The House of Secrets by Iconick

Ilustrations and story by Troll Squad

Colophon ‘’The House of Secrets’’ is made by six first year students, under the name TROLL SQUAD, from the IMEM course of NHTV. This children’s book is specifically made for children from 6 to 9 years old. This book is interesting for these children because of its unique and adventurous story. The children are also learning the basics of healthy food and how to prepare this properly. After all it’s an exciting and delicious story which the children will love to read!

Images: Storyline:

Text: Character design: Book design:

Created in Adobe Illustrator by Chrisje Sieben Created by Nick Pijler, Mats Pilger, Elise van Poppel, Anna Schuitema, Chrisje Sieben & Rachel Sommers Written by Rachel Sommers Created in Adobe Illustrator by Chrisje Sieben Created in Adobe InDesign by Nick Pijler

Prologue This story is about three little children who have known each other their whole lives. They always do everything together. In this book they will experience all kinds of adventures to save each other. Will everything be fine? Continue Reading and you will find out!

Table of content Chapter 1: Going on Adventure

01 - 06

Chapter 2: The Mysterious House

07 - 14

Chapter 3: Behind the Door

15 - 22

Chapter 4: Adding Flavour

23 - 30

Chapter 5: Mister Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Favourite Snack

31 - 36

Chapter 6: Attempt to Rescue

37 - 42

Recipe

43 - 44

Chapter 1

Going on Adventure On a sunny day, Anna, Jamie and Charlie decide to go and play tag in the woods. After school, they often play games there, since it is close to their houses. It is spring, so the forest is full of plants and animals and it looks greener than ever. Anna wants to tag Charlie, but he runs away from her. While running, they get further and further into the forest. Jamie says: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Wait, do you see those signs over there?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Right in front of them, there are seven yellow and black signs with exclamation marks and a text which is still unreadable from that distance. They decide to walk into the direction of the signs to see what sort of signs it are.

One of the signs reads ‘WARNING, DO NOT TRESPASS’. ‘Oh, apparently this area is dangerous! This sounds exciting’, Anna says. Jamie notices that Charlie and Anna continue walking into the direction of the signs. ‘Guys, I think that we should go back... These warnings are probably there for a reason.’ Anna reacts and says: ‘Pffff Jamie, don’t act so nervous! It will be fun!’ Charlie agrees with Anna and notices that this part of the forest looks much darker. Both of them become curious, look around and try to explore the area. ‘Wow, there is a cool and mysterious house over there! Can you see it? It’s right over there, in between those two big old trees. We should go and take a look!’ Anna and Charlie are becoming more and more excited, while Jamie is hesitating. 03

WARNING

DANGER ZONE

WARNING!

DO NOT TRESPASS

STOP DANGER

! 04

Anna and Charlie start to walk towards the house. Jamie sees this and becomes even more uncomfortable. ‘Wait for me! I don’t want to be left alone’, Jamie screams. Anna and Charlie keep on walking and Jamie decides to go after them. When they walk further into the woods, they notice that the grass is getting dryer and dryer, the trees have lost their leaves and there are no animals around. Jamie gets more suspicious, but he doesn’t want to be seen as a coward, so he follows Charlie and Anna. While walking closer towards the house, they see that the sun has almost disappeared and it is becoming twilight. Because of this, the sun leaves a mysterious glow over the outside of the big, old house. 05

All of a sudden, they hear a strange noise behind them. Jamie, Anna and Charlie all jump up, since they did not expect to hear anything. They look around them, but there is no one around. No animal, no person… Once they have recovered from the little shock, they start to focus on the old mansion again. The house looks abandoned and Charlie and Anna start to become even more enthusiastic. Anna eagerly mentions: ‘I want to know what it looks like inside! Shall we go in?’ All three of them stare at the old, big, wooden door and wonder what can be found on the other side. Charlie nods and is clearly thrilled about the idea. However, they are all too scared to open the door. They decide to open it together. ‘Okay, we’ll open the door at the count of three. One… Two… Three!’ The door creaks loudly, which makes Jamie even more nervous. 06

Chapter 2

The Mysterious House Once the door is open, they stare into an old, empty hallway. Thrilled about what’s in front of them, they enter the house. They walk through the hallway and are astonished by what they see. It’s very dark inside and the floor looks very dirty. There are leaves on the floor and stains of mud are visible on the walls. While Jamie and Charlie are exploring the hallway, Anna says: ‘Look at that enormous staircase!’ ‘It is huge! Where would it lead to’, Jamie asks. Suddenly, they hear a rumbling sound. Their bodies freeze and start to shiver. Due to the darkness, they can’t see the top of the staircase. They hear footsteps and notice that the sound is coming closer.

All of a sudden, they hear an angry voice and they see that three creatures are walking down the stairs. When the creatures are walking downstairs into the light, more and more details become visible. They are trolls! One of the trolls has a very big nose, which makes Charlie laugh. Jamie immediately nudges Charlie to make him stop laughing. Anna, Charlie and Jamie now see a troll with a big nose, a very hairy troll and a tiny troll right in front of them. The trolls look very frustrated.

‘What are you doing here? Get out’, the hairy troll screams. Another troll, which is a bit more calm, asks: ‘Who are you?’ The three children are scared and look at each other. Eventually Anna answers: ‘We are Anna, Charlie and Jamie. We noticed the house and were curious what it would look like inside.’ The big-nosed troll says: ‘So you think that you can just walk into someone’s house and disturb them?’ ‘They should be punished! Luckily, we haven’t eaten in a while’, the hairy troll mentions. Anna, Jamie and Charlie become even more scared and run away. They run towards one of the doors in the hallway, but it is locked. Jamie finds an unlocked door and opens it. However, Anna and Charlie think that Jamie is still following them and they escape through another door. They notice that Jamie is not near them anymore and decide to sneak back and look for him.

Anna whispers to Charlie: ‘Do you also hear that noise?’ ‘Yes, I do! Let’s see where it comes from. Maybe it can lead us back to Jamie’, Charlie answers. They follow the sound and hear a scratching sound when they come closer to the source of the sound. They open the door a little bit, so that the trolls won’t notice it. Charlie and Anna are horrified by what they see. The trolls are putting Jamie into an iron cage.

Jamie is struggling and tries to escape, but the trolls are too strong. Anna and Charlie hear him scream: ‘Let me go! Why are you doing this?’ The tiny troll answers: ‘It’s your own fault, you shouldn’t have disturbed us!’ Jamie shouts Anna’s and Charlie’s names, but they cannot react, because they don’t want the trolls to find out that they are still inside the house. Then, they suddenly hear someone sobbing. ‘That must be Jamie’, Anna whispers shocked to Charlie, ‘and We have to come up with a plan to rescue him.’ Anna answers: ‘Yes! But how can we do that?’ Suddenly, they hear footsteps coming towards them. The sound scares them and they start running away. Anna and Charlie rush down the stairs. 12

They try to open one of the doors, but it is locked. Charlie tries to open the door next to it, but that one is also closed. ‘Oh no, what should we do now?’ Charlie responds: ‘Just try every door! We have to get out of here!’ They run towards the end of the corridor and see that it is a dead end. The hairy troll is hurrying towards them in order to catch them. They keep on trying to open doors, while they hear the footsteps coming closer and closer. ‘YES! This one is open’ Anna says. Without even hesitating, they quickly go through the door. 13

Chapter 3 Behind the Door

When they open the door, it seems like they enter an entirely different world. Anna says: ‘Wooow, this looks wonderful! The colours are so bright and cheerful.’ ‘Yes, indeed! But we should hurry before the hairy troll finds us’, Charlie mentions. They both stare at a beautiful, crystal clear river. ‘Shall we walk along the river and see where it leads us to? Maybe we can come up with a rescue plan in the meantime’, Anna says. Charlie agrees and they start to walk. The beautiful landscape makes them feel very excited, but they are also worrying about Jamie. ‘Would he be okay? I really feel bad about leaving him behind’, Charlie says to Anna. ‘We need to figure out how we can free him. It will be alright’, Anna replies.

All of a sudden, they see a brown hare that is walking in their direction. The hare is carrying a brown basket and says: ‘Hello my darlings! I am mister Smith! Why do you look so sad?’ Charlie replies: ‘Hi! We are Anna and Charlie. One of our friends, Jamie, is captured by the trolls who live inside the big, old house in the dark side of the forest.’ Mister Smith seems to be very shocked and says ‘But… But how did you guys get there? Didn’t you see all the warning signs?! That area is very dangerous.’ While saying this, he notices that Anna and Charlie become even more nervous. ‘Let me think. There must be a way to rescue your friends from the three trolls’, mister Smith says.

They all think deeply and Charlie eventually mentions ‘Maybe we can distract them? But how can we do that?’ Then, mister Smith’s face suddenly lights up. ‘Eureka! I have an idea! The trolls are all closely watching your friend, right?’ ‘Yes’, Anna and Charlie reply simultaneously. ‘If they are all watching Jamie and cannot leave his cage, then they must be very hungry. Maybe we can cook something for them’, Mister Smith says. Charlie and Anna are both nodding happily. They continue to walk through the fantasy world and look for possible ingredients for a recipe in the meantime. ‘Look over there! There is a tree full of lollipops! Maybe the trolls would like to eat them’, Charlie says enthusiastically.

‘Hmmm, I don’t know. Maybe it’s better to cook something. That would smell much better and then we will be able to distract the troll guards more easily’, Anna says to mister Smith and Charlie. ‘That’s a brilliant idea’, mister Smith replies. All three of them start to look around the area when Charlie mentions ‘Maybe we can make a salad. I can see some lettuce over there, on the right side!’ ‘MmmmMmmm I LOVE LETTUCE!’ mister Smith says. ‘But I don’t think that the smell of a salad will be strong enough to distract the trolls. Shall we continue walking? Maybe we’ll run into some nice ingredients.’ Charlie and Anna both agree.

They walk over several paths and eventually end up at a white river. ‘Look over there, why is the water white’, Anna asks. Mister Smith starts laughing and says that it is not water, but cream. Charlie looks wonderingly at the river and puts his finger in the river. Then, he puts his finger to his mouth and tastes the cream. ‘This is DE-LICIOUS! Maybe we can use it for our meal?’ ‘That’s a great idea’, Anna replies. ‘But what could we possibly cook with cream’, Charlie asks them.

‘We could make a pasta! My mother often uses cream to create the sauce for the pasta’, Anna answers. ‘But we don’t cook together that often, so I don’t know what the other ingredients are...’ ‘I have a great recipe for a pasta! I bet that the trolls will love it’, mister Smith replies. They decide to use mister Smith’s brown basket to collect all the food. Charlie and Anna clearly seem to be very happy that they came up with a plan that may rescue Jamie.

Ingred 20

They take a glass jar out of mister Smith’s basket. Anna leans over to the river and fills the jar with cream for the pasta sauce. Mister Smith says: ‘Perfect, we’ve got the first ingredient! Now we need to find some tomatoes.’ They start to walk along the cream river and hope to run into some nice, red tomatoes. At first, they don’t see any red vegetables. Anna and Charlie start to panic again. ‘What if we won’t be able to find anything? Imagine what could happen to Jamie’, Charlie says. Both children seem to be less cheerful again, but mister Smith tries to keep them positive. He tells them that they should not lose hope or give up that easily. ‘We’ll manage to find everything. I know this landscape! We just need to look around us all the time.’ With this being said, they continue to walk.

‘This is going to take aaaages’, Charlie says. ‘It feels as if we have been walking for three hours straight.’ Anna tries to cheer him up, when Charlie suddenly shouts: ‘Over there! Over there! I see tomato bushes at the other side of the river!’ ‘We need to cross the river, but how can we do that’, Anna asks. Mister Smith tells them that they can use the old tree logs that are laying on the ground to create some kind of a bridge. They put the logs in the low water and are able to walk over them in order to cross the river.

Chapter 4 Adding Flavour

Anna eagerly runs towards the bushes full of tomatoes. ‘Oh no, the bushes are surrounded by roses with thorns. How can we get passed them without stinging ourselves’, Anna asks. Charlie comes up with the plan to take a stick and push the roses with thorns to the side. While he does that, Anna crawls past them and says: ‘The red colour of the tomatoes is so bright and beautiful! I wonder what they taste like!’ ‘There are plenty of tomatoes, you can both take one and taste it. There are a lot of vitamins inside a tomato, so they are really healthy’, mister Smith replies. Anna and Charlie both pick a tomato and taste it. Charlie says: ‘It tastes really nice and is very juicy.’ They pick some tomatoes and put them into the basket.

‘The next ingredient that we need is cheese. It adds more flavour to the pasta’, mister Smith mentions. He explains to them that they have to walk towards the cheese cave in order to fetch some cheese. They stroll down the path, while Anna and Charlie are still astonished by the environment. There are two beautiful birds flying through the sky, while they are chirping a nice and happy melody. Anna, Charlie and mister Smith come nearer and nearer to the cheese cave. Abruptly, they hear a loud growl. They all look shocked at each other. ‘That must be a bear! Let’s check it out. Stay behind me’, mister Smith whispers. They sneak towards the cave and see that there is a big bear sleeping right in front of it. All three of them become a bit nervous and are scared that they will accidentally wake up the bear. They tiptoe around the bear in order to reach the entrance of the cave silently.

When they enter the cheese cave, a bat suddenly flies towards them. It scares them to death, so they scream! Right after that, Anna whispers with a shaking voice: ‘Oh no, I hope that we didn’t wake up the bear.’ She turns around to look at the bear, but luckily, he’s still sleeping. They walk further into the cave when Charlie whispers: ‘Eeeew, this smells so gross.’ Anna and mister Smith start laughing and mister Smith says: ‘Welcome into the CHEESE cave, Charlie!’

They gather some cheese and put it in the basket. ‘Can I ask you something mister Smith’, Anna asks. ‘Yes, of course darling.’ ‘Why is cheese healthy?’ ‘Cheese is full of proteins and other good substances, which are especially good for your bones’, mister Smith answers. ‘Now we should be a bit more quiet again to exit the cave and pass the bear again’, mister Smith states. As soon as they come near the exit of the cave, they hear the snoring bear again. He makes ‘ZzzzzZzzzzz... ZzzzzZzzzz...’ sounds. Very quietly, they exit the cave and walk past the bear.

Ingred ients * Crea

* Tom 29

atoes

* Chee se

Once the bear can’t hear them anymore, Charlie says that all of this searching for food makes him hungry. ‘Maybe we can look for a snack’, mister Smith says. ‘What about those delicious lollipops that we saw a while ago’, Charlie asks eagerly. ‘No no no, there is a lot of sugar inside them! Maybe we’ll find something to snack while looking for the next ingredient.’ Anna and Charlie both agree and they continue to walk. ‘What do we need to look for now’, Anna asks. ‘Hmmm let me see, which ingredients did we get so far’, mister Smith asks. ‘We’ve got cream and tomatoes for the sauce of the pasta’, Charlie responds. Anna adds cheese to the list. Mister Smith asks them: ‘Shall we now go and look for some pasta?’ Anna replies: ‘Yeah sure!’ 30

Chapter 5

Mister Smith's Favorite Snack They continue to walk through the fantasy world in order to find some pasta to rescue Jamie. Anna and Charlie are wondering where to look for pasta, when mister Smith suddenly stops walking. ‘Aha! This is lovely! Are you still hungry, Charlie’, mister Smith says. ‘Yes, I am! Why?’ Mister Smith points his finger at green leaves that are coming out of the ground, with a small orange part between the leaves and the soil. While saying ‘This, my friends, is my favourite snack: A carrot’, he pulls three carrots out of the soil. He washes them in the river and hands one carrot to Anna and one carrot to Charlie.

Anna and Charlie both observe the strange-looking, orange vegetable in their hand. Charlie asks: ‘Why is this your favourite snack, mister Smith?’ ‘Take a bite and you will understand, Charlie’, Mister Smith says while smiling. ‘Besides, it is very good for my eyes.’ Anna looks at the hare in a wondering way and asks: ‘Does it work like a superpower?’ Mister Smith starts laughing and explains to her that it does not work like a superpower, but it can improve someone’s eye health. Charlie hesitates, but eventually takes a bite of the carrot. ‘MmmMmm, it tastes rather sweet! I like it!’

While eating the carrots, they walk into a different part of the fantasy world. Anna, Charlie and mister Smith hear strange sounds and look around them to see where the noises are coming from. They follow the sound until Charlie says: ‘Wow! Look over there, in between the trees! There are at least 7 hairy, brown animals!’ Anna laughs and mentions: ‘You see, Charlie, your eyes have already improved due to the carrot!’ They softly walk towards the brown, hairy creatures. Mister Smith explains to Anna and Charlie that those animals are monkeys. ‘They are climbing in spaghetti vines, which is exactly what we need for our pasta! We have to try to cut off some pieces of spaghetti’, mister Smith says. ‘I am definitely not climbing onto the vines, I am afraid of heights’, Charlie yells anxiously. Anna climbs onto the vines and cuts off some pieces. The monkeys see this and become frustrated, so Anna, Charlie and mister Smith quickly put the spaghetti into the basket and walk away.

‘Perfect! Luckily the monkeys aren’t following us! Do we need any other ingredients mister Smith’, Anna asks. ‘We are almost done! We only need two other ingredients, namely spinach and pine nuts.’ Anna and Charlie clearly seem to be happy that they can try to rescue Jamie anytime soon. They continue walking, while Charlie wonders why they need spinach. Mister Smith replies by saying: ‘Spinach contains some very handy substances for your body, such as iron and calcium!’ All of a sudden, Anna screams: ‘I SEE SPINACH, I SEE SPINACH!’ Right in front of them, there is a spinach tree. Mister Smith lifts Anna up, so that she can pick some spinach leaves. ‘Oh wow! There is a bird’s nest in the tree’, Anna cheerfully says. ‘Wait a minute… Are there young birds inside the nest? Then they must have food! Maybe we’ll even find some pine nuts’, mister Smith mentions. He lifts Anna up again. Anna leans towards the bird’s nest and grabs some small nuts. When she is on the ground again, she asks ‘Is this the right type of nuts?’ Mister Smith’s face lights up when he says: ‘Yes, that is exactly what we need! We have finished guys!’ They put the pine nuts into the basket and mister Smith leads them back to the house of the trolls. 35

Chapter 6

Attempt to Rescue Anna says: ‘Thank you so much for all your help, mister Smith!’ Charlie nods immediately. ‘Here is the exact recipe, so you can cook the meal in the trolls’ kitchen. Remember to be quiet, so that they don’t discover you! Good luck Anna and Charlie’, mister Smith says while he hands them the basket full of food. Charlie and Anna walk through the door into the hallway of the house and quietly search the kitchen.

Once they are in the kitchen, Anna starts to cook and gives Charlie instructions. Anna says: ‘This already starts to smell amazing! Make sure that the door is closed, so that the three trolls won’t notice the smell yet. Imagine the hairy troll entering the kitchen, brrrrrr...’ When they finish the meal, Anna and Charlie cautiously open the door of the kitchen. When they tiptoe into the hallway, they already notice that the delicious smell starts to spread itself throughout the big, old house. 40

‘Do you remember which door leads to Jamie’, Anna silently asks to Charlie. Charlie uses his finger to point at the correct door. They sneakily open the door a tiny bit, so the smell can also fill that room. When the door is opened a tiny bit, Anna and Charlie quickly walk a bit further down the hall. ‘MmmmMmmm! Where does that smell come from’, the tiny troll asks. All the trolls become distracted, curious about the smell and above all: they’re hungry. They take a look at Jamie, who is still inside the iron cage. ‘Hmm, he cannot escape. Come on, we’ll find out where the smell comes from’, the hairy troll says. The trolls leave the room and are being lured into the kitchen. As soon as they are out of sight, Anna whispers: ‘Okay, GO!’ They sneak into the room and open Jamie’s cage with the golden key that is laying on the table. Jamie is surprised to see them again and says: ‘What are you guys doing here? Where have you been?’ ‘SSSSST! We came up with a plan to save you. Let’s get out of here’, Charlie whispers.

When they sneak out of the house, Jamie is very relieved that he is free and together with his friends again. Charlie and Anna explain their cooking plan to him and Jamie is astonished by their great idea. ‘I am soooo glad that it worked! I was so scared’, Jamie says. Anna admits: ‘Yes, we were also very afraid and nervous!’ While walking into the direction of the safe part of the woods, Charlie and Anna both put an arm around Jamie’s shoulder. ‘Let’s go home! Hmm, I am starting to get hungry’, Anna says laughingly.

Recipe Recipe Do you also want to cook, just as Anna, Charlie and Mister Smith? The recipe can be found below. Cook it together with you parents or cook it as a surprise meal for your family and friends! - Cook the spaghetti as explained on the package. (usually 10/12 minutes) - Cut the tomatoes in small pieces. - Set-up a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add a bit of olive oil and put the pieces of tomato in the pan. - Add the spinach to the tomatoes. Wait until the spinach is wilt. - Add the cream when the spinach is wilt. Reduce the heat to medium-low. - Set-up a smaller pan and grill the pine nuts until they have a light brown colour. - Add the pine nuts to the sauce of cream, spinach and tomatoes. 43

Meal for 4 persons: 500 gr spaghetti 4 tomatoes 300 gr spinach 250 gr cooking cream 65 gr pine nuts 150 gr grated cheese

- When the spaghetti is cooked, drain the water and make sure that the spaghetti stays inside the pan. - Your healthy spaghetti meal is almost done! - When you serve your pasta, you can put some grated cheese on top. For more flavour, you can add some pepper and salt. Have a nice meal! 44

Troll Squad wishes you a nice day!

About the story ‘Wait for me! I don’t want to be left alone’, Jamie screams. Anna and Charlie keep on walking towards a mysterious house and Charlie decides to go after them. The grass is getting dryer and dryer, the trees have lost their leaves and there are no animals around. Jamie gets more suspicious, but he doesn’t want to be seen as a coward, so he follows Charlie and Anna. The sun has almost disappeared and it is becoming twilight. The house looks abandoned and Anna says: ‘Shall we go in?’ Will they go in?

The House of Secrets is a book about two children going through all kinds of adventures to find the right ingredients to rescue their friend. The children will learn a lot about healthy and unhealthy foods. So this book is both adventurous and educational; isn’t that great?!