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The Great Go-Cart Race

by Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti

138 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0046; ISBN 1-55369-233-0; US$16.50, C$18.99, EUR13.50, £9.50

An action-packed adventure unfolds as ten-year-old Phineas and her friends plan for the Great Go-Cart Race. The stakes are high and the odds are stacked on the side of the neighborhood bullies. With an unexpected happening at every turn can Phineas and her friends dodge "grounding" parents, a not so freak accident and a first crush to get the go-cart finished and to the race on time?

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about the book      about the author      excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book     Phineas J. Clooney is a spunky ten-year-old with a knack for getting in trouble. She's smart, but she struggles with fractions. She's confident, but is afraid to tell anyone who she has a crush on. She's tough, but in that All-American girl next store way that leads to vulnerability.     Phineas is the leader of a philanthropic group called the Explorers and the designer of the fastest go-cart in Eastwood. In this first book of the Adventures of Phineas J. Clooney, journey with Phineas on a first crush, a devastating crash and a lesson about what is truly important.

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About the Author     Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti lives in Northern California with her husband and two step-daughters where she loves to write, golf, spend time with her family and teach her second graders. Elizabeth has a Masters of Science in both Psychology and Educational Technology and is currently working towards her PhD. She is an alumna of UCLA and is active in several service organizations.

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Excerpts

    We are at the worst possible part of the road for this to be happening. Not that there is a good place for a potential crash but this is definitely on the top of the bad side. A solid granite wall is on one side and a solid granite cliff on the other.
    "We'll have to ride it out. Tighten your helmet and hold on!" I yell.
    "Lean in," she yells back as we near the only hairpin turn of the run.
    Then the trouble really begins as the steering locks. I can't turn to make the curve and I can't stop to avoid the cliff. We are heading towards the tops of the trees with no way to stop or turn. We are in big trouble.
    "Hold on Kate!" We're going to see if these wings are aerodynamic!"
    "OOOOhhhhh myyyyyy Goossshhh!"
    Katie screams as the cart stops grinding and leaps over the edge at nearly 25 miles per hour. The good news, we fly over at one of the shallowest spots. It is probably only been a 25- foot drop. The bad news (besides the obvious) it is also the most densely forested spot along the road.
    I close my eyes as we hit the air. That roller coaster feeling, where your stomach winds up somewhere in your throat attacks me. Only there is no roller coaster smile on my face or feeling in my brain that when my stomach stops lurching I will be safely at the bottom on a track. This time _ I know we are going to die. Then I feel the wings slowing us down! They are actually working, in a way. We aren*t flying through the air or anything but we aren*t plummeting to our deaths either.
    "Phineas? I think we're flying!"
    I look below. "Sort of."
    She screams and I look ahead. The forest! The trees are no longer below us but directly in front of us, and on either side of us.

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Catalogue Information

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