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  Part 1

Introducing Jakes, Dustine and The Jumps

     Jakes and Dustin live with their parents in an enormous old wooden house which floats around in the sky. Their parents, Mavis and Theodore, are Soul Transporters. They return lost souls to their rightful owners. The Jumps are shy, brightly-colored creatures who live in the walls of the house. They are almost invisible, but not quite, and can be hard to find. Dustin, who's a bit of an inventor, comes up with a listening device that allows him and Jakes to hear them any time they like. Just as they discover that Little Blue Monster (LBM) like to do tricks and that Skotchatorian rides a motorcycle, the house prepares to make a landing in a thick fog. It's time to return some lost souls.
  Part 2

The Souls Touch Down

     The family assembles on the front steps of the turreted old house which is anchored just above the treetops in a pine forest. With cries of "Antelops!" and "Aardvarks!" and "Alligators!" and "Armadillos!" they leap into the fog together and float gently down. The parents hold a silken cord attached to a luminous gauzy bag of souls. Once everyone is safely on the ground, the souls regain their strength, recharge and spin off in all directions to be united with their owners. Jakes and Dustin realize that the trees are talking to them and go exploring with the help of a stick called a Direction-Finder. The family discovers an immense room in a hollowed-out tree and has a picnic. While the parents take a nap, sister and brother go off on their own and find themselves alone on an enormous ocean beach. After finding several things that look like something else - boats and tigers and a headless dancing man - and just as they are deciding they'd like to live on the beach forever, they hear the silver sounding-horns calling them home.

 
 

Part 3

Jakes and Dustin Night-Travel

     Mavis and Theo tell Jakes that it's time for her to try to return a soul. There's a boy at the far end of the beach who's lost his when he jumped offf a high cliff into the ocean and took fright. While returning the soul, Jakes accidentally ends up inside the boy's body. His name is Woolemi. She can hear his thoughts and he can hear hers. Together with Dustin and Woolemi's friend Katcha, they lay on some rolling green hills under a full moon. Dustin vanishes suddenly, magically summoned by him parents. To get free of Woolemi's body, Jakes tells him to jump off the cliff again. He does and it works - they have two separate bodies again. They make a pact to see each other again and Jakes runs back down the beach to find her family.

 
 

Part 4

How the Soul Transporters Came to Be

     Back in the floating house, Jakes is unhappy. She wants to be on earth with her new friends. After she threatens to dump the household supply of socks off the balcony, Theo agrees to tell her why they can't live off the ground- ever. Dustin and Jakes are "sky children" because they were born in the air. If they spend too long on the earth, they start to fade. As it is, they are invisible to all but family and close friends. Dustin claims he can travel without his body when he's asleep. Jakes decides she'll try it. Maybe she can find her friends.

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