Mario and the Koopa Conspiracy by Martin C. Featherworth (i am malala young readers edition txt) 📕

you in a while,” Penguru exclaimed in a slow trailing voice.
“Yes, it’s me Mario,” Mario said with a flash of a smile.
“Mario. Yeah, I remember you. You came here a while back to snatch up one of those silver stars.” Penguru continued scuffling through the sand. “So what are you here for now, boy?”
“I just wanted to…talk.” Penguru stood in front of Mario on the grassy top of the island. The bearded penguin leaned in closer to Mario, squinting in thought while looking him in the eyes.
Still staring into Mario’s soul, Penguru muttered, “No no…you do want something.” Mario turned his face away a bit. “Ah yes. You are worried about something. Something important to you. And you want me to help you.” Mario closed his eyes. He couldn’t hide anything from this wise and discerning bird.
“You’re absolutely right,” Mario said, defeated. “I was hoping you could spare me some of your wisdom.” Penguru let out a short chuckle. The penguin waddled around to the other side, facing Mario’s back. Mario turned to face him. Penguru looked off to the side, gazing upon a populated beach in the Sea Slide.
“Did I ever tell you…” Penguru began. He turned to look Mario in the eyes once again. “I know what a shy guy looks like under his mask,” Penguru said in a serious tone. Mario blinked in utter confusion.
“Um… You do?”
“Excuse me, but what do I do?” Penguru asked as if he’d already forgotten. He probably had.
“You…know what a shy guy looks like under his mask,” Mario repeated. Penguru continued with his thought.
“Oh yes! I do know,” Penguru said, raising a flipper. An awkward pause interrupted them.
“So…what does a shy guy look like under his mask?” Mario questioned. Penguru turned his head to the other side, looking upon the big tree near his water jet.
“That,” he said. “That is not important right now.” Mario stared in disbelief. He stretched his arms out on either side of him in a wide shrug.
“Then why did you even bring it up?” Mario demanded in a tone even higher than his normal voice. Penguru continued to focus on the tree.
“It got your mind off the topic,” he said calmly. “You have no reason to be worrying.” Penguru turned to Mario again. “The old Koopa King and the princess aren’t conspiring against you, boy.” Mario’s expression went deadpan. His mouth opened in an attempt to form words. A merry twinkle glinted in Penguru’s eye. “I just know these things. I imagine you will too once you reach my age.” Mario spoke not a word as Penguru bent down. He dug in the sand until he found a flat metal star. It was a shimmering iridescent gold. Penguru placed it right in the center of the circular island-top, where it hovered and began to spin. This object was known as a sling star. These and similar flat star-shaped objects had the power to launch a person into the air. This particular sling star was the way to get off Penguru’s island. As Mario stepped up closer to the sling star, it pulled him into the center where he floated along with it. Before he flew away, Mario just had to ask Penguru one last question.
“I don’t mean to be impolite, but how old are you, anyway?” Penguru smiled.
“You’re not being impolite, at least in my book.” Penguru looked at the sling star, then back at Mario. “I am one-hundred twenty-three years old, and I’m still spry!” He held his flippers out triumphantly. Mario had to smile.
“I don’t think I’ll ever live that long,” remarked Mario, his smile turning sad. “The people back in my world never lived that long.”
“Who’s to say you won’t live as long as me? After all, you’re not on Earth anymore.” Mario looked away thoughtfully. Penguru gave another sly grin. He placed his flipper on an edge of the star. Mario knew he was going to spin it and activate its flight power. “Oh, and one last thing,” said Penguru. The old penguin leaned in closer to Mario’s face. “Find out the truth, and everything will be made right.” Mario furrowed his brow, puzzled. What did Penguru mean by that? Penguru stood up straight again and pushed the star as if he were pushing a merry-go-round. The sling star shot Mario off into the sky. 2: A Charming Family and a Hasty Goodbye

Mario flew with grace (well, as with as much grace as a goofy-looking fat cartoon character could fly with) through the air. He had used sling stars dozens, if not hundreds of times. Sling stars were part of a group of similar flat metal stars used to hover or fly. There were also larger orangey gold-colored ones called launch stars and smaller blue ones called pull stars. Mario had become quite familiar with these over the course of his adventures. Launch stars and sling stars worked in almost the same way: one stepped into the star to hover, and spun it to fly. There was always a set flight course for every one, unlike pull stars. With pull stars, one made their own path to hover through. Pull stars somehow, as their name would suggest, pulled a person into the air to float. Mario himself still wasn’t quite sure how they worked. Was it some sort of futuristic technology? Was it an ancient secret? Was it telepathy? Of course, lots of things in this particular reality seemed to be impractical, improbable, and impossible. Right now, Mario was soaring from a floating island to a floating body of water! Nobody in the Toadstoolian realm seemed to ever be able to explain many of the mysteries. Nobody even knew they were mysteries!
As Mario pondered these things, he flew on a course to one of the beach areas of the watery loop. He landed amidst a team of sunbathing bees. Mario had not landed back by the lighthouse or the toads’ ship. He would have to swim through several penguin families to get back to where he started from. Ignoring admiring vacationers, Mario waded into the water. Child penguins played in the waves, oblivious to others who tried to get around them. Mario was forced to have to invade personal space just to get out to the deeper water. Nope, it wasn’t any less crowded out here. After a while of attempting to navigate past groups of penguins, Mario decided to dive under the water. Ah yes, underwater swimming — yet another thing that seemed to defy sound science. Mario could sustain his breath underwater forever…when provided air bubbles, that is. Sometimes he didn’t even need air bubbles! Mario wondered how possible it was to drown someone here, though he never wanted to find out (he preferred stomping anyway). Mario had been in countless death-defying situations, and that’s not even including the eternal mystery of green 1-up mushrooms that can resurrect you after you’re killed! Immortality seemed to be a commonplace thing here.
Mario pushed himself along inside the deep blue. The lack of penguins and their voices was calming. After swimming about three-fourths of the way to the lighthouse, he felt he was out of breath. He resurfaced. Mario had passed through the stone ring, a new record. It was far less populated in the area, so Mario decided to linger there in the water. He glanced back to the beach where he had landed.
“If this place existed in Earth, it would probably still be that full,” he remarked under his breath. Near an artificial island, Mario thought he spied the little orange penguin he had shared a brief exchange with upon his arrival. It was the penguin; he waved at Mario again. He lifted his hand out of the water to wave back, but the penguin had already turned away to some friends. Mario smiled at the cuteness and innocence of everything around him; he just couldn’t help it! Cuteness and innocence seemed to always be prevalent in this realm. Most of the time, Mario enjoyed it. Other times, it drove Mario to madness. Destructive madness. Mario would sometimes lash out for no reason and…stomp unnecessary amounts of goombas and koopas. He knew all-too-well that he had a problem. Every day, Mario wished for it to be different, for the madness to stop. His current thoughts about the princess did nothing to help. It was torturous to Mario that however many times he rescued the princess, she always seemed eager to be kidnapped again. With every time he saved the princess again, he drifted deeper and deeper into a troubled state of mind. Of course, he had also gotten better and better at hiding away all his problems with a big cheery smile while slinking away later to fester in his emotions. Mario told not a soul about it. Not even his brother Luigi, although Luigi knew anyway. He hadn’t told anyone about Mario, had he?
Oh stop. Now you’re just being paranoid, Mario thought to himself. Too paranoid for your own good. You came here to try to relax and forget about all that. Mario took a deep breath. Look there on that beach. There’s little Edmund’s family. Indeed it was. Four adult navy-blue penguins and one child, who had to be Eddie’s sister that he had mentioned. Two of them played in the water with the sister while the other two sat in beach chairs, smiling at each other and holding each other’s flippers. The two in the chairs appeared to be older, as they were more grayish in color. They were Eddie’s grandparents, and they made apparent their love for each other. It was scenes like this that reminded Mario that his problems weren’t the most important thing in the universe. It was scenes like this that reminded him that he wasn’t the only person that mattered. Mario laughed at himself.
“Here you are all depressed and bitter, and you’re still a sucker for mushy cute things,” he said to himself. He smiled a bit, though it didn’t make him feel much better. Becoming aware of his different surroundings, Mario looked around. Over the course of his thoughts, Mario had let himself drift almost all the way to the dock by the beach where Eddie’s family was. He didn’t care, though. Mario continued to float down the loop.
On the same beach as the penguin family, the Toad Brigade had set up their red yellow and teal umbrella as well as a few beach towels. There were five of the happy little mushroom people: one whose spots were pink, one whose were red, one whose were green, one whose were yellow, and one whose were blue. Mario never remembered any of their names, but he remembered that the red one was referred to as Captain, as he was the leader of the Brigade. Four of the brigade members relaxed and meandered around the beach and in the water. The Captain, the pink toad, the yellow toad, and the green toad were all on the shore. Where was the glasses-wearing blue toad? Mario kicked through the water to get a different angle of the beach. There! The