How the collapse of the Aztec kingdom was predicted by a young boy with skills as a soothsayer makes a strong story, rich in historical detail. Chantico has the gift of prophecy and when he sees the strange comet in the sky he dreams of the future of the great Moctezuma’s kingdom. But how can a young boy tell his story to the king and will he be believed?
A thrilling and funny tale based on the time before the Aztec kingdom was destroyed. Chantico is a young boy who has the gift of second sight. But can he master these skills effectively and come up with a cunning plan to save his Uncle who has been thrown in prison by King Montezuma for failing to explain a fiery comet appearing in the sky? P
Published to tie-in with the British Museum’s high-profile exhibition on Montezuma. The Comet of Doom is the perfect introductory book to the Aztec world and the extraordinary life of Montezuma.
One dawn, a fiery comet appears over the city. The Great Emperor Montezuma commands Chantico's uncle, the soothsayer, Ahcambal, to explain the meaning of it. When Ahcambal cannot come up with an answer, he is thrown into prison to be executed. What can Chantico do to save his uncle? Luckily, Chantico is not an ordinary boy - he has the gift of second sight. He uses his own skills to come up with a cunnning plan to save his uncle. But can he do it in time?
I was born in Canada and grew up in a log cabin in Quebec. My childhood was spent playing in the forests and messing about on the Gatineau River. It was a wonderful wild time and in many ways is the source of all of my writing. Children's writers are an eccentric bunch. Someone once said they never grow up and in many ways, this is probably true in my case. I write books for children from five to fifteen years old. The ability to recall how you felt and what your world was like at a particular point in your childhood is something that all children's writers share. It's like pushing a rewind switch and going back in time. Many of my natural history books for children, like THINK OF AN EEL, which won awards on both sides of the Atlantic, IMAGINE YOU ARE A TIGER, or I AM A TYRANNOSAURUS REX all reflect my own sense of wonder exploring the woods and the river around me when I was a child. Years later, I wrote about this childhood in my first novel RASPBERRIES ON THE YANGTZE, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize.
