TRAPPED IN TENGU'S GARDEN

A Kaleidoscope Adventure

by EllaMarie Schroeder and Jacqueline Frischknecht

Copyright EllaMarieSchroeder & Jacqueline Frischknecht, March, 2004

TRAPPED IN THE TENGU’S GARDEN

“Give up, Matt!” a raspy voice squawked. “Come out with your hands up! I’m Stoopid Dimwit—and I’m on yer case now! I’m boss of all them Dimwit Homework Demons that’re sniffin’ yer blood. Bwa-ha-ha!”
Matt’s spun around, looking for an escape.
“Give up—there ain’t no escape, Buddy. See, yooz just too stoo-oopid to live ’round here. So me and my demons are gonna put ya outta yer misery. We’re gonna knock ya six ways from Sunday—to way out in the wilds where nobody’ll find ya. Then we’ll have some fun! Bwa-ha-ha!”

If the Homework Demons catch him, Matt will flunk sixth grade and his world will fall apart. In his panic, Matt trips and tumbles through a magic kaleidoscope to the strange world of KaleidoKen in the Universe-Next-Door. There, Nouse-Mouse, a virtual computer mouse, offers Matt one last chance to solve his problems.

It won’t be easy. The Homework Demons are already in full battle mode. And KaleidoKen’s resident tengu—a trickster goblin—is a fearsome foe. But Yoshi-tsune, Matt’s samurai ancestor, has a few tricks up his kimono sleeves, too—if Matt is brave enough to see through dragonfly eyes.

Will Matt accept the samurai’s challenge and earn his swords? Can he defeat the Homework Demons? Or will he remain Trapped in the Tengu’s Garden?

Major Lesson

Matt discovers that he is not stupid; he just doesn’t learn the same way others do. He must accept and use his own special intelligence—his way IS his highway.

Trapped In the Tengu’s Garden is grounded in educational research regarding multiple intelligences and how people learn. Kaleidoscopes are used as transportation to the realm of imagination and adventure.