Paul Hanratty
Sammy's grandfather buys him a magic globe for his eighth birthday. The globe gives Sammy the chance to transport himself to any place in the world simply by touching that place on the globe. His first trip is to New York where he has a number of adventures. He visits the Statue of Liberty; the Empire State Building and gets to ride the Staten Island ferry. He learns about the places he visits and has an exciting time.
This book is not only a fun story, but also an informative guide for children who wouldn't be interested in adult travel guides. If a child is lucky enough to visit some of the places Sammy experiences, hopefully their trip will be enhanced by following in his footsteps. For those not able to go to New York the book provides some insight to a few of the many great places of interest to behold in that fine city.
"Sammy Goes To New York" is Paul Hanratty's first book. He is a 47 year-old English Criminal Lawyer who usually find his words confined to the local press court reports rather than reproduced in the pages of a book. Paul has previously written reviews on Amazon about his favourite authors but never thought of writing a story of his own until developing an idea inspired by his 9 year-old grandson, Ross. The adventures of a boy of Ross's age seemed not only a good bedtime story but one which could be committed to paper and hopefully entertain and educate other children. "Sammy" can go anywhere in the world and therefore there is scope for many adventures in the future. Paul is currently working on the second "Sammy" story but also has an adult thriller with a legal flavour in the early stages of development. He is married and lives on Tyneside.
Sammy was eight years old and lived with his mum and dad and little sister, Emily. On his birthday his grandad bought him a globe. It was a map in the shape of a big round ball with the names of all the countries and important cities in the world on it. His grandad told him it was round because the world was that shape.
His grandad also told him a secret. "If you touch a place on the globe it will take you to that place. The globe has magic powers". But his grandad warned him that he must only use the globe's powers on the first Saturday of the month. "It won't work on any other day "he said. He also told Sammy that he should not be frightened on his trips as the globe's magic powers would protect him.
On the first Saturday of May just after Sammy's birthday he woke up to find that it was raining again. "Oh no" said Sammy "I wanted to go out for a bike ride". Sammy was a little sad and then he remembered about the globe. Sammy wasn't sure if it was really magic and he thought his grandad might have been playing a joke on him. Sammy was still wearing his pyjamas and thought he might try touching the globe to see if anything happened and then he'd go downstairs for breakfast.
He looked at all the names on the globe written in black letters and saw lots of different colours for different countries. He saw lots of blue which he knew were the oceans. There was lots of water in the world and he didn't want to touch the blue as he was still learning to swim and he might not be able to swim in the ocean. Sammy then saw the United States of America. He knew this was America and that they spoke English. He had seen lots of films on television from America and thought it looked a fun place.
Sammy saw New York on his globe and decided that was where he'd like to go. It was a place where there were lots of interesting things to do and he had seen films about all kinds of adventures in that city. So Sammy touched the black letters which said New York with his finger. For a second nothing happened and Sammy thought that his grandad must have been joking and then he saw the globe start to spin and heard a whooshing noise and felt a rush of air.
Sammy was suddenly standing on a river side looking at a big statue of a lady.
