Palazzo Inverso Read online

  Palazzo Inverso

  D. B. Johnson

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  For Reed

  "I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days."

  —M. C. ESCHER

  PALAZZO

  INVERSO

  D. B. JOHNSON

  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

  BOSTON NEW YORK 2010

  [The first paragraph corresponds with text at bottom of the image, the second paragraph with text at top of the image. Go through reading first paragraphs only. Once the end is reached, go backwards reading bottom paragraphs. The book goes in a loop beginning and ending with the first sentence.]

  EVERY DAY WAS THE SAME. Like always, the jangling bell rang and rang. Mauk's boots were on the ceiling. And once more he was late for the Master. Mauk was

  tired. He climbed into bed and dropped his boots on the floor. "I hope they're still there in the morning," Mauk said. The world was so new and wonderful, it was hard to believe he had once thought that

  helping the Master build a grand Palazzo. "What does he want now?" Mauk wondered as he ran. He had already sharpened the Master's pencils. The palace

  seemed strange and mysterious as he ran across the bridge. Birds flew through the water and fish swam in the sky! He raced home through the dark. Mauk was

  floated in the middle of the lake. It looked almost like the Master's drawing, Mauk thought. But something about the towers did not seem quite right. He

  looked out over the water. The Palazzo, floating on the lake, was perfect. Mauk could not tell which was the palace and which the reflection. Everything

  paddled across the lake, just as he did every day when the Master called. But today the Palazzo seemed different. How strange it looked, shimmering in the

  fading light. The Palazzo was dark. Mauk could still hear the workers calling from the tower. Then everything went quiet. The lake was hushed. Mauk

  morning mist. Mauk skipped up the steps to the grand entry. The doorway to the Palazzo was right where he would have drawn it, if only the Master had—even once!—

  spun out the door and cartwheeled down the steps. Everyone loved Mauk's Palazzo Inverso! "It is beautiful," he thought. And he paddled away in the

  let Mauk draw. Inside, the painters painted and the carpenters hammered and sawed. Workers wheeled their carts in all directions. Mauk wondered why

  the workers were after him. He stopped to look back. They were not chasing him at all. They were cheering him on! Mauk saw that even the Master was smiling. He

  the palace looked so strange. What was different? It was not the stairs. He counted them as he ran down to the tower. The workers had made

  every inch of the upside-down Palazzo. He knew every doorway and every window. He knew that the underside of the stairs was the fastest way out. Mauk thought

  the right number of steps. Did he forget to order bricks? No, here were the bricklayers with a full cart—spilling bricks on the ceiling! Mauk ran through

  every hallway and every secret passage. "Watch out above you!" he called as he jumped over the bricklayers' cart and raced on. Only Mauk knew

  every room in the Palazzo. Finally he could see what was wrong. All around him, workers were falling down stairs, hanging from windows, and shouting. Even the

  painters were shouting Mauk's name, but that did not stop him. He whirled past the workers without touching the floor. Mauk knew every staircase. He knew

  Mistress was snapping at the Master. "You're tracking mud on the wall," she cried. "Well, you're standing on the ceiling!" the Master answered. The Palazzo was all

  upside down. Mauk turned here and turned there. He dashed past the carpenters and laughed. "Race you to the chandelier!" he called. From below, the

  mixed up. Workers were walking on their hands down the stairs! The water in the fountain was falling up instead of down. Everyone was blaming

  Mauk. But no one could catch him. The best thing about turning the drawing upside down was that now Mauk could run on the ceiling! He liked being

  the Master. "This tower is upside down!" the Mistress said. "No, it's downside up!" the Master cried. "Let's all look at the drawing," Mauk said, climbing

  on the ladder. He slid down headfirst before anyone could catch him. "Catch the trickster!" the Master called. The workers ran in circles and pointed up at

  in the window. "You changed my Palazzo!" the Master shouted, pointing at Mauk. "But I didn't draw anything!" Mauk said. He was not allowed to draw. Mauk

  spun away to the window. "You've ruined my beautiful Palazzo!" the Master cried. "Don't let him get away!" the Mistress called. But Mauk was already

  only sharpened the Master's pencils—except when the Master was looking out the window. Then Mauk might have turned the drawing around just a tiny bit this way. What difference would that make? Sometimes the Master's nap gave Mauk the chance to turn the picture a bit more this way. So the Master never noticed what a strange Palazzo he was drawing! "But it looks even better like this!" Mauk said, standing on his head. Then he

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  AUTHOR'S NOTE

  The apprentice Mauk is an entirely fictional character who takes his nickname and his inspiration from the work of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher (1898–1972).

  Maurits Cornelis Escher was the talented son of a civil engineer and, before the age of thirteen, learned carpentry and developed his gift for drawing. As a young man he briefly studied architecture at the Haarlem School for Architecture and Decorative Arts, but with the encouragement of one ofhis teachers soon changed direction. He would study art and design.

  Escher made the right choice. As an artist, he was free to draw believable-looking buildings that could not be built. Escher's skill at playing with perspective and tricking people into seeing his version of three-dimensional space made him world famous.

  In a work called "Ascending and Descending," Escher drew stairs that lead down and around a building's inner courtyard yet appear to go back and end where they began. These endless loops going nowhere became his trademark. He realized that with a few carefully drawn steps he could take a person out of the real world and into his world of the impossible.

  Copyright © 2010 by D. B. Johnson

  All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to

  Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

  Houghton Mifflin Books for Children is an imprint

  of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  www.hmhbooks.com

  The text of this book is set in Bodoni Seventy Two ITC Std

  The illustrations are mixed media.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

  ISBN 978-0-547-23999-6

  Printed in Singapore

  TWP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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  D. B. Johnson, Palazzo Inverso

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