 | Alex Chapman Eight-year-old Alex Chapman is the middle child. Of all the kids in the family, he is the funniest. If they hadn't moved to Virginia, Alex was going to be goalie of his soccer team. He wants to be a driver of monster trucks when he grows up. Despite his rowdy, all-boy-like self, Alex has a quiet side. He reads about dinosaurs and rocks and rain forests and tornadoes. He longs for adventure. Most of all, he wonders about the possibility of magic. When they moved from Maryland, Alex missed his friends, the computer club, and his soccer team. What will he do in Virginia? No kids for miles around, it seems. No soccer. No other kids. Will he die of boredom? But the Gray Horse Inn is interesting. Full of rooms that need exploring, surrounded by woods, an abandoned garden, a creek, and Wildcat mountain. Alex is drawn to the tower room with its tall windows. It is he who first discovers the spyglass in an old dresser in the tower room. When he picks it up, it feels warm to his touch. Mattie tells him he's nuts. But Alex wonders. |
