Shelley Thomas - The Seven Tales of Trinket

The Storyteller and the Truth. A year and a day is a magical unit of time. Some legends hold that marriages can be dissolved after a year and a day or that perhaps the dead can return in special circumstances, but only for this length of time.

As with all tales, the true meaning of each story is for the listener to determine. And though I enjoy researching folktales, I do not claim to be a folklorist. Just a simple storyteller with a desire to pass along the magic of stories, hoping they’ll reside in your hearts and minds for more than just a year and a day.

Above all else, two very extraordinary people are responsible for Trinket getting the opportunity to tell her tales. Joanna Stamfel-Volpe, my amazing agent, who e-mailed me before she was even done reading the story to let me know how much she was enjoying it and how beautiful she found it. That e-mail changed everything for me. And Beth Potter, my brilliant editor, who loved the story as much as I did and helped me weave the words even more tightly so that they would hold together, true and strong.

Thank you to teachers/writers Nancy Villalobos and Chris Kopp, who read each of Trinket’s tales, one by one, as I slowly finished them, and always seemed eager to read another. And faraway thanks to friends Holly Pence and Kathy Duddy, whose long-distance support is worth more to me than a thousand gold coins.

I could not be more pleased with the work done by the copy editors, the art directors, the amazing Dan Craig, and everyone at FSG Macmillan. I appreciate you so much.

Special thanks to my parents, John and Nancy Moore, and the rest of my wonderful family in New Mexico: John Moore III, Tammi Moore, Hope Moore, Jacob Moore, Jim Daniels, Elora Daniels, and Mia Daniels. My sister, Susan Moore Daniels, plays the harp so beautifully that I am certain her strumming echoed in my brain as I wrote this book. My nephew John Moore IV composed a hauntingly beautiful version of “Trinket’s Lullaby” that makes me tear up whenever I listen to it. I am not sure what I did to be part of such a wonderful crew, but I am thankful for them.

To the dancers of the Comerford Irish Dance School and their director, Tony Comerford: thank you for several years of amazing rhythms and the inspiration I’ve gained from watching your feet fly.

To the students and staff of Jefferson Elementary: every day you give me hope for the future of our world. And, kids, I never get tired of you asking for more stories. Never.

And finally, to my husband, Sean: you put up with a lot while I was working on this book and it is only because of your support that I was able to finish it at all. And to my beautiful daughters, Noel, Isabelle, and Caledonia: you are my muses. My stories are always for you, first and foremost. So is my advice: never be afraid to live your dreams and tell your tales. I love you.

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Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers

175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010

Text copyright © 2012 by Shelley Moore Thomas

Pictures copyright © 2012 by Daniel Craig

All rights reserved

First hardcover edition, 2012

eBook edition, September 2012

mackids.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Thomas, Shelley Moore.

The seven tales of Trinket / Shelley Moore Thomas. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: “Guided by a tattered map, accompanied by Thomas the Pig Boy, and inspired by the storyteller’s blood that thrums through her veins, eleven-year-old Trinket searches for the seven stories she needs to become a bard like her father, who disappeared years before.”—Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-374-36745-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-374-36744-2 (e-book)

[1. Storytellers—Fiction. 2. Fantasy.] I. Title.

PZ7.T369453Se 2012

[Fic]—dc23

2011050075

eISBN 9780374367442