Novelization of the screenplay with an 8-page color insert. This format tells the entire story of the movie from start to finish. Young readers will follow along on Manny, Sid and Diego's journey, learning as these three pals do, that just chillin' with friends can be incredibly cool!

CHAPTER ONE

Freezing wind swept across a barren plain of ice.

A little squirrel-like critter called a scrat scurried over the wasteland. The scrat carried a big acorn in his mouth.

He stopped and tried to jam his acorn into the ice, hoping to store his winter harvest. No matter how hard the scrat pushed, the acorn wouldn't break through the frozen crust. He hopped on it, forcing it down with all his weight.

With a frighteningly loud groan, a zigzagging crack broke the ice near the acorn. The scrat watched with wide, frightened eyes as the crack lengthened, unzipping across the icy plain, snapping a mountainous glacier in half. One piece of the glacier slammed into another, setting off a domino effect. Vast sections of ice tumbled onto the white field.

The scrat screamed. The falling mountains of ice crashed all around him, squashing the landscape, flattening trees. Grabbing his acorn, the tiny animal skittered across the plain. A tunnel of ice formed around him, narrowing suddenly, trapping him. He pushed forward, trying to force his way out. After a moment, the pressure of the moving ice behind him shot the scrat out of the tiny tunnel. He launched into the bright blue sky.

As he soared through the air, he spotted his acorn sailing beside him. He grabbed it and smiled.

Then the scrat noticed how high above the ground he was. He screamed again, dropping his acorn and plunging toward the plain below.

With a loud thud, the scrat hit the ground. After a few moments, he sat up, dazed. His acorn whacked him on the head, knocking him down again. He sat up once more before he was squashed again, this time by a giant foot.

When the foot lifted, the scrat peered around groggily. Through swirling dust, he could see a vast convoy of enormous animals heading south through a gigantic broken pass in the ice wall. Another heavy foot squished the scrat, and he stuck to the hoof like a chewed-up piece of gum. The scrat whimpered as he was dragged away from his acorn.

Near the front of the migration line, two freaky mammals waddled south. One craned his head toward his companion. "But how do we know it's an Ice Age?" he asked.

"Because of all the ice!" the other freaky mammal yelled.

The ground began to shake with thunderous footsteps. A gigantic, majestic creature lumbered through the crowd like an eighteen-wheel truck driving the wrong way through traffic. The giant animal had thick, matted orange-brown fur and sweeping, curved tusks. His name was Manfred.

"Spread out! Comin' through," the mammoth announced.

Little animals scurried out of Manfred's path. "Where're you goin'?" one animal called out.

"What are you doing?" another one shouted. "We're migrating here!"

A family of stocky beasts with stubby little trunks watched the woolly mammoth fight his way against traffic.

"Hey!" the father shouted to Manfred. "Do the world a favor and move your issues off the road!"

Manfred whipped out his trunk and grabbed the creature around the neck, pulling him close. "If my trunk was that small," he growled, "I wouldn't draw attention to myself, pal."

The animal trembled. "Give me a break," he muttered. "We've been waddling all day."

Manfred glanced up and saw the rest of the family watching with worried eyes. The burly mammoth sighed and put the father down on the ground. "Ah, go ahead, follow the crowd," he said.

 

J.E. Bright is a pseudonym for a widely published author of children’s books who has contributed to the popular Roswell High, Sweet Valley High, and Love Stories series.

 

Ice Age: The Movie Novel by J. E. Bright
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