The mystery of the chocolate pecan cookies

l g i o v r a V a z i L

2

do it n a c I

3

ο ο ο οο m u ch l o v e With sο

Visit the book site

www.anelanda.gr

/lvarvogli @drlizavarvogli

ree fairy princesses, h t y to m SI A, ενα, αμ

ΑΝ

MΑΜΑΥΑ EDITIONS 19 Kodrou str. 152 32 Chalandri, Greece Τ 210 68 96 875 F 210 68 96 877 info@mamaya.gr Foreign Rights christina.mania@mamaya.gr

ASTA

ΕL

o my litt le darling, t d n a

Αndreas!

ΑΝDΑ

Liza Varvogli

Illustration: Giorgos Petridis

Mystery! Where did our chocolate pecan cookies go?

I am sorry! I didn’t introduce myself! I am princess Anelanda and this is my older brother Max the awful! in real life.

I am not a princess, I just like wearing the tiara and hold the wand and Max is not so awful, he is just like any older brother.

He has a parrot, Bitou, who can talk.

Together we are the Mighty Mystery Agents and we solve mysteries

6

Today we set out to explore our grandmother’s attic.

“Come and see” Max exclaims. “An old trunk!”

We start taking many beautiful things out and…

An old diary!

I unlock it and read: “The Best Chocolate Recipes”.

This is totally for me! I love chocolate!

7

8

I show the book to my grandma, who says: “these are the recipes that I used to make with my own grandma when I was your age. You know, the secret to good desserts is in the ingredients”.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“To make an extra delicious dessert you have to use the best quality ingredients and also your best attitude” “and where do you find pure ingredients, grandma?”

“You have to go to the source, that is where they grow or where they are made”.

“Sounds difficult” “Not at all, Anelanda! I ‘ll show you. Tell me which dessert you want to make”.

“The chocolate pecan cookies” I decide.

“Let’s start gathering the pure ingredients!

Let’s go to grandma’s village where the walnut trees grow!” Max proposes.

9

10

Giddy up, giddy-up, I kick my legs gently and the little donkey keeps going.

At the pecan tree forest, grandma shows us how to use long branches to hit the trees and get the nuts to fall down.

“Grandma, there must be a mistake! These nuts are green and kind of soft! Aren’t they supposed to be brown and hard?” I ask.

Grandma smiles “That’s right! But this is how nuts are supposed to be before they get to the market!”

We collect the nuts in baskets. Then we peel them.

“Look at your hands! They are black” Max laughs at me.

“Yours are worse! They are really dirty!”

We wash our hands but… still! They are very dirty!

“Grandma, look! The dirt won’t wash off”.

12

“Don’t worry, this is the natural coloring that’s inside the green nutshell. Only instead of making your hands green it turns them black!” grandma explains. “It will go away in a couple of days”. “Now we have the first ingredient for our dessert and it’s best quality” grandma says.

13

14

The next ingredient in the recipe is cocoa.

“Max, let’s get ready for Brazil! Did you know that the scientific name for the cocoa tree is ‘theobroma cocoa’? It means ‘food for the gods’.

We arrive in Brazil’s rain forest in the Amazon. Cocoa fruits are orange-yellowish and look like small melons that hang from the branches of large trees.

The Brazilian villagers approach us carrying long branches with blades on one end, so they can reach the top of the cocoa trees and harvest the fruit.

“Since we are in Brazil, why don’t we take the sugar we need?’ asks Max.

16

We head to the su g a r c a n e plantations. “Did you know that the villagers set the sugar cane plants on fire first, to chase away the poisonous snakes? The fire also burns the dead leaves of the plants and then they are ready for the farmers to harvest them� I explain like the expert I have become.

The best comes next.

I love stirring the boiling s u g a r c a n e !

17

Finally! We have nuts, cocoa and s u g a r ! We managed to find the finest ingredients of all, fresh and straight from their source. So we start making chocolate pecan cookies. “ What a delicious smell….yummy” I say when they are ready.

We are going to share them with our friends. Max is staffing his mouth with a cookie. “I want to see how they turned out”, he tells me. “Be careful they are still very hot” I warn him.

18

We place our chocolate cookies in trays on the windowsill and let them cool.

Later, we are going to place them in boxes and offer them to our friends. I can’t wait!

19

We spend time with Max making boxes. When we finish, we go to pick up our chocolate pecan cookies but…

T H E Y A R E N O W H E R E T O B E S E E N ! They ‘ve disappeared! Where did our delicious chocolate cookies go?

“Did you eat them, Anelanda?” Max accuses me.

20

“No way! You did it!.”

It’s a MYS TERY! Where did they go?

Now we have to solve the mystery of the chocolate pecan cookies that disappeared!

I grab my blue knapsack, that contains the tools for solving mysteries and we start looking in the neighborhood to find traces.

21

“What are these big fo ot p rints ?

Do you think it’s a dinosaur ?”

“No way, dinosaurs are extinct!”

“Do you think it’s a lion?”

“But lions live in the savvanah!”

“What could they be?’

22

“Max, come, quick!

There are so many fo ot p rints here!”

Maybe we are in danger!”

Ca re ful!

23

We walk on our tippy toes, following the fo otste ps .

We keep going‌ and going‌ and then, suddenly, the footmarks disappear!

Oh no! Here we are, right in front of our house!

24

As we turn to see, here is the little donkey that took us to the nut forest. He is gnawing on something, with real delight . “Here is the culprit! This is who ate our chocolate pecan cookies!� we exclaim at the same time.

25

Here we go again! We start preparing more chocolate pecan cookies. The little donkey is helping us carry all the ingredients.

26

This time we are going to be careful! Just in case, we are going to make even more cookies, so that we can share with all our friends!

27

PHOTO: COSTAS MITROPOULOS

Dr. Liza Varvogli is a Harvard trained psychologist who was recently awarded by Unesco (branch of Peireas and Nison) for her contribution to chi ldren’s literature and psychologica l services to chi ldren. The first book of the series, “The Mystery of the Chocolate Cupcakes”, received the first award for the category Chi ldren’s Literature of the prestigious Public Book Awards 2016, of Greece. Liza Varvogli has published over 10 best-selling picture books and 7 psychology self-help and scientific books.

She is now teaching at Athens Medica l School, Greece.

28

Since George Petrides was a child, used to swim in all sorts of coloured illustrated books. While growing old, he decided to live in the imaginary world of illustrated books. He graduated from Athens Technological Graphic Design Institution and also attended Illustration courses in art school in Salamanca, Spain.

Since then, he conveys his world and his images in children's books and fairy tales.

29

30

IN THE SAME SERIES Liza Varvogli

gli Liza Varvo Illustration: George Petridis

1

31

The Mystery Agents are here!

Anelanda and Max decide to make chocolate pecan cookies with their grandmother. They travel all around the word to get the best ingredients. But the cookies disappear.

It’s a mystery! Will they manage to solve the mystery and uncover the culprit?

Mystery agents Anelanda and Max are here and will solve the mystery with their thinking skills and their kindness.

An illustrated book with mystery and adventure for boys and girls 4+, from the Harvard trained psychologist Liza Varvogli, that promotes emotional intelligence, cooperation and positive thinking.

www.anelanda.gr