Mt. St. Helens and the Secret of the Bar-Roo Forest

By Fran Curtin Gieseke and Cheryl Rose Pelkey

Come with me,

to the Bar-Roo Trees.

A place which may-

Or may not be.

Meant for just your eyes to see

and live within your memory.

There are seven Bar-Roo Forests on Earth, two are in the state of Washington, on Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. Mana planted them all. He came from the planet Anon, a planet of volcanoes. Mana was the hope of his world. His quest was to find a new home for the Hibble Gibbles, a race of creatures very friendly and hairy with feet that are at least 2 feet long. Manas favorite forest was the one on Mt. St. Helens. This is where he chose to live his Earth life. There is great magic in the Bar-Roo Forest, everyone speaks the same language. Much of the magic is more of a feeling that the trees are listening to everything. Share the adventure of the Hibble Gibbles as they find a new home, outsmart their enemies the Giant Termites, face the eruption of Mt. St. Helens and f

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 18, 2004
• ISBN: 9781481723060

Fran Curtin Gieseke

Fran Curtin Gieseke was raised in a small town in southwest Washington where she discovered a passion and respect for nature. She was able to merge fact and fiction following the events of May 18, 1980, and create a new world of nature and fantasy. In this, her first in a series of books for children, she takes the reader on a grand adventure in a beautiful place. Fran wants to show children the magic that can live in the natural world and the trials that the Earth presents us with. Fran currently lives in Tacoma and Morton, Washington with her husband of 33 years. She has two daughters and two grandchildren. Fran looks forward to the completion and publication of this series.

Book preview

Contents

Preface

Chapter One Wild Hazelnuts and Birthday Cake

Chapter Two Finding the New Bar-Roo Forest

Chapter Three Best Enemies

Chapter Four A Trick for Sourgum

Chapter Five A Narrow Escape - A Sad Good-Bye

Chapter Six A Meeting with a Stranger

Preface

The forest that was nearest Mt. St. Helens was a place rarely visited by humans. Only in the ancient days when the native Indian tribes inhabited the old growth forests did man ever set foot there. The Indians called it owadne puanbe, or forest of magic, and Mana, the creature that lived there, would only leave his forest when the local Chief would personally visit him and assure him of a safe journey to attend an Indian celebration. Mana was a creature that had great wisdom and knowledge. He also knew secrets that he would only share with chosen ones. If you were worthy of his teaching, there would be nothing that you would not know.

Mana knew this forest of magic by another name -the Bar-Roo Forest. This name came from his homeland far, far away on the planet Anon and the country of Mulo-doo. It was a planet made of mountains that were also volcanoes. There were lots of these forests between the mountains of Mulo-doo and living in these forests were creatures called Hibble Gibbles.

These creatures were very hairy and very short (about 3 to 4 feet tall). One of the most interesting features about them were their huge feet, which aided their ability to get to their homes in the tops of the Bar-Roo trees. After they settled on Earth their feet also helped keep humans away. This was done by stacking two Hibble Gibbles on each other’s shoulders, thus making their appearance look much larger than they were. They found they could run through the Big Fir Forests when they had to and nearly everything would run the other direction. Tootenpau, an Indian chief, had told Mana long ago that the humans called them Bigfoot, and the Hibble Gibbles carried much power to make the humans so afraid.

Mana had come to Earth when the wise ones had realized that all of Anon’s volcanoes were going to erupt at once. With the planet exploding, there would be no place for them to live. Mana had been the best student in the Trees of Higher Learning. He had achieved the mark of great wisdom at a mere 100 Earth years, when normally a Hibble Gibble had to wait until at least 250 before their hair would start turning Bar-Roo green. So he was sent to find a new home for a handful of their race of beings. That was how the seven Bar-Roo Forests were planted. Mana was the only one to know exactly where they were. His favorite one was the Mt. St. Helens Bar-Roo Forest, and that is where he had chosen to live his Earth life until 1980. That is where our story really begins.

01_Peppercorn%20and%20Sqeaky.jpg

Chapter One

Wild Hazelnuts and Birthday Cake

Peppercorn and Squeeky sat high atop their Bar-Roo tree on a bright March day looking like the saddest little Hibble Gibbles on Earth, sadder than a frog without a lily pad, sadder than a cricket in a snowstorm. The reason for this was because they were living right next to a volcano, a volcano that was about to erupt. They knew this was true, for Mana, their leader, had told them so. Soon they would have to leave their Bar-Roo Forest. The thought of moving was scary for this had been the only home they had ever known.

I don’t want to think about it anymore today, Squeeky said as he hung from one of the branches of the Bar-Roo