El Dorado: A Palo Alto Adventure

By B. Palma

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. (Narrated in the first five books of the Palo Alto adventure series. www.paloalto-bilingual-adventures.com.)
With the money from the lost treasure and from the gold found at the Santa Fe, NM, ranch, the Hacienda has been rebuilt and the new world-class equestrian center is rapidly becoming known among equestrians throughout the world.
The Palma family, ancestral owners of the Hacienda, proudly feel that they have restored the familys importance to the level it had since the times of the earliest Colonial Spanish Viceroys in Mexico.
The four friends have separated; Juanita Reyes and Leora Hunter have just finished their first year of High School; Juanita in Morelia, Michoacn and Leora in Virginia. Rafael Palma and Pedro Hernandez are graduating from different High Schools in Mexico City.
The horses are thriving and El Dorado, Juanitas favorite, has grown from the tiny foal she found into a magnificent Spanish stallion,

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781463431099

B. Palma

Beverley Blount lives in Mexico City and El Paso,Texas, where she has completed 30 years of training Montessori teachers in her schools. She is now consulting in schools in Mexico and the United States.     Under her pen name, B. Palma, she has written seven bilingual books for young adults, weaving her husband’s tales of growing up on his family’s haciendas with her own adventurous teens in the Mexican countryside.     Silversuit III is her first Science Fiction adventure book and Silversuit I and II will soon follow.     Blount had an eight page article published in the award winning centennial issue of the Montessori Life journal and two lead articles in The Kappan, the ADK International Teacher’s Organization’s biannual journal.     In 2008, the Mexican National Circle of Reporters awarded her their Golden Sun statuette for special educational merit.     In November 2013, her book El Dorado was awarded the “Worthy of Being Called “Excellent” Book Award 2013.         Her life’s work THE BLOUNT GUIDE TO READING, SPELLING AND PRONOUNCING ENGLISH, 2ND EDITION, is being used in schools in Mexico City and the United States.

Book preview

Contents

The Palo Alto Adventures

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S OBJECTIVE:

MY CONCLUSIONS:

The Palo Alto Series/

La Serie Palo Alto

The Treasure of

the Haunted Hacienda

Lucifer

Other Palo Alto Adventure Books by B. Palma:

P R O L O G U E

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

PART TWO

JUANITA AND PEDRO

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Palo Alto Adventures

Children’s books series

The Palo Alto Adventures Series is a bilingual quintology of children’s adventure stories written by a great story teller, Ms. B. Palma, who clearly wrote her books with three main subjects in mind: her deep compassion for animals, her genuine concern for the environment and, most of all, her love of family and the important role of women in these families, as nurturers and educators of all ages. Her emphasis is on guiding and enlightening the young for a better future while striving to save Mother Earth and its rich heritage and environment.

In her fascinating stories, Ms. Palma grabs the readers’ attention with her loving and expert descriptions of horses. One horse in particular, a horse whose name says it all. I am talking about Lucifer who certainly captures the readers’ heart and imagination, and demonstrates how our actions can really shape the life of behavior of animals who share our planet with us. The author uses the same idea when she describes so eloquently and romantically the lives of the Monarch butterflies, their habitat, their migrations as well as the way to protect these delicate most adorable creatures that provide us with so much pleasure and beauty

Many of us may not know about horses, but I have not known one child, including myself as a youngster, who is not fascinated by butterflies. Ms. Palma exploits her vast experience in horseback riding, as well as her excursions in the Mexican rural environment and Mexican history to accent the importance of protecting both environmental and historical sites in general, and her adoptive country Mexico in particular.

At the surface. The five Palo Alto Adventure books seem to have no common thread in style except for being eclectic. Nevertheless, if we go deeper in our reading, we discover that they an are joined by the author’s —Ms. Palma’s deep insights about human nature and the accenting of commonalities among cultures, rather than the differences

By choosing horses and youngsters as major characters in her books. I was reminded of the Hispano-Arabic Picaresque stories, whose narrators imparted their political and philosophical views by creating fictional characters and their animals who could appeal to readers of all ages, without bluntly criticizing those in power for their misuse and/or abuse of both environment and people.

For comic relief, some Shakespearian influences (with a twist) appear in the characters of the car dealer, the TV producer and the Lawyer—witness: Shylock in the Merchant of Venice. Here too, the insertion of these characters seems to be a Picaresque reminder that the high and mighty, though not immoral, the ends they serve are their own only!

The transitions in the daily adventures of Juanita, her cousins, her friends and horses are captivating, and so reminiscent of the Arabian Nights stories, which always makes one wait impatiently for the next night’s surprising tales, never ending till the Thousand’s Night is over… peacefully and triumphantly!

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S OBJECTIVE:

Perhaps due to my own personal background, the more I read into the series, the more I sensed the author’s personal feelings of pain due to present day conflicts in America about helping their Mexican neighbors to realize their potential in life in their own rich land rather than lending them a hand (through an equal partnership of cooperation), thus encouraging their talents and not exploiting their labor and dealing with them from a top dog position. The last book in the series, Ten Horses and a Pony clearly demonstrates Ms. Palma’s optimistic vision of such a fruitful cooperation.

This is basically why these narratives reminded me of the Hispano-Arabic Picaresque stories written by Arab intellectuals with the decline of the Andalusian Empire eight hundred years ago, who questioned the reasons for the decline—intellectuals such as Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Battuta (who traveled the world, and led the way to Marco Polo), and underground Picaresque novelists, such as AJ-Saragusti (Andalusian Prince from Saragusta, Spain) who wrote stories which are believed to be the precursors to the Spanish Picaresque novels. I would particularly make reference to the most important of Spanish Picaresque novel Don Quixote, who was shocked by the corrupt ways of his times. I am a strong believer that Cervantes, the author of the novel, was influenced by the Arabic Picaresque stories while he was detained by the Turks for five years between 1575 and 1580

MY CONCLUSIONS:

Les bons esprits se rencontrent, the French say, and I say that the good mind behind the Palo Alto Adventures is a meeting of minds with all the philosophers and humanists since thousands of years. I truly believe that in her Palo Alto Adventure books, we are presented with a unique new kind of a modern-day Picaresque novelist, and a 21st Century Scheherazade.

I loved the entire series. Ms. B. Palma is a story teller par excellence. I was entertained, informed and captivated and was sorry only when my books ended so quickly. I feel thirsty for more of these wonderful tales!

SEHAM OBEGI

May 10th, 2011

The Palo Alto Series/

La Serie Palo Alto

Ms. Palma lovingly fulfills an important niche in children’s adventure storytelling with her bi-lingual Palo Alto Adventure Series. Her characters come alive in mysterious and wondrous ways within the rich historic context of rural Mexico.

Rodney Heckaman, publisher

Our book club, their children and grandchildren were enthralled by the Palo Alto adventures. Good tales for young readers.

Susan Cuevas, ESL teacher, Mexico City

I finished all of your EXCELLENT books. Thank you… . I can’t wait for the next one!!

Joy Cardinal, Keller, Texas

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 modernas 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

The Treasure of

the Haunted Hacienda

 . . . clever, useful, timely, and a good read.

Sharon Aguilar,

Spanish Teacher, Eatonville, Washington, USA

I like the book because it is entertaining, mysterious and fun. The characters are great and I like that they like to ride the horses.

Carlos Eduardo García Diez,

Age12, 6th grade, Estado de México

I liked it because it was fun and had a mystery and problems.

Detlev Carstensen Benavides, Age 12, 6th grade,

I liked it a lot but wanted the tunnel to really go into the past.

Nicholas Calvo, Age 9, El Paso, Texas

Lucifer

Great fun! A good read as well as educational and interesting.

Director English Department,

Colegio Christa McAuliffe, Montessori, México

The Monarch Mistery was my favorite.

Rafael L. E.

Other Palo Alto Adventure Books by B. Palma:

The Treasure of the Haunted Hacienda

Lucifer

The Secret of the Tarascan Ruins

The Monarch Mystery

10 Horses and a Pony

El Dorado

Love’s end

And Then

Otros Libros de Aventuras de

Palo Alto de B. Palma:

El Tesoro De La Hacienda Embrujada

Lucifer

El Secreto de las Ruinas Tarascas

El Misterio Monarca

10 Caballos y un Pony

To El Dorado and Rudolph, two Palominos that for many years filled their young riders’ hearts with pleasure and their lives with adventure.

Hda%20Palo%20Alto%201740%20copy.jpg

Hacienda Palo Alto circa 1740

P R O L O G U E

Three years have passed since that magical year when the young Palo Alto friends found the tunnel under the Hacienda Palo Alto