owl spy, secret agent

  sliptween: n. a nest-maid snake and member of the harp guild who leaps from one octave to another while playing the great grass harp

  smee holes: n. natural steam vents in the Earth, found in the Northern Kingdoms

  sprink: v. and exclamation. the worst owl curse word

  spronk: n. forbidden knowledge

  starsight: n. the ability to see the future in dreams

  thronkenspeer: n. threat display

  trufynkken: adj. (Krakish) drunk

  turnfeather: n. owl traitor

  turnscale: n. snake traitor

  tween time: n. dusk; the time between the last drop of sun and the first shadows of the evening

  tweener: n. the evening meal; the first food owls consume after waking

  twixt time: n. dawn

  wilf: v. when an owl becomes frightened and his or her feathers lie flat, making him or her seem smaller

  williwaw: n. a sudden violent wind

  yarp: v. to cough up a pellet

  yarpie barpies: n. owl diarrhea

  yeep: adj. when a bird loses its instincts to fly, its wings lock mid-flight, and it suddenly plummets to the ground, as in “going yeep”

  yoiks: adj. crazy; loony; out of one’s mind

  Maps

  Copyright

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  Text copyright © 2007 by Kathryn Lasky and Kathryn Huang Knight

  Cover art by Richard Cowdrey

  Cover design by Steve Scott

  Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  Design by Steve Scott

  Illustrated by Richard Cowdrey

  First printing, October 2007

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  E-ISBN 978-0-545-29529-1