This new notebook belongs to Josh. Hands off if you are not Josh. If you ARE Josh, please read on. If you are Alita or Kit, you can read over my shoulder if you like but no adding anything. And if you are Kit, no getting dirt on this book. It's new! Dear Future Josh, You will probably have many exciting things happen to you in the future, where you live, so here are a few notes to help you remember the exciting things that have already happened. By the way, are you running the country yet? Did you stop global warming? Are you a famous writer? I can't wait to get to the future to find out! Here's what's happened recently. At the beginning of the summer, our friend Kit discovered that she's a wizard--the youngest one in the world as far as I know, and I know a lot. Alita and I discovered that we aren't wizards yet (boo), but we did help to save the world (yay). Here are some other important facts you need to know about wizards and our summer so far . . . Wizards are real, but they don't all have long white beards or pointy hats. They DO have cloaks, though, and our local wizard, Faith Braithwaite, wears a lot of dangly star earrings and very bright lipstick. Every wizard has a second job: running a library. This is because underneath every library sleeps a dragon. If that dragon wakes up, terrible things happen. So when a librarian tells you to shush in a library, it's to save the world from fire and chaos, not because they're trying to spoil your fun. At the start of the summer, an evil businessman named Hadrian Salt tried to wake the dragon under our library because he wanted to use its power to become a wizard. Kit, Alita, Faith, and I stopped him, using magic, books, and our brains. My brain in particular. Some books in our library are magical, and I'm not allowed to read them out loud unless Faith is there. Book spells are so powerful that the spells can start working even if you're not a wizard. There are other magical books, too, called portal books. You can use them to travel huge distances between libraries. Portal books are also really fun because it's like you're inside the book. For example, there's one that's a book about gardening and you get to walk through all these beautiful gardens. The ones with dangerous animals and monsters in them aren't as fun, though. Beneath the library is a forest that we like to call the Book Wood. It's also known as the stacks, and it's where all the really magical books are kept. Over time, some of those books turned back into trees, and their pages turned into trunks and leaves, covered in spells. I am DEFINITELY not allowed to read the spells on the book trees. They're some of the most powerful spells in existence, and apparently I might blow myself up. Kit's not allowed to read them yet, either. I think that's it. Oh, wait, no. I haven't said anything about the dragon who sleeps under our library! She's called Draca, and it's part of our job to read to her--it helps her stay asleep and makes sure her dreams are full of stories. Me and Alita have been helping Kit train to become a wizard. Faith is teaching her because Kit is too young to go to the Wizard Academy. Kit's getting better at magic, but she still makes a lot of mistakes. She also doesn't like reading, so it's up to me and Alita to learn all about how magic works so we can tell her when she's wrong. Josh out! PS: Josh forgot to add that there's a half dragon, half dog named Dogon who lives in the library. Dogon is the sweetest little creature that ever lived. He breathes the cutest fire. Also, it's mostly Josh who's always telling Kit she's wrong. Alita xxx I TOLD YOU NO ADDING ANYTHING, ALITA! AND I DON'T ALWAYS TELL KIT SHE'S WRONG--ONLY WHEN SHE IS WRONG! PPS Come on, guys, you've been riting in this notebook for practically HOURS. Let's go and do something fun. This is summer, not skool! Kit KIT, THIS IS MY BOOK. STOP WRITING IN IT! YOU DON'T EVEN LIKE WRITING! YOU DIDN'T EVEN SPELL "WRITING" RIGHT! AND WE CAN GO OUTSIDE WHEN I AM DONE. OK. I AM DONE. Josh out again, with this notebook going in a SAFE place this time. Excerpted from The Monster in the Lake by Louie Stowell All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.