Overview of all the books in Spanish and English
El Tesoro de la Hacienda Embrujada
“En el transcurso de mi vida no he tenido en mis manos otros libros diseñados para niños que les hablen de las tradiciones Mexicanas y que al mismo tiempo tengan misterio combinado con aventuras como es la colección de cuatro libros hasta el momento de La Pandilla de Palo Alto. Mis hijos de diferentes edades; desde 9 hasta 16, se han interesado en ellos. Han leído los cuatro y están esperando la continuación.”
Los libros de la serie Palo Alto están escritos en dos idiomas (no traducidos sino escritos por la autora, B. Palma en los dos idiomas) para ayudar a los niños de dos culturas a entender sus diferencias y para que los estudiantes puedan leerlo en el idioma deseado. En todas las páginas nones el cuento está escrito en español y en las páginas pares están escrito en inglés.
La Hacienda Embrujada es un misterio con base en hechos históricos y los protagonistas son niños cuyas familias vivieron períodos de disturbios y revolución. Niños cuyo valor, curiosidad e imaginación los llevó a encontrar el antiguo secreto que cambió las vidas de sus familias y las pusieron en las difi cultades fi nancieros en las que actualmente se encuentran.
Juanita Reyes de once años se regresa al campo michoacano para ayudar a su abuela enferma y se encuentra con su amigo Pedro, hijastro de su primo. Se unen con el hijo del dueño del casco quién sueña con las generaciones pasadas de su familia Palma y la grandeza anterior de la Hacienda Palo Alto. Un hermoso garañón español y un pequeño potro también entran en el misterio.
Las enormes ruinas de la gran hacienda echan sombra sobre la ranchería donde la familia Reyes ha vivido desde siglos. Las vidas de las dos familias se habían entrelazado durante generaciones y la destrucción de la hacienda había golpeado a las dos familias con igual dolor y desastre. El misterio y la tragedia de la antigua hacienda atraen a los niños y los llevan a descubrir el secreto que los antiguos muros habían escondido por casi un siglo.
Lucifer
Los libros de la serie de aventuras Palo Alto están escritos en dos idiomas (no traducidos pero escritos por la autora, B. Palma en los dos idiomas) para ayudar a los niños de dos culturas a entender sus diferencias y para que los estudiantes puedan leerlo en el idioma deseado. En todas las páginas pares el cuento están escrito en español y en las páginas nones está escrito en Inglés.
Éste segundo libro de las aventuras de los compañeros de Palo Alto, describe como los
amigos Juanita, Pedro, Rafael, y Luisito descubren los secretos para dominar a Lucifer, un caballo de salto olímpico muy maltratado. Juanita hace una amiga nueva, Leora, hija de un ingeniero norteamericano que esta ayudando a construir una fábrica cerca del pueblo.
Rafael y su caballo tienen un accidente y Pedro tiene la primera operación en su tobillo. Los muchachos son entrevistados por televisión mostrando el tesoro que encontraron en la Hacienda Palo Alto de la familia de Rafael. Los primos de Juanita, Manuel y Rogelio, famosos jinetes, vienen a ayudar con el entrenamiento de Lucifer. Los cuatro amigos son invitados a montar en el desfi le para la inauguración de la fábrica. Juanita y Leora, representando sus países, llevan fl ores al Presidente de la República. Un evento inesperado casi hecha a perder el día.
El Secreto de las Ruinas Tarascas
“En el transcurso de mi vida no he tenido en mis manos otros libros diseñados para niños que les hablen de las tradiciones Mexicanas y que al mismo tiempo tengan misterio combinado con aventuras como es la colección de cuatro libros hasta el momento de La Pandilla de Palo Alto. Mis hijos de diferentes edades; desde 9 hasta 16, se han interesado en ellos. Han leído los cuatro y están esperando la continuación.”
Patricia Ortiz
School Administrador, Administrador de Colegio
En éste 3˚ libro de la serie de Aventuras Palo Alto, Carlos descubre el secreto del río subterráneo en un viaje peligroso dentro del túnnel de la cascada.
La tía abuela de Rafael y Elena les cuenta un secreto familiar que ha sido guardado durante más de 60 años y hubiera unido más a la familia de Juanita con los Palma, dueños de la histórica Haciendam Palo Alto.
Gertrudis, la vieja concinera de la familia, les cuenta de sus aventuras durante la Revolución, ¡incluyendo cuando se enfrentó a un pelotón de fusilamiento! Mientras que la compañía de televisión está filmándolos otra vez “descubriendo” la caverna del Tesoro, Leora, Juanita, Luisito, Pedro y Rafael hacen otro descubrimiento que sacude al mundo arqueológico.
Juanita observa a su primo Manuel, montando a Lucifer, colocarse en el equipo Olímpico Mexicano donde su hermano Rogelio con Azar estaba en ler lugar. Juanita y sus primos se divierten en el gran baile del Jockey Club y al dia siguiente sucede una tragedia.
Un arqueólogo famoso llega de la frontera Ciudad Juárez/El Paso para supervisar el descubrimiento y sus hijos, Nicolás y Mariana, se juntan con los amigos de Palo Alto. Un segundo desastre les cae y una serie de eventos sorpresivos descubre el misterio antiguo entre las dos familias.
The Misterio Monarca
En este 4º libro de la serie de Aventuras Palo Alto, Juanita y Leora montan en una escaramuza; el baile a galope que las amazonas hacen durante las charreadas mexicanas. Tres jovencitas resentidas hacen que las prácticas sean muy peligrosas. Carlos y Elena empiezan un movimiento ecologista en su universidad y se tropiezan con peligrosos talamontes ilegales en el santuario de las mariposas monarcas. Carlos arriesga su vida para salvar a Elena. Las habilidades artesanales de Pedro producen una pista importante. El campamento ecuestre de verano tuvo un gran éxito y el grupo visita muchos lugares interesantes alrededor del Estado de Michoacán.
Diez Caballos y un Pony
En este, el quinto libro en la serie de Aventuras de Palo Alto, la emoción que sienten los amigos sobre el adelanto en la planeación y progreso de las empresas de Palo Alto S.A. de C.V. con las expectativas mundiales sobre la abertura del parte sellada de la túnel Tarasco, están obscurecidas por los candados sobrepuesto a Juanita por su padrastro y su abogado. El mover del ídolo que protegía el túnel y la abertura de la tumba, descubriendo sus tesoros, sobrepasa todas las expectativas.
Cuando los amigos están invitados a montar en el desfile del 16 de septiembre en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Juanita y Pedro hacen su primer viaje a los Estados Unidos de América visitando el rancho del abuelo de Nicolás en Santa Fe, Nuevo México, donde se llevará a cabo parte del entrenamiento de los caballos. El último secreto antiguo del Hacienda Palo Alto se descubre en el rancho.
Una boda doble de lujo en la Hacienda ya reconstruida ayuda a Juanita descubrir que todos sus sueños se han hecho realidad.
El Dorado
Three years have passed since that magical year when the young Palo Alto friends found the tunnel under the Hacienda Palo Alto ruins and discovered the ancient Tarascan tomb in the cavern.
With the money from the lost treasure and from the gold found at the Santa Fe ranch, the Hacienda has been rebuilt and the new world-class equestrian center is rapidly becoming known among equestrians throughout the world. Follow the Palma family, ancestral owners of the Hacienda, who proudly feel that they have restored the family’s importance to the level it had been since the times of the earliest Colonial Spanish Viceroys in Mexico.
The Blount Guide to Reading, Spelling and Pronouncing English
The Blount Guide
A logical phonetic manual for:
1. - Parents and teachers of reading to small children.
2. - Foreigners who wish to pronounce English correctly with instructions in Spanish,
French, Portuguese, Japanese and German.
3. - Spelling teachers.
4. - Writers of books for children who need to know which words are appropriate
for which level reading.
5. - Teachers of children with learning disabilities.
6. - Computer programmers who wish to program their computers to teach reading
and spelling.
Love’s End - And Then
The saga of Leora, Rafael, Juanita and Pedro continues as Ramon’s insane fi xation
and stalking of Leora puts them all in danger. His drug gang has grown into a private
army, terrorizing all of Mexico and especially the victims he captures.
They fly to South America for Manuel and Rafael to compete in the Pan American equestrian events along with millionaire Señor Robles’s son and daughter, Marisol and Sebastian, all trained by Juanita’s Uncle Enrique.
Leora’s terrible accident has left her defenseless and they return to the Robles’s well protected private villa where even those intricate defenses are destroyed by Ramon’s army. His last well planned attack causes Rafael and Manuel to go to extreme measures to save their friends.
CHAPTER 1 RENEWAL
“I’ve told you, Rafael, you must be careful not to work the horses too hard,” Abuelo berated the tall young man on the unusually colored stallion. “Now walk him around very slowly to cool him down.” He looked at the rider and continued, “Walk him down to the waterfall pool, Leora is back and she walked Fiesta down there.”
“Stop! I said walk, not run!”
Rafael obeyed the one voice that had been able to control his impulsive nature, and he nodded to Abuelo, now well into his 80’s.
“Yes,” he said meekly and turned the young horse toward the head of the river. “Come along, Octavio,” he told the trainer on another young horse, “Let’s head off that way.”
The memory of the magical last night they had had together before Leora left for her last year of college and then to India to join her parents caused him to want to dash toward the waterfall to find the only real love he had ever had. They had been inseparable that last summer and during the long two years they had been apart, he never doubted that they were engaged.
His wild energy had led him into many hazardous sports and he had excelled in motorcycle racing, hang-gliding, fighting bulls on his black Spanish stallions, as well as collecting a room full of show jumping trophies from his ability to take his horses at break-neck speed over difficult obstacles in jump-offs. His love of horses had been the one stable part of those years and Abuelo and his son, Enrique, had managed to polish him into a very successful rider.
. . . He scrambled down the first zigzag of the steep path and stopped suddenly, feeling as though a bolt of lightning had electrified his entire body.
Hugging the neck of the golden Palomino, her long dark-red hair combining with the white mane, Leora stood in a bright ray of sunshine, causing him to feel like he was trapped in a picture that would last forever. He stood for a long moment, his heart pounding and without breathing, intensely aware that his wild exploits had been a way of searching for something that he had lost and in that moment found again. He started down again when a movement in the tree over the girl caused him to shout in fear, “Leora! Watch out, DIVE!”
Silversuit III
CHAPTER 10: THE CONCLAVE
“Quickly! Open the frame, Mistress L’ora,” the voice commanded, waking the two bodies still wrapped in sleep. They looked at each other, what had wakened them so long before dawn? They slipped out of the bed frame, L’ora trying to dress in yesterday’s finery while Scott picked her up and ran to a corner, placing her behind him and standing before her in an aggressive stance.
Before they could even question the voice, the wall lit up with the shadows of a caped and hooded group of men filling up the hall outside the frame. Their tall wooden staves with thin strands flowing from the knobbed tops gave a military appearance to the invading company.
“Stop!” Scott called out, showing his strong silver body in the wallcast that reflected his full-sized hologram among those in the hall.
“Scott, we need to be inside immediately,” Facil Negash said, dropping the intricately woven hood away from his dark face and showing his tall thin body to the wallcast. “The men in this group are the leaders of our Constitutionalist army and we have not been able to convene since Master R’oaks was taken. Jôn has sounded the summons and we are here to confirm the news that the lost has been discovered. Do you truly have it?”
The group of shadowy men murmured in anticipation to their answer. They pressed against the frame, whispering in anxious voices.
“Let us in, don’t keep us out here in suspense.”
It’s dangerous for us to be here.”
"We've come to see if the impossible may be true."
A bent figure was helped forward and he reached out, his soft plated arm thrusting through the frame which, obedient, misted open, letting the group rush in, the frame becoming solid behind them. Before Scott could catch her, L’ora rushed out from behind him and palmed off the alarm before the first wail started.
She whirled to look at the men that packed the large room, surprised at their reactions.
“It’s the Mistress come back to lead us!”
“The red hair. . . the red hair, it’s uncut.”
She is beautiful like the Mistress was.”
“Lovely vision; help us to free our wives and families.”
“She is our beautiful secret weapon.”
“It’s a miracle of which only the Earth Mother is capable.”
“Don’t exaggerate, but there is no doubt that she is of the Mistress’ blood.” The bent figure with the master wrist plate stepped toward L’ora, Scott’s strong figure preventing him from getting too close. His voice croaked with age, “Are you the daughter of Leonardo Robles, known as Lee R’oaks? Son of Carlos Robles, son of Manuel Robles, son of Sebastian Robles II and Eleanor Palma, youngest daughter of the Mistress and the Saviour?”
“Yes,” said L’ora, clinging to Scott’s arm; his strength running through her nerves. Surprised that her inquirer should know of her ancestors, she began to understand why her father and grandfather had made her learn the branches of her family tree.
The bent figure turned to Scott. “A Silversuiter here beside the inheritor of our vanished leaders? How did this amazing occurrence happen?”
We’re Bonded,” said L’ora looking up at him with pride, “Scott is of the Hunter Clan and is one of us. You can check his DNA.”
“Master,” Scott said, bowing his head, “I was the protégée of Silversuit Master First. You must have known him as he also wore a master wrist control. But. . . you are not a Silversuiter.”
“No,” the ancient spokesman replied, “I am Nicolas II and was at the very birth of the Silver ones when we were helping the teachers to form armed groups and escape to save the children. Look!” He held out his wrinkled hand to show the silver tendrils that threaded across his hands and covered the faint networks of blood that coursed just under his parchment skin. “Silversuit Master First became the first true Silversuiter and we have kept in touch throughout his century.“ He reached out and took Scott’s hand. ”You have his control and that means that he is no longer with us.” His face reflected his pain and he sighed, “I saw the Hero Teachers evolve into respected rulers and, as the bacteria decimated the world’s population, into dictators and finally into controllers of the intellectual development of the surviving children of the world. We have been hunted down and there are few of us in any one place now as we’re spread among the populated ice cities. Many of the younglings have never learned anything of real human history. The great libraries of the world remain lost in the abandoned cities in the warm areas of the world and the few undeleted information clouds are controlled directly by the very few allowed under the Master Teacher's dictates.”
Scott looked through the group that milled around the room. Most of them were older with few young faces among them. “What do you want us to do?” he asked, looking at the hopeful faces before them.
“First, assure us that you actually do have a copy of the original Constitution.” a younger man answered, saying the word with great veneration
“Wait here,” Scott told them. Taking Lee by the hand they walked through the doorframe and crossed the icy corridor into her tiny room. They turned to her bed frame; both thinking how cold her room was compared to the room across the hall marked "Storage."
Scott rescued the priceless booklet from the floor while L’ora picked up Cato and snuggled him into her soft wool cape. She unhooked her carrysak from the CHAR and hung it on her shoulder
They returned to the much larger room, finding the amazed group inspecting the furnishings of the room and its complicated electronic devices, still glowing with power unlike any they had ever seen.
"Behold!" said Scott, holding up the thin book innocently covered in cheap brown paper with childish scrawls covering up the title: Laws. He folded back the brown paper and disclosed the original booklet where letters printed in bright red and white colors read, "Our Constitution - 1787."
A collected sigh spread through the group and several called out, "read it."
Scott stood up, his height enabling him to look over the group. He carefully opened the book and L'ora pointed to the CG-glass. She touched parts of the controls and indicated to Scotty to lay the book on the special glass. As he did so the images and text of the first two opened pages appeared across the wallcast with the first line in large bold letters.
With reverent tones all started reading the hallowed words:
We the People . . . "“We the people --- in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution . . .”
