St. George's Rhino (eBook)

Matt Paskus (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
156 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
9798317809355 (ISBN)

Infos

A group of girls from a prestigious international school in Rome, Italy, utilize their school banquet to help save a baby rhinoceros from an underfunded Italian zoo. They use their ingenuity and diverse friendship to outsmart the zoo's new finance director-who happens to be a poacher.

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Four bright teenage girls from St. George's, an international school in Rome, put their lives on the line when they utilize their school banquet to help save a baby rhinoceros from a bankrupt Italian zoo. Inspired by a local zookeeper's story as an African game warden, the girls set a plan in motion when they discovered the zoo's new director was a poacher and had bad intentions set for the zoo. Each girl is powerful, and they use their unique talents, ingenuity, and diverse friendship to outsmart the director's evil intentions. The catacombs will awaken as the girls utilize ancient Roman ruins and the city's streets as their battleground, turning the story of St. George upside down to save a baby rhino.

Textauszug

II. Time for School

All four girls live in the Piazza della Fortuna, Fortune’s Square. A piazza is a group of buildings arranged in a square or rectangular shape, with a shared or meeting place in the middle. The Piazza della Fortuna features a beautiful fountain. In the center of the fountain is a statue of Romulus and Remus. There are small shops and cafes scattered at the base of each building. A taxi stand is at one end and a farmacia (pharmacy) is at the other. On the other side, at the corner, is Kiko’s parents’ bakery, where the girls meet every morning to start their walk to school together.

Johanna usually arrives first and likes to grab a warm pastry before the others arrive. Devanshi and her brothers, Arhaan and Armaan, typically arrive next. The twins always follow their sister, as if she were their mother duck.

Kiko’s apartment is above the bakery, where their family has lived for nearly five years. Kiko’s mother owns the bakery, Pasticceria Italiana. The pastries have a unique Japanese flair. Mrs. Ito hung Kiko’s artwork on the walls and makes delicious cookies shaped like anime characters. The pastries and marzipan figurine candy are very popular.

Armaan and Arhaan like to stand in front of the bakery window and wait for Kiko to join them.

This morning, a limousine pulls up to the corner right next to where Kiko, Johanna, Devanshi, and her two twin brothers are standing. Antonio, Elizabeth’s family driver, opens Elizabeth’s car door.

“Elizabeth, have a good morning at school,” Antonio says.

Elizabeth steps out of the limo and turns toward Antonio, “Thank you, Antonio.”

Elizabeth sees Devanshi motioning to her by pointing up the street. Right, right! Elizabeth says to herself. She turns to Antonio. “Antonio, I will walk home after school today.”

Antonio nods and smiles. “Si, of course. Impara molto oggi, learn lots today!” Antonio says and closes Elizabeth’s door. He walks to the driver’s side and gets into the car. Before leaving, Antonio rolls down the window and waves to the girls. The group all wave back as he pulls away.

Arhaan looks at Elizabeth. “Elizabeth, why do you take a limo every morning? We live further away than you do,” he says. They all look across the Piazza della Fontana to the depth and scope of supporting Arhaan’s question.

While they are all looking at Elizabeth’s apartment across the piazza, Armaan grabs Devanshi’s scarf and wraps it around his head. “She’s a movie star,” he announces. Arhaan then grabs the scarf and pretends to be a princess. “I am an American princess.”

Devanshi grabs her scarf back, wraps it around both boys’ necks, and says, “Listen, idiots, leave Lizzy alone, or I’ll bust both your heads.”

“It’s okay,” Elizabeth says with a smile.

As the boys settle down, Devanshi then asks Elizabeth, “Why do you drive to the corner every morning?” while she points to Elizabeth’s apartment. “Your home is right over there.”

Johanna, Kiko, and the twins burst out laughing. Kiko looks at her cat watch. “It’s time, and we need to get to school.”

The group rounds the corner past the pastry shop and begins their walk to school.

Saint George’s School is about a mile away from the Pasticceria Italia. The girls love to see the various shops, restaurants, and Roman architecture they pass on their way to school. They also love the antics of Devanshi’s brothers. After walking about one block, the twins see Kiko’s artwork, which she has been carrying. Kiko sees the boys trying to catch a glimpse of her picture.

“You guys want to see my picture?” Kiko asks. She shows the boys her anime drawing of Romulus and Remus with the mother wolf.

Arhaan is ecstatic. “Cool!” he shouts.

Armaan also loves it. “Doggie. Awesome!” he yells.

“I thought of you guys while drawing it,” Kiko tells them.

“That’s the two guys and the dog from the fountain near our place,” Arhaan says.

“You are right. The picture is of Romulus and Remus, who are twins and the founders of Rome. A mother wolf raised them,” Kiko tells the boys.

“Oh, so it’s not a dog. For all these years, I thought it was a dog. My bad,” Armaan says.

The twins start parading around the girls. “We are the founders of Rome!” the two boast.

Armaan sees the girls laughing and smiling. “We are the founders of Rome. Right?” Armaan says, beginning to doubt himself.

“Well, not exactly,” Kiko says. “Romulus actually killed his twin brother Remus.”

Arhaan, without hesitation, says, “I am Romulus!”

“No, you are not, I am,” said Armaan.

The boys start to argue and poke each other while dancing and circling their big sister, using her as a shield to protect themselves from one another.

Devanshi sighs. “Kiko, thank you for that.”

The girls all laugh. As the girls continue to walk down the strata toward school, the boys continue to debate which is Romulus. Arhaan stops, deep in thought, and looks up to the sky as if he has discovered one of the most critical facts known to mankind. He then turns to his brother. “So, if they were twins, how do they know who’s who or which one of them was the actual king?”

Armaan continues talking to his brother. “Wait, yes, you’re right. How does anyone know?”

Elizabeth looks at the other girls and says, “Very interesting. They may be on to something.”

Devanshi rolls her eyes and says, “This is what I have to deal with every day.”

The girls all laugh.

“My brothers are like killer bees. They buzz around me every day,” Devanshi says, watching her brothers continue to debate. “I never get any peace. They discuss crazy things and drive me nuts all the time. But you know I love them,” she adds, while the girls laugh and watch Armaan and Arhaan squat down and look inside a manhole cover to search for rats.

Devanshi motions to her brothers to keep moving. “Come on, rat catchers. We don’t want to be late for school,” she says.

“Wait, I think there is one down in there,” Arhaan shouts.

“Come on, come on,” Devanshi responds.

The boys get up from the manhole cover and follow the girls.

As the gang rounds the corner, they are now on the Via dei Condotti, with the Spanish Steps in the distance.

The Via dei Condotti is one of Rome’s premier shopping streets. The stores are all high-end. “Look at the crown jewels,” Arhaan says while passing a jewelry shop.

“Oh, I like that one,” Johanna says as they pass a display of handbags in a leather goods shop.

One shop the gang always loves to pass is the cheese shop. Every morning, the owner, Signore Cascio, greets them with a sample of cheese. “Here you are,” he says as he hands out a tray of cheese. “Ecco il mio formaggio del giorno,” he says.

“Ah, cheese of the day,” Devanshi says.

“This is the king of all cheeses,” Cascio says.

They all take a piece of cheese off the tray.

“You like?” Cascio asks.

They all nod their heads.

“Parmigiano Reggiano, Parmesan,” he explains.

“This is from Parma, Northern Italy,” he continues.

“Very good, thank you,” Elizabeth says, then adds, “We will see you tomorrow.”

The rest of the group thanks Mr. Cascio and continues to school.

Cascio waves goodbye, and the group continues down Via dei Condotti.

They reach Piazza di Spagna, which translates to Spanish Square. The square is at the foot of the Spanish Steps. Street vendors set up their displays at the bottom of the steps for the influx of tourists who visit every morning.

One of the girls’ favorite things to do is to say hello to a local coachman, Gino, and his horse. Gino has a beautiful horse and gives rides to tourists. His horse has many names. The girls discovered that the horse’s name changes depending on the nationality of the tourist. The girls all surround Gino’s horse.

“Ciao, Mickey,” Elizabeth says, referring to the famous mouse who is popular among Americans.

“Hello, Ichiro,” Kiko said, referring to a famous Japanese baseball player.

“Gandhi, my friend,” Devanshi says.

“Thor, my friend,” Johanna says, handing the horse a carrot from her backpack.

“Ladies, it’s time to head to school before the tourists find out my horse’s real name is Paolo,” Gino says with a smile. Paolo was a famous soccer player in Italy.

“Ciao!” all the girls shout, and they start climbing the stairs.

The girls look back and see a tourist bus crawling through traffic and parking next to the steps. The tour bus door opens, and the tourists emerge. Some seem to be on a voyage through time, trying to determine where and on which planet, country, or city they are in.

The steps, more than 300 years old, were constructed to connect an embassy on the Piazza di Spagna with a picturesque church atop them. At this time of year, the steps are lined with red and...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.9.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-13: 9798317809355 / 9798317809355