Historical
Fiction
n
by Peter Friend
illustrated by Juan Caminador
PAIRED
READ
The Best Pyramid
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STRATEGIES & SKILLS
Comprehension
Vocabulary
Strategy: Make Predictions
Skill: Point of View
alcove, commerce, domestic,
exotic, fluent, stifling,
upheaval, utmost
Vocabulary Strategy
Connotations and Denotations
Content Standards
Social Studies
History
Word Count: 2,955**
**The total word count is based on words in the running text and headings only. Numerals and words in captions,
labels, diagrams, charts, and sidebars are not included.
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in
any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the
prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not
limited to, network storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.
Send all inquiries to:
McGraw-Hill Education
Two Penn Plaza
New York, New York 10121
ISBN: 978-0-02-118646-4
MHID: 0-02-118646-4
Printed in the United States.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DOC 15 14 13 12 11 10
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Essential Question
What was life like for people in ancient cultures?
by Peter Friend
illustrated by Juan Caminador
Chapter 1
A Surprise Gift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chapter 2
An Ambassador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 3
K’an’s Legacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Respond to Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
PAIRED
READ
The Best Pyramid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Focus on Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
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This story takes place around the year 1525 C.E., when
the traditional Mayan world was soon to be destroyed by
European diseases. Neither the Spanish nor the Mayans
understood this was happening. Mayan culture was
divided into classes: kings and nobles at the top, artisans
(bkgd) Wetzel & Company
and government workers in the middle, and farmers and
unskilled workers below them. At the very bottom were
people captured in war and enslaved. Prince Jaguar Moon
and King Black Sky are from the kings and nobles class.
CHAPTER 1
A Surprise Gift
Another tedious afternoon here at the Mayan royal
court. Traders have returned from the north, their servants
weighed down with incense, beeswax, honey, quetzal
feathers, stingray spines, and a hundred other things.
Naturally, the traders have come to the palace to pay
tributes to us, the royal family, but that means a stifling hot
afternoon full of ceremonies, speeches, and boring rituals.
I struggle to pay attention, despite knowing that I need
to understand all these ceremonies for when I inherit the
throne. My father is King Black Sky, and although his mind
is still as sharp as a thorn, his body is sick—really sick. I have
heard the whispering around the court: no one expects
him to live for more than a few months. So I try to learn
everything with utmost care because I want to do my best
for the Chakal state and one day be its worthy leader.
The head trader drones on while a long line of domestic
servants present pottery, turquoise, cotton, and other
tributes to us. “… and this amusing captive,” he finishes at
last, pushing a ragged youth forward and onto his knees.
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We have captured and enslaved hundreds of people, but
this one is different. I stare at him: he looks only a few years
older than me, but I have never seen such strange clothes,
and his hair is as yellow as ripe maize.
The youth struggles to his feet and then bows.
“Greetings, King Black Sky and Prince Jaguar Moon of the
great state of Chakal. Greetings from the land of España.”
That certainly gets everyone’s attention. Outraged, the
trader directs a kick toward the youth.
“Stop!” I command haughtily.
The trader glares at me like I’m just a boy, and then,
perhaps remembering that I am the most powerful boy in
all Chakal, he reluctantly lowers his foot. All in the court
stare at me in anticipation.
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I force a smile to defuse the situation. “Your tributes are
pleasing to the gods,” I tell the trader. Then, before I realize
what I am doing, I am repeating one of my father’s standard
speeches, one I have heard a thousand times before. To my
relief, everyone relaxes and looks pleased.
The traders depart, and the servants enter to remove
the tributes to the palace’s storehouses. One servant
pauses by the prisoner and glances at me uncertainly.
I am just as uncertain, but I know I mustn’t show it:
kings—and future kings—must be decisive. And I want to
know more about this youth. Much more.
“Didn’t you hear him?” I ask, another fake smile
plastered on my face. “People of Chakal, welcome the
ambassador from España.”
As I hope, the courtiers all laugh at my announcement,
as does my father: the youth is obviously no ambassador.
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The yellow-haired youth bows to my father and me
once again. “My name is ...” But he says something quite
unpronounceable, even worse than “España.” Seeing our
confusion, he repeats himself, but he still makes no sense.
“Ambassador, that will not do. I will call you K’an,” I
announce imperiously.
“K’an? Oh, I see, like the color of my hair? Um ... thank
you, Your Highness,” he replies.
His conversation is strange, and he is far from fluent,
mixing together words and phrases from other local
languages as if by accident. Still, his meaning is usually
clear enough to me. As the king’s heir and the future ruler
of Chakal, I have been trained to speak many languages.
Perhaps K’an will teach me his own España language, which
might be useful for trading.
“Tell me of España,” I command.
“It’s far over the ocean to the northeast.”
“Yes, yes, I know that. We’ve heard much about your
people.” He looks surprised, not realizing that I am covering
my ignorance with lies. “Your armies have conquered Tulum
and Cozumel on the eastern coast.” I have now completely
exhausted my knowledge of his people. In fact, no one here
has ever even seen the coast or the ocean—they are far
beyond the territories of even our most distant enemies.
“Yes,” he sighs. “Conquered them and more.”
I wonder why he isn’t proud of his armies.
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CHAPTER 2
An AMbassador
The trader was right: K’an is certainly amusing,
and his tales of España soon have the entire court
chuckling. Canoes that carry hundreds of men? Metal
tubes that spit tiny, noisy spears? Why would he say such
ridiculous things?
Later as I escort my father to his private quarters, we
discuss it. “Is K’an a court clown, Father? Is that the España
way to tell jokes? But he didn’t laugh once himself. He just
looked annoyed.”
“Perhaps he’s a fool, or maybe a liar. Or perhaps he’s
mad and just thinks he speaks truth,” my father replies.
But I am confused. K’an doesn’t seem crazy to me.
“What if he is being truthful, Father? Aren’t you worried?”
“The coast is far away, my son, and España even farther.
Why should we concern ourselves about the tales of one
silly boy?”
Still I seek reassurance from my father. “He’s not really
an ambassador, I’m sure. Was I wrong to name him one?”
“No, that was a clever move, boy. At worst, we’ve
been entertained, and at best, we’ve learned much about
his people. Besides, an ambassador may not stay an
ambassador forever.”
I nod, but I am unsure what he means.
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Despite his strangeness, I enjoy K’an’s company, so the
next day, I take him for a tour of the city, just as I have done
for many important visitors since my father became sick.
K’an’s exotic looks attract attention everywhere we
go. Some obviously think him a joke; others stare at him
thoughtfully.
We pause to watch some young nobles practicing
pok-a-tok on a ball court by the Tunkuruchu Palace. K’an is
fascinated. We watch as the players attempt to get the hard
rubber ball through the stone hoop high above their heads.
How they can do this without using their hands or feet
seems like a miracle to K’an.
“Will you join us, Ambassador?” asks a young noble
teasingly, and K’an eagerly accepts the invitation before
I can intervene.
I glower at the players in warning, but they mean the
youth no harm. Naturally, K’an doesn’t know how to play
properly, but he does demonstrate some surprising agility
and skill.
“Ow!” he yelps, bruising his leg
for the third time on the heavy
rubber ball but heartily
joining in the good-natured
laughter around him all
the same.
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I extricate K’an from the ball game and we climb the
Eastern Temple, which gives a panoramic view over the
entire city. By the time we reach halfway, K’an is gasping for
breath, just as I had intended.
“This city is a thousand years old,” I state emphatically.
Granted, I do not know that this is true. It could be, but no
one knows for sure. “Everything you can see belongs to us.”
That isn’t quite true either. I can see Xocha territory in the
far distance, but this is my home, and it is my prerogative
to exaggerate its merits. “Tell me, does your España have
cities like this?”
“We have many cities, but few as magnificent as this,”
K’an concedes.
I cast a sideways glance at him: is he trying to flatter
me? “Do your España cities have pyramids as incredible
as these?”
“No pyramids. I have never seen such tall buildings.”
I examine his face closely. I believe he’s telling the
truth! But what curious kind of people build a city without
pyramids? I point out our many magnificent temples and
palaces to him. “And there’s the tomb being built especially
for my father. Do your kings have such spectacular tombs?”
“There are many grand tombs and monuments. But
none as large as that.”
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I point out the bustling markets below, the maize fields
and cacao plantations beyond the city, and the resplendent
jungle in the distance. Each time, K’an admits that España
has nothing better.
“Race you to the top of the pyramid,” he says, grinning.
I shouldn’t—pyramids aren’t for racing on—but I cannot
help myself, and I sprint after him, laughing as he cuts in
front of me and makes a jeering face. I let him reach the top
just before I do, and we collapse on the warm limestone,
gasping for breath. I turn to my companion. “What do you
really want from us, K’an?”
His smile quickly disappears. “Me? I want nothing. But
many from España hunger for your gold and would fight
you all for it.”
Can it be true—do they really eat gold? K’an’s people
are even stranger than I thought. “Let them try!” I declare
defiantly. “Our army will defend us, as it has many
times before.”
“I’m sure they are brave, but so were the Tulum
warriors—and I was there. I ran off into the jungle, but
traders caught me a few days later, and ... eventually they
brought me here.”
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CHAPTER 3
K’an’s Legacy
“What kind of people are these gold-eaters?” I question
my father later. “K’an talks as if he were ashamed of them.”
“What do you think?”
“I think … I need to know more,” I suggest hesitantly, and
my father nods his approval.
So I order the servants to prepare a banquet and to
serve only the finest foods—breadnut and sweet potatoes—
and the highest-quality cacao to drink. K’an declares that
he has never tasted such an exquisite feast, but his mood
darkens when the conversation turns to trade.
“My people won’t be interested in trading. They’ll steal
and enslave you all!” K’an cries. Before anyone can react, he
picks up an obsidian knife and rams it into the mahogany
table. The glassy stone blade immediately splinters. Then
he takes a strange metal knife he has hidden inside his
clothing and stabs the table again. The blade digs deep into
the wood without breaking. “Don’t you see? You cannot
fight steel with stone!”
What is steel? It doesn’t matter. I have heard enough.
K’an has insulted us, and he has also insulted his own
people and his own army. My duty is clear: “You are no
ambassador,” I rebuke him. “You’re a hostage, our prisoner.”
I motion to the guards to drag him away and then turn
to my guests. “Go!” I command. “Be gone, all of you!”
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The guests all flee, and my father, seeing my anger, also
rises from his chair. “No, Father, stay.” I remove the strange
knife from where it is embedded in the table and hand it
to him. The blade is like silver but not silver, and it is very
sharp—nearly as sharp as obsidian but far less brittle. “Such
knives would be useful for trade. And war—imagine a sword
made from this!”
My father coughs weakly and nods, but says nothing.
Once again, I seek his approval. “Have I failed, Father?”
He frowns at me. “No, my son, you did what was right,
and you have maintained Chakal’s honor.”
“But will the gold-eaters pay ransom to get him back?
Will his presence here stop them from attacking us? He has
shown great disloyalty to them too.”
“Prisoners have many uses.” My father scowls and then
coughs again—and again and again. He is shivering, but
when I hold him, his skin feels like fire. I call for his doctors,
but they can do nothing to ease my father’s distress. I am
sure this has something to do with K’an. He has angered the
gods with his disloyalty. I hurl his knife across the room; it
clangs and bounces into the shadows.
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Eventually my father drifts into a fitful slumber, but
the following morning, he worsens, shivering, coughing,
and gasping for breath. And he is not alone: two priests, a
doctor, and one of my uncles—all of whom were present at
last night’s banquet—are now coughing and feverish. My
nobles cluster together, anxiously whispering to each other:
“Are the gods punishing us? And if so, why?”
More priests and doctors arrive to attend the king, but
to no avail: by mid-afternoon, my father is dead.
Suddenly it becomes clear to me: the gods are angered
by K’an’s presence at our court. I summon my priests and
advisers to the throne room, and we are all in agreement.
K’an must be punished for his disloyalty, and we must act
immediately.
I order K’an to be brought before me, and I announce
my decision that he must leave Chakal and never return.
He stares at the floor, then nods as if agreeing with me
rather than obeying me. “I deserve it,” he sighs without
raising his head.
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I barely think of K’an again over the next few months,
for I am king now and my days are filled with endless royal
duties. Some still think of me as just a boy, so I must prove
them wrong.
There are treaties and alliances to negotiate and
renegotiate with neighboring states. My batabs, the local
chiefs, urge me to marry a suitable princess from Xocha,
and perhaps they are right because it would be a bad time
for war right now. Commerce flourishes, and we are richer
than ever—but we are also weaker, for the same coughing
sickness that took my father has since killed dozens of
nobles, including many of our best generals. Hundreds of
servants, workers, and enslaved people have died, too.
We have made many more sacrifices to the gods,
but still they are angry, still the sickness continues. Is all
of Chakal cursed? Have I done something wrong? Is my
father’s tomb not grand enough? Will all of Chakal perish
sooner or later? And the chilams are no use, predicting
upheaval and chaos as these priests always do.
One day as I am walking through one of the palaces, I
spot an odd shape on the dusty floor of an alcove. I stop,
realizing that it is K’an’s knife. The metal blade is no longer
shiny; instead, it is covered with reddish-brown blotches as
if it were rotting.
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It all makes sense to me now. Once again, I summon the
priests to the throne room.
“The España knife is cursed by the gods,” I tell them.
“Take it to a volcano and cast it into the lava; return it to
Xibalba. Then clean and purify this place. No, I have a better
idea—I command that this room be destroyed and that a
new temple be built in its place.”
“Yes, King Jaguar Moon.” They nod and smile in relief
and scurry to obey me, although I notice none will touch
the knife.
I smile, too, my first real smile in months. The gods will
be pleased at last, and the sickness will stop, or perhaps it
will eat the gold-eaters instead. And Chakal will return to its
former strength and remain strong forever.
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Summarize
Use important details from The
Details
Point of
View
Ambassador to summarize what
you have learned about life
in the ancient Mayan culture.
Information from your graphic
organizer may be helpful.
Text Evidence
1. How do you know The Ambassador is historical fiction?
GENRE
2. Whose point of view does the author mainly provide?
What is the main way he has done this?
POINT OF VIEW
3. What is the denotation or literal meaning of the word
fake on page 4? What are the connotations of the
word fake? CONNOTATIONS AND DENOTATIONS
4. From K’an’s point of view, write about Jaguar Moon’s
decision to make him an ambassador. Include details
from the story to explain K'an's point of view.
WRITE ABOUT READING
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Compare Texts
Read about how the ancient Mayans built their huge
pyramids and temples.
The Best Pyramid
Well
lll over 2
2,000
00
00 years ago, the
h Mayans began
b
building
b ild
pyramids. It’s thought the pyramids began as simple
platforms to drain rainwater away from important buildings.
Over time, the platforms were made permanent, using
blocks of limestone, then wider and taller, to impress
people and the gods. Many were rebuilt more than once
to become ever larger: the Temple of the Magician at
Uxmal was rebuilt and enlarged at least five times over
the centuries.
As pyramids grew larger, the quantities of stone required
became enormous. Most were built with only an outer
layer of solid stone, and the interiors were filled with loose
stone stabilized with pounded earth or concrete. Pyramid
exteriors were often covered in stucco, carved, and painted.
Only some Mayan states had limestone (or other suitable
stone) for pyramids. Because rock is difficult to transport,
especially without roads or carts or
even pack animals, limestone
Goodshoot / Fotosearch
was a limited resource.
Many Mayan pyramids
still exist today.
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Make Your Own Mayan Pyramid
Try making your own Mayan pyramid. For this activity, you
will need:
•
lots of plain wooden or plastic blocks (not the type that
clip together)
•
a square platform
•
paper or cardboard
•
scissors and glue
What to Do
1. Place blocks onto your platform to form a level base for
your pyramid.
2. Begin building each of the four sides of your pyramid,
making sure they are even and the blocks are as stable
as possible.
3. Keep count of how many blocks you are using.
4. Find an image of the temple built on the top of the
pyramid and see if you can balance such a structure
on your pyramid. (This could be made out of paper
or cardboard.)
5. Try making some steps that will ascend the middle of
each side of your pyramid. The Mayans discovered that
the best method for building the biggest and most
stable pyramid was to build it over an existing pyramid!
Some were rebuilt several times over hundreds of years,
growing bigger and more impressive each time.
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6. Using more blocks, become an ancient architect and
see if you can make your pyramid larger by adding
blocks to the existing structure. Count how many
more blocks you have used, and compare this with
the other students.
Cross-section of a Mayan Pyramid
Illustration: Sergi Camara
This diagram shows
how a Mayan pyramid
was made bigger.
New, stepped
limestone blocks
laid over existing
pyramid
Existing, older pyramid structure
Make Connections
How can you tell that building pyramids was very
important to the Mayan people? ESSENTIAL QUESTION
What feature of pyramid building made it possible for
Jaguar Moon and K’an to race to the top of a pyramid?
TEXT TO TEXT
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Historical Fiction Historical fiction uses real times, places, and
events to tell a story. The story might use the names of characters
who really existed, but the details, including dialogue and some
place names, are invented.
Read and Find Look for the signs that a story is set in a real time
from the past and in a place like one that existed at that time. You
could confirm your ideas by using an educational Internet site
or a reference book. Historical fiction does not usually contain
nonfiction features such as diagrams, maps, or fact boxes. As with
The Ambassador, historical fiction has the usual features of fiction,
such as a setting, characters, and a plot. Look for the use of
recently made illustrations rather than photos or old illustrations.
Your Turn
Use a graphic organizer or template to list some of the
features of the setting of The Ambassador. What details can
you identify that the writer has used to set the scene in a
realistic way? How do the descriptions help you understand
what living in the Mayan culture might have been like?
Choose one scene from the story and imagine you are there,
for example, when Jaguar Moon and K’an look out over the
city from the temple on page 8. Use an educational Internet
site to discover further historical details to add to your
description. Share your description with others. Are your
descriptions similar or very different?
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Literature Circles
Fiction
Setting
Where did The Ambassador take place?
At what time in history did it take place?
Characters
Who are the main characters in
The Ambassador?
Who are the other characters?
How does Jaguar Moon change from the
beginning to the end of the story?
Sequence of Events
What happened in The Ambassador?
What happened first, then, next, and finally?
Plot
What was K’an’s problem?
What did he do to try to resolve the problem?
What was the result for K’an?
Conclusions
What can you conclude about K’an’s people—
the “gold-eaters”?
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Ancient Societies
GR W • Benchmark 60 • Lexile TK
Grade 6 • Unit 2 Week 3
www.mheonline.com
ISBN-13 978-0-02-118646-4
MHID 0-02-118646-4
99701
EAN
9 780021 186464
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