The Lightning Key (25 page)

From two to three

Embrace the fear

And set soul free

To drink the sun

In place of me

J
ON
B
ERKELEY
was born in Dublin at a time when suits were collarless and there were no bootprints on the moon. He has worked as a freelance illustrator for over twenty years and has turned more recently to writing. He is the author and illustrator of
CHOPSTICKS
, a story about the friendship between a mouse and a dragon, and has illustrated several books by other authors.

Jon has lived and worked in Sydney, Hong Kong, London, and Dublin and now lives in a small town in Catalonia with his wife, Orna, and their five children, along with five cats, one dog, and a small colony of stick insects.
THE LIGHTNING KEY
is his third novel for young readers. You can visit him online at www.jonberkeley.com.

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The Palace of Laughter

The Tiger's Egg

THE LIGHTNING KEY
. Text copyright © 2009 by Jon Berkeley. Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Brandon Dorman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Berkeley, Jon.

The lightning key / Jon Berkeley; illustrated by Brandon Dorman.—1st ed.

   p. cm.—(The Julie Andrews collection) (The Wednesday tales; no. 3)

Summary: Orphaned twelve-year-old Miles Wednesday discovers some surprising things about his past when he sets out with his angel companion Little and the blind explorer Baltinglass on a quest to recover the powerful tiger's egg stolen by the evil Cortado.

ISBN 978-0-06-075515-7

[1. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 2. Orphans—Fiction. 3. Angels—Fiction. 4. Explorers—Fiction.] I. Dorman, Brandon, ill. II. Title.

PZ7.B45255Lig   2009             2007038755

[Fic]—dc22                              CIP

                                                  AC

EPub Edition © January 2010 ISBN: 9780062005687

10   11   12   13   14   LP/CW   10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

First Edition

First Harper edition, 2009