Terry Catasus Jennings - Captain Doms Treasure

Dont miss the other books in the Definitely Dominguita series!

#1: Knight of the Cape

Coming soon:

#3: All for One

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN

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First Aladdin paperback edition March 2021

Text copyright 2021 by Terry Catass Jennings

Illustrations copyright 2021 by Ftima Anaya

Also available in an Aladdin hardcover edition.

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

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Book designed by Heather Palisi

The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally.

Library of Congress Control Number 2020948864

ISBN 9781534465060 (hc)

ISBN 9781534465053 (pbk)

ISBN 9781534465077 (ebook)

To Terina, who taught me to read, and to Rafael, who taught me to love books

T. C. J.

To my mom, Daisy

F. A.

D om was at the Mundytown library when it opened. She wore a bandanna around her head, squishing her pigtails. And a leather eye patch with a shiny gold P for pirate covered her eye. Her brother, Rafi, had given her the patch before she left home. Along with a compass.

Nice look, Dominguita! Mrs. Booker, the librarian, looked up over reading glasses. What can I do for you?

Captain Dom, she corrected. You know Dominguita means little Sunday in Spanish, right? No one will respect a pirate named after a day of the week!

Sorry for that, Captain Dom. I can see how that could be a problem. Mrs. Booker straightened some papers on her desk. Then she nodded. You continuing your pirate studies?

Dom didnt quite know what to say. She still loved the books Mrs. Booker had given her. The ones about Anne Bonny and Mary Readthe best pirates ever. And she didnt want to hurt the librarians feelings. Im not done with studying. Honest. But I think were ready to actually do something, you know? Like look for treasure.

Treasure?

Me and my mates. Pancho Sanchez and this new girl whos visiting her grandmother. Her names Steph. Were going on a pirate adventure.

I see.

I need two copies of Treasure Island. One for each of them. You cant be a pirate without reading Treasure Island.

I cant agree with you more. Mrs. Booker touched the mouse in her hand to wake up her computer. You already checked the shelves?

Dom nodded. Couldnt find any. My brother, Rafi, agreed to make us a treasure map, so that we can actually look for something. But we want to really act like pirates.

After a few clicks, the librarian shook her head. We do own two. Looks like someone checked them both out a couple of days ago.

Hmm, Dom said. How about another library? Anything close?

Wait, wait. We have our Special Books Collection in the basement. I think we have one there. She reached for a notebook swollen with yellow, curling pages. The librarian before me couldnt get rid of some books. I loved her for it.

After turning a few pages, Mrs. Booker gave a little happy cry. Yep. Looks like were in luck.

If there was anything Dom liked better than a book, it was an old book. She kept twelve adventure books her grandmother had read as a little girl in the bookcase next to her bed. They were ready to fall apart, but she loved every one of them. Even though her abuela had moved to Florida, the books made Dom feel connected to her in some way. Dom read them all the time. There was no way shed miss a chance to go down to the basement to see other old books.

She followed Mrs. Booker down the twisty steps without being invited. The smell in the stacks made her as happy as the smell of sweet buuelos.

And it made her sneeze.

Which startled Mrs. Booker.

And made her look back.

Caught!

Sorry, sorry, sorry, Dom said. I know I shouldnt have come.

Are you kidding? Mrs. Booker said. Youre welcome here! I love this place too!

The librarian stopped at a table that stretched from side to side at the end of the room. The label above it said SPECIAL BOOKS COLLECTION. Books were piled four deep in neat columns. The first book Dom saw was Little Women.

Mmmm. Mrs. Bookers fingers ran over the columns. K, M, R. It should be here. She stopped at the fourth column over, bottom row, and lifted books until she found the one she was looking for. She blew the dust off the cover and handed it to Dom. See, I told you it was beautifulall yours.

This was a good time to start using pirate talk, Dom thought.

Itll be pure gold to me, I promise.

With a wave, Dom left the librarian. Pancho and Steph were waiting for her at Yuca, Yuca, the restaurant that belonged to Panchos uncle. El Seor Prieto had agreed to feed them during their recent knightly adventures if Dom swept his sidewalk.

She should run. Her mates were waiting, ready to set out on the treasure hunt.

But something about the old book called to her.

She wanted to touch it. Smell its oldness. Take it all in.

By herself.

She stopped at a table by the door and traced the gold letters on the red cover with her fingers. They were barely raised, rounded. She opened it. Carefully. As if it were holy. It was printed in 1947. A couple of years before her abuela was born.

It was not like any other book shed read. It was crackly, yellow. Some of the type was fancy. Very fancy. With full-color pictures of fighting pirates and black-and-white sketches scattered in the chapters.

Dom thumbed through the loose, worn pages. And there, between pages 168 and 169, she found a flyer. Folded. Pink.

An advertisement for Kowalskis Grocery!

Dom smiled. Mr. Kowalski had helped in their knightly adventure too. Hed made her a knight!

Next to Kowalskis ad was one for Beauty Is You! on Grant Street. That beauty shop was Smart Clips now. Thats where Doms mami got her hair cut. The bottom half of the flyer said the carnival would be in Mundytown from June 20 to June 23. What year? It didnt say. Not on that side. She flipped it over.

And stopped breathing.

On the other side was a map.

X marked a spot.