The History Mystery
Read The History Mystery Online
Authors: Ana Maria Machado
The
History
Mystery
Little Island received financial assistance from
The Arts Council (An Chomhairle EalaÃon), Dublin, Ireland.
The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Ministério da Cultura do Brasil / Fundação Biblioteca Nacional.
Obra publicada com o apoio do Ministério da Cultura do Brasil / Fundação Biblioteca Nacional.
The
History
Mystery
Ana Maria Machado
Translated by Luisa Baeta
THE HISTORY MYSTERY
Published 2012
by Little Island
7 Kenilworth Park
Dublin 6W
Ireland
First published as
Mensagem para você
by Editora Ãtica in São Paulo in 2008
Copyright © Ana Maria Machado 2007
Translation copyright © Luisa Baeta 2012
The author has asserted her moral rights.
ISBN 978-1-908195-22-7
All rights reserved. The material in this publication is protected by copyright law. Except as may be permitted by law, no part of the material may be reproduced (including by storage in a retrieval system) or transmitted in any form or by any means; adapted; rented or lent without the written permission of the copyright owner.
British Library Cataloguing Data. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover design and typeset by
redrattledesign.com
Printed in Poland by Drukarnia Skleniarz
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
3
. The Brainy Joker Strikes Again
12
. Gregorio Alvarenga's Dedication
3
.
The Brainy Joker Strikes Again
12
.
Gregorio Alvarenga's Dedication
Ana Maria Machado was born in 1941 in Rio de Janeiro and is one of the most significant children's book authors in Brazil. She has written more than a hundred books for children and adults. She started her career as a painter, worked as a journalist for
Elle
magazine in Paris and for the BBC in London. In 1979, she opened the first children's literature bookshop in Brazil.
In the year 2000, Ana Maria Machado was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the most significant international prize for children's literature, for her life's work.
This book was originally written in Brazilian Portuguese and published in Brazil. You might never have been there, though you might have seen TV programmes from or about Brazil, and you will know that it is a very large country in South America, and the only one where Portuguese is the main language. (You probably know what the main language is in the other countries of South America, so we don't need to tell you that.)
Brazil is an unusual country. It is vast, and there are parts of the country that are so far from the coast, it takes hours to get there, even by plane. It's also a very varied country. There are some extremely rich people in Brazil, and then also a lot of people living in poverty. It is a very racially mixed country as well, with people from all kinds of backgrounds. A lot of people live in the cities, of course, but there are also people living a traditional way of life in the remotest parts of the country, in the rainforest for example.
This book is set in the city, and life there is not all that different from life in the United States or Europe. Kids go to school and use computers and listen to music and visit each other's houses and so on. But as you read this book, it might be interesting to watch out for things you think are a bit different from the way you live.
So now you know a bit about Brazil â but actually, the first chapter is mostly about ancient Egypt!
(The answers are at the back of the book.)
1: What is the capital city of Brazil? (Watch out! It might not be the one you expect.)
2: What is the name of the famous city on the south coast with beautiful beaches and a famous statue of Christ the King? (Hint: there are three words in the name of this city.)
3: What is the main language of Brazil?
4: Brazil has always been very good at football. Has it ever won the World Cup?
5: Brazilians love to dance. What is the most famous kind of dancing from Brazil?
6: Brazil is famous for certain food products. Can you name one thing that comes from Brazil that you would find in most people's homes where you live?
â Project Mystery
âWilliam's team has done the best project,' announced the history teacher.
Will could hardly believe his ears. The others must have been really terrible. He knew perfectly well that his team had made a mess of their time management, which meant they'd had to do a lot of the work in a rush at the end. The project had to have been pretty slapdash.
On the last day, they had been practically kicked out of Sonia's place by her mother because it was so late, and they still hadn't got as far as putting all the bits and pieces of work into the right order on the computer before printing it out. There was still a whole lot of stuff that needed to be finished. It just couldn't have turned out good. So how on earth could a teacher as demanding as Mr Costa possibly think their work was the best in the class?
Will stole a glance at Pedro, who had an even more amazed look on his face. And that same astonished expression was repeated on the faces of all the other members of the project team â Matt, Faye and Sonia.
Sonia's expression was the most amazed of all. She had her hand clapped across her open mouth and her eyes were wide with surprise. More than any of them, she knew that their project on the ancient Egyptians had been a patchwork of bits and pieces, all cobbled together any old way.
Mr Costa continued with his feedback: âAlthough it is poorly structured â¦'
For sure
, they all thought. It really was a total mess. â⦠the work was very interesting and quite original â¦'
Who ever would have thought it!
â⦠especially the part about Akhenaten's monotheistic experience.'
Wait ⦠What? Who did that bit? I never even saw it!
was the thought going through all the teammates' minds.
Sonia remembered how she had stayed up until almost four in the morning working on the computer after her classmates had left. She was so tired, she could barely concentrate enough to put the pages in order. And in the end there had been an extra bit of material that she had been unable to identify. Sonia didn't know which of her teammates had written that part and sent it to her, how it had appeared there or even what it was about. She couldn't find a way to make it fit in with the rest of the work and ended up leaving it out, like in one of those cartoons where somebody tries to fix a clock and when they've
finished they realise there are a couple of nuts and bolts left over.
âThe only reason you are not getting an A+ for this is that it is sometimes slightly confused â¦'
Slightly? It's totally confused, they all thought
.
â⦠and because it doesn't refer to the sources used in this part of the research. But the idea of including this theme in your project was really creative, and the subject was very well introduced. I will read the beginning out loud so the whole class can see what I mean.'
None of the team had any idea what Mr Costa was talking about, but the teacher cleared his throat and began reading.
â“Although in your day ⦔' he began. âMeaning
our
day,' he muttered. âI missed this error the first time I read it â¦'
He stopped and made a correction on the page with a pen, then carried on.
â“Although in our day the name of the pharaoh Tutankhamun has become very well known and he has become a real celebrity, due to the discovery of his tomb and the fantastic fortune of the treasure enclosed with it, the truth is that for the people of his time he was not very important.
â“He started to rule while he was still a teenager, and he was weak, sickly and passive. He reigned only for a short period of time and died before turning
twenty. He came to the throne through a series of court intrigues, and was simply a puppet in the hands of political and religious forces interested in reclaiming the power that Akhenaten, the deposed pharaoh, had ⦔'
The friends exchanged glances. They'd never even heard of this Akhen-whatever-his-name-was.
â“But history has not forgotten Akhenaten,”' Mr Costa was droning on. â“He was a cultured man, a thinker. With him, for the first time, the idea of a single god was formulated â Aten, the Sun-god, the source of light, heat and life. Akhenaten showed a mind way ahead of his time.”'
While Mr Costa went on reading, the people on William's team continued to look at each other in amazement. None of them had researched that.
It must have been Sonia
, the others thought. After they'd left, she must have found that part in some book or online and stuck it in without telling them. Luckily, it had worked like a charm.
â“He also valued the role of women: his wife, Queen Nefertiti, had an active part in government. She was able to read and composed many religious hymns and poems celebrating Aten.”
âI'm not going to read the whole paper now,' Mr Costa said. âI just wanted to give you all a little taste of it. I even learned a few things myself from this project. I have to admit that I didn't know much
about Nefertiti, except that she was married to Akhenaten and that she was very beautiful.'
Somebody must have made a smart remark, because laughter could be heard from the back of the class. But Mr Costa took no notice and carried on, all excited.
âYes. A model of Nefertiti's head, in a museum in Berlin, is one of the most gorgeous and well-preserved objects we have from the ancient world. But I had no idea about the intellectual role Nefertiti played. I looked all this stuff up and found that what you say here is quite accurate. But tell me, where did you find all of this information?'
Silence
.
The teacher repeated the question and William answered vaguely, âWell, Mr Costa ⦠we researched so much stuff it's hard to remember. Maybe one of us wrote down the source somewhere, but I think possibly it got thrown out by accident. Sorry about that.'
âThat's a shame, William,' said Mr Costa. âThese things should not happen. As I always say, it's OK to do your research on the internet, but you always have to quote your sources so that I can check if they are reliable.'
There he goes again
, thought William. Mr Costa was always banging on about how the most important thing that the school can teach is not the facts, but the âformation of dignified social attitudes' and the âtransmission of ethical values' and ârigour and
enthusiasm in the search for knowledge', blah, blah, blah.
They'd all heard that speech a thousand times. Once he got started on it, it seemed like he was never going to let up.
âThat's why a bibliography is essential too,' Mr Costa was saying. âYou always need to identify the source and quote the reference.'
William disconnected mentally and started thinking how he was going to get to the next level in a new computer game he'd got two days before. Faye was sketching on a piece of paper as usual, playing at being a fashion designer. And Matt was dreaming about the sandwich he was going to have at break, because he was starving.
When break-time finally came, everyone gathered around Sonia.
âHey, thanks, you saved the day!'
âWhere did you get that sun-god stuff?' asked Matt.
âAnd the thing about the model of beauty?' Faye was probably going to ask about make-up or fashion in ancient Egypt. That's all she ever thought about.
âI have no idea,' Sonia answered.
At first they didn't believe her, but Sonia insisted it was true.
âAfter I had printed everything out, I went to bed, and next morning, I was in a rush to gather up the pages before school, and I noticed some weird stuff
that I didn't remember seeing before or talking to any of you about. I thought it must be something one of you had sent on by email. I took out one bit that looked completely random, but I left the bit about that pharaoh in, because it was about ancient Egypt, and that was what we were supposed to be writing about. Our project was way too short, so I thought maybe something about some pharaoh would be useful to pad it out.'
âWhat about the other bit, the stuff you took out?' asked Matt. âAny chance you might have downloaded a ready-made chemistry project too? We have to hand in Ms Nancy's work at the end of the month.'
âNo such luck,' said Sonia with a grin. âThere was nothing like that. There were some poems, a letter â I'm not sure what, exactly. It was nonsense. I threw it all away.'