The Jurassic Adventure
Author: Marcus D. Evans & Shelly M. Bushkofsky
Genre: Kids Adventure (6-17)
Editor: Rebel Edit & Design (Dana Hook)
Cover Designer: Wicked by Design
Charlie, Veronica, and George Donner were not ordinary kids. How could they be with a father who creates out of the world inventions?
Until one day, they go from not so ordinary, to extraordinary.
Their dad has always dreamed of inventing a time machine. Not only because it had never been done, but because he’d lost two people in time who meant the world to him — his father and his wife.
After finally completing the impossible, his kids accidentally transported themselves back in time without their dad knowing.
Finding themselves in a world that was once lost, they must figure out a way to go back before it’s too late. But nothing is ever as easy as it seems. It’s a good thing they find help in the most unexpected places.
Can they make it back home or will they be lost in time forever?
Shelly Bushkofsky is a mother of three; two boys and a girl. She's an author of romance, but when her oldest son, Marcus, told her that he wanted to be an author just like her, and that he had an idea for a book, she dived right in to the world of children's books. Although this story was all his!
She enjoys writing, reading, and spending as much time with family and friends as possible.
Marcus Evans is eleven years old and hopes to one day be a bestselling author. But he also dreams of traveling the world as an anthropologist. He enjoys reading and writing, and also has a love of baseball and fishing.
Prologue
Charlie, Veronica, and George Donner lived with their dad, Jimmy Donner, in an old house in the small town of Charsonville, Iowa. Their mother died a long time ago, but their dad never really talked about how. Charlie used to ask about her a lot, but his dad would get angry and tell him to stop asking. She was gone, and that was all there was to know. Charlie didn’t like that answer, but maybe his dad was right, and he shouldn’t ask about things he couldn’t change.
The kids didn’t have much. Their family didn’t have a nice car, nice house, or even a computer with Internet connection, but they thought they had something even better—their dad.
Mr. Donner was a scientist who invented all kinds of awesome things, like a machine that put your shoes on for you, and a robot that would make your bed. He wasn’t famous for his inventions, and the people around town thought he was crazy, but his kids thought the world of him. They loved everything he invented and were always up for testing them out—when their dad let them, that is.
Mr. Donner thought of himself as a man who could do anything, as long as he had the imagination to think it and the will to build it. But there was one thing he’d been trying to make his entire life that he just couldn’t get right: a time machine.
He was about ready to give up when he had a major breakthrough, and was able to transport an apple back in time. At least, he was pretty sure that was where it went. There was really no way to know for sure since all the other times he’d tried, the apple had turned into applesauce, or caught on fire.
Even if it did travel back in time, he couldn’t be sure that it actually arrived to the destination he set. All he knew was that it was no longer where it had been. It was gone, and not in a destroyed sort of way.
Mr. Donner was obsessed with dinosaurs, and wanted to build the time machine to try to save them; maybe even bring one back. He was really hoping that the apple was now sitting in front of a dinosaur, maybe even giving them a strange new snack.
Running downstairs, he grabbed his jacket and keys, telling the kids he’d be back soon. He had to get the Dean of the University right away to tell him what he had done, what he had finally accomplished.
“I’ll be back soon, kids. Don’t answer the door if anyone knocks. Don’t go outside, and do not go into my office,” Mr. Donner told them sternly before running out the door.
The kids sat on the couch for a few seconds, just looking at each other. Their dad had never said that his office and laboratory was off-limits before, at least not that they could remember. What did he have in there now that would be so important that he’d warn them off?
Unable to hold it in any longer, Charlie smiled mischievously at his little brother and sister. “Let’s go see what Dad invented,” he said, standing from the couch. He knew that that was what his dad was hiding—an invention. There was nothing else that would be worth hiding. His dad knew that they wouldn’t care about any special papers, and would get bored quickly, so a new invention was the only thing he could think of.
Unless, of course, his dad bought them all a new toy to play with and was just hiding it in there, but a new invention was more likely.
“But he said don’t go in there,” Veronica said as she stood to follow her two brothers.
“Is he here?” Charlie asked. When no one answered him, he said, “He won’t know.” Then, with a Cheshire
smile, he ran up the stairs, his brother and sister following close behind him.
At the top, they stopped outside of their dad’s office door. They knew it wasn’t locked because their dad trusted them, which had Charlie feeling a little bad about disobeying. However, with the hopes of a cool invention that must be behind the door, he just couldn’t help himself. Maybe his dad was just playing around anyway. Either way, he would never know unless he saw it for himself.
Slowly opening the door, all three of them poked their heads inside.
“What’s that?” George whispered.
“It looks like a photo booth,” Veronica replied.
“No, it’s not a photo booth,” Charlie said with a disbelieving look. “It’s a time machine.”
He’d heard his dad talk about building a time machine as far back as he could remember, but he never thought it was possible. Going back in time wasn’t something that could happen. That stuff was only in tall tales, not real life. But now, what he believed to only be real in fairytales was standing right in front of him.
The only question now was, did it actually work? Or was it one of his dad’s failed attempts at a dream?
