The Little Shop of Big Dreams

By CC McGuire

BOOK SUMMARY:

A classic tale that will pass from generation to generation. This is a story that will warm the hearts of young and old alike.

A little girl begins to doubt herself and her talents. Then, when visiting a mysterious little shop in town, she falls through a doorway and enters another world where anything is possible. With Doodle as her guide, she is put to the test by the Mountain Princess who asks her to find and return a flaming heart that was stolen by her brother, the evil Prince of the Rainforest. The little girl faces countless dangers along the way and must use the talents she thought she lacked to overcome them.

A wonderful fairy tale about kingdoms, princes, princesses, exotic creatures, and even flying cocoa pods. Truly a keeper for any book collection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CC McGuire
• Release date: Dec 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370588701

CC McGuire

The author has written numerous novels, many of which are trilogies or multi-volume sets, and span many different types of book genre from fantasies and murder mysteries to children’s stories and allegories. He has been cited for his creativity and fresh approach in each of the book categories for which he has written. For this series of novels, the author has used CC McGuire as the pen name. The author uses a unique pen name for each genre – one that is most fitting to that style writing. The author has a family and lives with them in Chicago.

Book preview

The Little Shop

of Big Dreams

by CC McGuire

Blue M Publishing, LLC – CHICAGO

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication data

Names: McGuire, C.C.

Title: The Little Shop of Big Dreams Description: First edition | Blue M Publishing e-Book, Chicago, IL [2016] Smashwords Edition | Series: Book one of multi-volume set | Contents: Book One | Summary: A little girl becomes sad when her parents separate; yet, when in a little shop in town she tumbles into a another world where her talents are needed to save the village and its townspeople. | Audience Note: Recommended for readers eight to fourteen |Identifiers: ISBN 9781370588701 (ePub)

Subjects: LCSH: sh85047117 Fantasy fiction, American | BISAC: FIC061000 FICTION / Magical Realism | FICTION / Fantasy Contemporary | GSAFD: 00000cz a2200037n 45 0 155 Fantasy fiction | 455 Fantastic fiction | Genre/Form terms: gf2014026333 Fantasy fiction/Heroic fantasy fiction.

Classification: LCC PS370-380 | DDC 813/--dc23

McGuire, C.C.

The Little Shop of Big Dreams Contents: One Part – tells the story of a young girl who travels into a fantasy world and finds self-confidence. She also comes to understand that she is not to blame for her parents’ separation.

ISBN 9871945385002

www.blueMpublishing.com

Book Design by Allendorf-Vigenere

Blue M Publishing

6205 Indianapolis Boulevard, Suite 100

Hammond, IN 46320

Rating: G* for all audiences.

Copyright © 2016 by C. C. McGuire

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

*Rating is provided by the author as a parental guide and is not based on any established rating systems.

CONTENTS

The Little Shop of Dreams

Book Summary

Acknowledgment

CH 1 Little Shop

CH 2 Doodle

CH 3 Cocoa Pods

CH 4 The Mountain Princess

CH 5 Unwanted Journey

CH 6 Calico Bull

CH 7 Canyon of Shadows

CH 8 Across

CH 9 Wall of Silence

CH 10 The Answer

CH 11 Rainforest Prince

CH 12 The Heart Returns

CH 13 Dreams

CH 14 Home

About the Author

Blue M Publishing

The Little Shop of Big Dreams

Book Summary

A little girl struggles with the separation of her parents. But when she falls through a window at a mysterious little shop in town, she enters another world where anything is possible.

Together with a talking, spotted llama, she is put to the test by the Mountain Princess who asks her to find and return a flaming heart that was stolen by the evil Prince of the Rainforest. The little girl overcomes many obstacles along the dangerous path and does everything in her power to succeed at her mission.

An allegory with many levels and meanings, this is a story that will warm the hearts of both old and young alike.

*****

Acknowledgment

The author wishes to thank Julie Showalter for her inspiration in writing this book. Her creativity and unique approaches did much to bring the story to life.

*****

CH 1 Little Shop

Lilliput was a small town next to a bigger city. Everyone from Lilliput knew about Aunt Polly’s Little Fabric Shop, but few had heard of it in the big city. It was kind of a secret, and that was just fine with Aunt Polly. She wasn’t doing it to make a lot of money – she was doing it to make dreams come true for her little customers.

You see, many in the town of Lilliput knew that this was not just any old fabric store. No, this was a special place – a place where a young girl or boy might come with their mom to find just the right material for a costume. For them, it had to be the best, or at least it had to be better than everyone else’s in their class. Whether they danced, skated, were gymnasts or young actors, this was the place everyone came to get that fantastic look that would make them stand out – would make them feel special.

It was the middle of August, and the kids were still thinking about the fun they had on their summer vacation or about that soccer camp they had gone to only weeks earlier. Yet, the schools were already preparing for their fall classes and so were the parents. The moms were the first to begin worrying about getting things ready for school and for the fall season of athletics, dance and other activities outside of school that their children were involved in.

As for the store, it was small, only slightly bigger than the inside of a Lilliput elementary school classroom, which usually held only eighteen or so students. Along two sides of the shop were white shelves stacked from floor to ceiling, groaning under the weight of the bolts of fabric arranged neatly in rows. Aunt Polly took great care to organize all of it by color – red fabrics were next to the door, oranges in the section next to it, yellows placed to the right of them, on through to the greens, blues and purples until you got to the whites, blacks, golds, silvers and other metallic colors. Each section seemed like it had an endless number of colors within it – all sorts of red hues within the red section, orange hues within the orange, and so on. It would not be unusual for Aunt Polly to rattle off thirty or more shades of a color when someone would simply ask, What do you have in red?

Red? Aunt Polly would answer, Do you mean red, like carmine or scarlet? Like crimson or chili? Like fire brick or redwood? Or do you mean maroon or burgundy? Garnet or ruby? I also have lighter shades from pink and rose to bubblegum, fuchsia or magenta? Which one are you looking for?

There were other bolts of fabric too – those stacked on shelves on the back walls. This was where Aunt Polly kept her special ones – the whimsical kinds with brilliant flowers, funny animals, jungle and desert scenes and the odd assortment of fringes, tassels, sequins and other curious textures. Nearly everything you could imagine, you could find somehow in Aunt Polly’s Little Fabric Shop.

Yet, there were other curious things in the shop that set it apart from other fabric stores. On the counter and high up on some shelves was a zoo of funny-looking animals: platypuses, porcupines, armadillos, llamas, manatees, kangaroos, moose, anteaters and others. They were made from all sorts of things – from ceramic to wire to wood; all were colorful and fanciful, making the entire store fun and exciting.

Besides the shelves of fabric, there were paintings on the walls. These too were of brilliant color and design. There were scenes of the desert, of the mountains, of ocean shorelines, of jungles, and even of snow-blown drifts pressed up against the red planks of an Indiana farmhouse. But besides these pictures, there were others painted on