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Snakes, Eyeballs and Indians
Anthology
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Gill & Macmillan
Hume Avenue
Park West
Dublin 12
www.gillmacmillan.ie
ISBN: 9780717153145
©John Hartnett, Eithne Kennedy, Patricia O’Doherty, Eileen Phelan 2012
Design: Outburst Design / Aisli Madden
Cover illustration: Aisli Madden
Inside illustrations: MSM Studios, Brian Fitzgerald, Annie West,
Barking Dog, Keith Barrett
Printed by Edelvives, Spain
First published March 2012
The paper used in this book is made from the wood pulp of managed forests. For every
tree felled, at least one tree is planted, thereby renewing natural resources.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means without written permission of the publishers.
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DearReader,
Welcome to Snakes Eyeballs and Indians. This anthology is filled with a wide range of
interesting fiction, poetry and non-fiction pieces. We hope you have as much fun reading
this selection, as we had in putting it together.
The fiction includes extracts from lots of different kinds of stories: funny ones, sad ones,
historical stories, fantasies, mysteries, as well as graphic novels and classics. We hope that
if you really like an author or a story you will go on to read the entire novel and find other
titles in that genre or by the same author.
Within the non-fiction, there is a variety of pieces, from information to interviews to
puzzles. You can read about topics that link up with some of the fiction themes. For
example, after an historical fiction story there may be a factual piece that shows you what
life was really like during that period. Then there are pieces relating to the kinds of
reading you may have to do in order to locate information or to complete a task e.g. how
to read a timetable or a recipe. These pieces have lots of photographs, tables, maps and
headings to help you learn about the topic.
As well as introducing you to a range of genres, this book is designed to help you boost
your reading skills and develop the strategies that good readers use. There are ‘before
reading’, ‘during reading’ and ‘after reading’ questions or prompts to help you along the
way. Let’s take a look at some of these special features.
Beforereading:
Think of this as a warm-up activity for reading. It is about getting your mind ready to read
the text. We may ask you to make
predictions about what you imagine the text
will be about by checking the title,
examining the artwork or photographs,
scanning and reading headings, or
considering what you already know about
the topic or the author’s style of writing.
Duringreading:
Notice the little stars on the page. These are
a signal to you to check out the prompt or
question in the coloured box at the end of
the page before you read on. It is also a
signal to slow down your reading and to
ponder this important element of the story.
We might ask you to notice how the author creates a mood or how a character is feeling or
why they reacted to a particular event in the story.
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Afterreading(fiction):
Notice the icons on the left-hand
side. They are a signal to you that
you have to think differently in
order to answer the question.
These questions ask you to recall details from the story. There is only one
right answer and you can find it in one particular spot in the story.
These questions also ask you to recall some details from the story. The answer
is in the text but you will have to find it in different parts of the story and put
it all together to respond correctly. This section may also draw attention to
particular words or phrases in the story.
These questions ask you to read between the lines. This means the question
cannot be answered directly from the text and there is no one right answer.
These questions are great ‘conversation starters’. You may also find your
answer or opinion differs to that of your classmates. You will need to back up
your answer with evidence from the text, so you may have to re-read parts of
the story and think deeply about these questions.
These questions also relate to the story but go beyond it. The answer is not in
the text. In fact, you could answer the question without having read the text.
They are ‘real world’ questions that may ask you to think about the theme of
the story or a particular topic or issue. These too are great ‘conversation
starters’.
At the end of each extract, we have (where possible) included the cover of the book it was
taken from and earmarked if an audio recording of this extract is available on our website:
www.fireworksenglish.ie
So happy reading, thinking and debating... go have some fun; lose yourself in a story, a
poem or discover something new in an information piece.
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Contents
The London Eye Mystery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Siobhan Dowd
The Demon Headmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Gillian Cross
All the fun of the fair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Don’t Be Scared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Carol Ann Duffy
Anneli the Art Hater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Anne Fine
The Hobbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
J. R. R. Tolkien
The National Gallery of Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Tolkien and his world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
The Indian in the Cupboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Lynne Reid Banks
Far Over the Misty Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
J. R. R. Tolkien
Native Americans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
There was an Indian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Sir John Squire
The Great Gilly Hopkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Katherine Paterson
Zlata’s diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Olivia Kidney: Hot on the Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Ellen Potter
Wilderness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Roddy Doyle
Goran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
John Foster
The Cinnamon Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Aubrey Flegg
Antarctic explorers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Lights! Camera! Action! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Me and My Brother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Michael Rosen
The Thornthwaite Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Gareth P. Jones
Framed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Frank Cottrell Boyce
William Butler Yeats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
A trip to the theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Seamus Heaney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
The Scottish Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Stan Barrett
Enda Wyley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
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Searching the small ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Inkheart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Cornelia Funke
Get there on time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
A Fortunate Find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
John Foster
Where Is It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
John Foster
The Eyeball Collector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
F.E. Higgins
Word puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
No Passengers Beyond This Point . . . . . . . . . 158
Gennifer Choldenko
Interview with Gennifer Choldenko . . . . . . . 166
Debate the issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
What it says in the papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
The Word Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Richard Edwards
19 Railway Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Michael Scott and Morgan Llywelyn
Number 29 Fitzwilliam street
(Dublin in 1700s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
On Aging
Maya Angelou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
River Boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Tim Bowler
Lion King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Joseph Woods
From Ithaka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
C.V. Cavafy
You Can’t Be That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Brian Patten
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Read the title of the book and the chapter title. Make a prediction about what might
happen in this extract.
Have you ever been on a Big Wheel? Talk about the experience.
THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY
SiobhanDowd
Ted and his older sister Kat live with their parents in London. Ted’s brain has its ‘own unique operating
system’ which colours the way he interprets the world and how he reacts to every day events. Auntie
Glo and her son Salim who have not been in touch with the family for many years, come to stay a few
days with them, on their way to a new life in New York. They decide to do some sightseeing and begin
the day by visiting the London Eye. The children’s mother and Auntie Glo go to have coffee nearby
while the children queue for tickets. While they are in the queue a stranger comes up and offers his
ticket to the children. As Ted and Kat have been on the London Eye before, they offer the ticket to
Salim...
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Chapter seven: The Wheel Turns
‘Let’s see if we can follow Salim on his way round,’ Kat said. The pod he was in was rising. By
walking backwards we found we could track it as it slowly arced from six o’clock anti-clockwise to
four o’clock.
While we watched, I started to tell Kat the facts I knew about the Eye: how it was not really a
Ferris wheel at all and how on a clear day you can see for twenty-five miles from it, but she
interrupted me and said, ‘D’you like Salim, Ted?’
‘He’s our cousin,’ I said. ‘Which means we share fifty per cent of our gene pool.’
‘Yeah, but d’you like him?’
‘Hrumm. I –’
‘Don’t you feel anything? Ever?’
‘I like him, Kat. He’s my friend.’
She nodded. ‘He’s cute.’
‘Cute,’ I said. Kat calls lots of things cute, including cats, football players, movie stars and skirts
and babies. Which means that cute doesn’t mean much because if everything’s cute, what isn’t?
Me, I suppose. I don’t suppose Kat would ever call me cute.
‘Salim’s a mosher,’ I said.
‘A mosher?’
‘It’s northern for “casual, cool dude”,’ I said. ‘And he gets lonely. He told me.’
‘Really?’ Kat sounded impressed. ‘Perhaps it’s having to move to New York. I’d be lonely if I had to
leave all my friends.’
We kept watching the London Eye go round. It was like a huge clock only going anti-clockwise.
Salim’s pod moved from three o’clock to two o’clock just as an aeroplane flew low overhead.
‘Kat?’ I said.
‘What?’
‘What does it mean when something is up your street?’
‘Huh?’
‘Salim said The Tempest would be right up my street. He acted in it at school last term.’
Kat laughed. ‘We’ve been reading it at school too. Mr Moynihan keeps making me read Miranda’s
part and she’s such a bloody dishrag.’
I considered this. ‘So it’s not up your street?’
‘No way.’ The pod was nearing one o’clock. ‘What d’you think of Auntie Glo?’ Kat asked.
I remembered what Dad said about her leaving a trail of devastation in her wake. Then I
remembered how she’d said I was like Andy Warhol, a cultural icon. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Me neither. I heard Dad say to Mum that Auntie Glo drives him bananas. And I found two
empty bottles of wine on top of the fridge.’
In my mind’s eye, Aunt Gloria turned into a motorist with driving goggles and a huge
consignment of bananas in the back seat. ‘You mean, she drives him bananas the same way I drive
you nuts?’ I said.
‘Bananas. Nuts. Round the bend. Off your trolley. Whatever.’
What are your first impressions of Kat and Ted?
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She laughed and I joined in because it showed I knew what she meant even if I wasn’t sure what
was funny about Aunt Gloria making Dad feel insane.
Then Salim’s pod got to its highest point, twelve o’clock, and we both said, ‘NOW!’ at the same
time and laughed again, and this time I meant the laugh. We’d been tracking the same pod, the
exact one Salim was in. My watch said 11.47. He was right on schedule and at the top the sun
made the glass shine.
The pod sank slowly to nine o’clock. I remembered from the time we’d gone up before how, near
the end of the ride, a souvenir photograph is taken automatically. The London Eye managers have
fixed a camera into position, so that a good shot of everyone is possible against a backdrop of Big
Ben. It happens somewhere between eight and seven o’clock. I saw the dark figures inside Salim’s
pod gather to one side, facing out northeast to where the camera was. I even made out a flash.
Then we walked back to where we’d arranged to meet Salim and waited for his pod to land. At
12.02 precisely it came back to earth. The pod doors opened. A group of six grown-up Japanese
tourists came out first. Then came a fat man and woman with their two small boys who were also
fat, which probably meant they all ate too much convenience food and needed to improve their
diet. The girl in the fluffy jacket followed, arm in arm with her boyfriend. A big burly man in a
raincoat, with white hair and a briefcase, came out next. He looked like he should have been
getting off a commuter train, not the Eye. And then came a tall, thin blonde lady holding hands
with a grey-haired man who was much shorter than her. Finally two African women in flowing,
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colourful robes came out, laughing like they’d just been at the fun fair. Four children of various
ages were with them and they looked very happy.
But of Salim there was no sign.
I knew straight away that something was wrong.
‘Hrumm,’ I said.
Kat screwed up her face. ‘I could have sworn he was in that one, with the Japanese . . .’ The
passengers wandered off in different directions. ‘He must be on the next one.’
We waited but he wasn’t. Nor the one after, or the one after that.
A bad feeling slithered up my oesophagus.
‘Stay here,’ Kat said, gripping my hand. ‘Don’t move.’
She dropped my hand and ran off. I didn’t like being left on my own in those crowds. I kept
blinking and looking around, thinking Salim would re-materialize. Then I started to think I’d lost
Kat too. Then I realized I didn’t know how to find Mum and Aunt Gloria, which meant I was lost
as well. My hand flapped and I forgot about trying to stop it.
What do you think is going through Ted and Kat’s minds?
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Then Kat came back. ‘No sign of Salim?’
‘No, Kat.’
‘I bought this,’ she said. ‘A souvenir photo. I looked at all of them, the ones before and the ones
after, but I couldn’t find any with Salim in. This is the one with the Japanese and the African ladies.’
She showed me the photograph and I looked at the faces of strangers, smiling and waving at the
camera. Various bits of people were chopped off, as the pod had been quite full. You could see half
a face here, an arm waving there. But nothing that looked remotely like Salim.
‘Salim isn’t there,’ I said.
Then I said, ‘Salim has disappeared.’
Kat groaned. ‘Mum and Auntie Glo are going to be livid.’
What do you think has happened to Salim?
1. What does Ted compare the London Eye to?
2. At what point of the journey is the souvenir photo taken on the London
Eye?
3. Describe the passengers of the pod that Kat and Ted thought Salim
was in.
4. How did Kat and Ted keep track of the pod that Salim was in?
5. Ted interprets the world a little differently. Find some examples in
the extract. How do you think this makes life challenging for him?
6. What have you learned about the London Eye from this extract?
7. How are Kat and Ted alike? How are they different?
8. Who is telling this story? How would it be different if it were told
from Kat’s point of view?
9. How would you have reacted if you had been there with Ted and Kat?
10. Auntie Glo plays a minor role in this chapter. What kind of character
would you say she is? Provide evidence from the text to back up your
opinion.
11. What kind of things would you consider are ‘right up your street’? Talk
about it.
12. What does it mean to be a cultural icon? Who would you say is a
cultural icon today?
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Allthefunofthefair
1.
2.
3.
4.
List as many funfair attractions as you can.
Which is your favourite one? Why?
Scan the headings. What do you know about any of them?
What other headings would you like to see in a unit on funfairs?
Thefirstfairs
Fairs have been around for more than 2,500 years. In ancient Rome, trade fairs were held once
a year when people came together to buy and sell goods, and also to relax and enjoy
themselves. The word ‘fair’ comes from a Roman word meaning holiday. Drawings of riders in
baskets circling a post from 51 AD show possibly the earliest merry-go-round. In the Middle
Ages, fairs in Europe were held on holy days. Travelling entertainers went from fair to fair,
putting on various sideshows to amuse the crowds. Jugglers, jesters, fire-eaters and acrobats
all competed with one another, creating an atmosphere of fun and excitement, as people went
from stall to stall looking at what the various merchants had to offer.
Swingsandroundabouts
Funfairs first started about 200 years ago, around the time of the Industrial Revolution when
large numbers of people moved to towns and cities. Most people spent long days in coal
mines and factories and had little time for entertainment. A funfair held once a year brought
welcome relief from the drudgery of daily life.
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One of the first funfair
attractions was a steampowered roundabout with
wooden horses. The rides
were called ‘gallopers’. Other
attractions included swings,
flying chairs and stalls with
hoop-la and rifle shooting. In
1906, the first helter-skelter
appeared at a funfair in
Newcastle, England.
Electric-poweredrides
In time, new electric rides began to take the place of
old steam rides. The show people used their own
generators to make electricity. With electricity came
new thrills: ghost trains and waltzers, big wheels and
dippers. There were new foods too, such as candyfloss
and toffee apples. Candyfloss machines were
invented in the United States in the 1920s.
Dodgem cars were invented in 1927. Not many
people owned cars at the time and a ride in the
dodgem cars was regarded as very exciting. The
miniature electric cars were connected to an
overhead grid which supplied electricity. Wide
rubber bumpers prevented cars from causing harm.
Dodgem cars, or ‘bumper cars’ as they are now
called, are still popular today.
Funderland
One of Ireland’s best known funfairs is Funderland, which runs every year in Dublin, Cork
and Belfast. It is the largest travelling theme-park in Europe. Children and adults alike can
experience the thrills and excitement of attractions such as the Big Wheel (which rises to a
height of almost 40 metres) and the Speed Loop Roller-coaster (which takes you on an
exhilarating 360 degree loop).
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Virtualrides
The latest innovation at funfairs is the virtual ride. A Stars Tour adventure at Disneyland,
California, USA, takes you on a fantastic journey into outer space, without ever leaving the
theme park. The ride makes you feel as if you are really travelling through the stars in a
spaceship. It does this by tricking your body into thinking it is moving. ‘Space Travellers’ sit in
an auditorium which moves in different directions. They watch a specially shot film of outer
space. Each movement on the film screen is matched by the movement of the auditorium.
The result is a ride that feels like actual space travel.
TheLondonEye
The London Eye is a giant Ferris wheel located on the
banks of the River Thames. It was originally called The
Millennium Wheel because it was built to celebrate the
year 2000. Why a Ferris wheel? The turning of the wheel
was meant to represent the turning of the century. The
London Eye stands 135 metres tall, (taller than a football
field is long) and is the most popular paid-for tourist
attraction in London. By June 2008, 30 million people
had visited the London Eye.
At the top of the London Eye, on a clear day, it is possible to see a
distance of 40 kilometres. Each rotation takes half an hour, and the wheel moves at about one
kilometre per hour. Because of its slow speed, passengers can easily step on and off without
the wheel ever having to stop – though for elderly or disabled passengers, the wheel can come
to a complete stop for safety. At a certain point while the wheel is rotating, a photograph is
taken of all the people in the capsule, which can be bought as a souvenir afterwards. The
London Eye carries 3.5 million customers each year. Each of the 32 capsules holds up to 25
people, allowing the London Eye to transport 800 people at a time. The Eye also offers special
packages, including private capsule hire, complete with champagne, cocktails or even
breakfast if requested. Many couples get engaged or married on the London Eye.
Each morning, safety checks are performed, by computer and manually, on all aspects of the
London Eye. While it is moving, safety sensors in each capsule send ongoing reports back to a
control room on the ground. Every system has its glitches, however. In March 2008, the wheel
malfunctioned and stranded 400 passengers for about an hour. Engineers noticed an error in
one of the tires that rotates the Eye and they stopped the wheel to make emergency repairs.
Nobody was hurt but many passengers were quite frightened.
The first Ferris wheel was erected at Midway, Chicago for the World Fair in 1893. It was
intended to rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. For 50 cents a ride, passengers were
given a panoramic view of Chicago. The wheel was named after its inventor, George Ferris.
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Roller-coasters
Roller-coasters have a long, fascinating history.
Amazing ice slides, thought to be their forerunner,
were popular in Russia as far back as the 1500s. Some
of these slides were over 20 metres high and were the
original adrenalin-rush rides. People sped down in
sleds made out of wood or blocks of ice, coming to a
halt in a sand pile at the bottom. To this day, ‘Russian
Mountains’ is the word used in many languages for
roller-coasters.
The original Switchback Gravity
Railway, the first roller-coaster
designed as an amusement.
One of the first American roller-coasters was the
Switchback Gravity Railway built in New York in the
1880s. Passengers climbed to the top of a platform
and descended the 180 metre railway track in a bench-like
car and up to the top of another tower. There they switched
vehicles and made the return journey. Later, complete
circuits were developed which included going through dark
tunnels. Not surprisingly, these early amusements were
sometimes known as ‘scream machines’.
Roller-coaster rides became very popular in the USA
over the following years and by the 1920s there were about
2,000 such attractions around the country. The Great
Depression of 1929 and the years that followed
saw a decline in amusement parks. They did not become
popular again until the 1950s, when an enterprising
American brought fresh energy to the industry. The man’s
name was Walt Disney and he created the greatest
amusement park of all – Disneyland – which opened in
1955. About 600 million people have visited it since then.
An old wooden
roller-coaster
The original wooden tracks were, in time, replaced with
steel. This allowed great change in the design of rollercoasters, as steel could be twisted into any shape – enter
the loop!
Over the years the roller-coaster has been developed,
adding more thrills and excitement to the ride. Freefall –
drop and inverted – roller-coasters have brought it to a
new level, far removed from the ice slopes of Russia.
The most popular ride at
fairgrounds today is the
roller-coaster.
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Strange as it may seem, roller-coasters require no engines! The cars are hauled up the first
slope by a system of chains that are under the track and which connect to the bottom of the
cars. In some newer roller-coasters, a catapult launch system is used to propel the cars up the
first slope. From there, a combination of speed, friction and gravity takes the cars through
their exhilarating, winding and breathtaking course. The biggest drop is always the first one,
so that the cars can build up enough speed and energy for the next ones. A system of brakes at
the end – located in the track, not the cars – brings the rollercoaster to a safe stop, ready for
the next ascent.
Didyouknow?
The amusement park with the most roller-coasters (16) is Six Flags Magic
Mountain in California, USA.
The fastest roller-coaster is in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. It can
travel at speeds of 240 kilometres.
. It
The world’s longest roller-coaster is Steel Dragon 2000 in Kuwana, Mie, Japan
is over 2,400 metres long.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
10
What was the London Eye originally called?
How were the first roller-coasters different from today’s?
Make a funfair timeline beginning with the earliest attraction.
List as many words as you can to describe how you might feel during a roller-coaster
ride.
Find out about other attractions that can be found at amusement parks.
Make a plan of your own funfair ground. Think about facilities and attractions.
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Read the title. Why do you think Anneli might hate art?
Look at the illustrations. What do you think might happen in the extract?
There is some interesting vocabulary used in this extract. Look out for examples
as you read.
Anneli the Art Hater
AnneFine
Chapter one
‘More pink, dear, don’t you think?’
Anneli didn’t, but was too polite to say
so.
Miss Pears dabbed once or twice at
Anneli’s painting.
‘There! Much, much better. But you’ll
need more.’
Anneli scowled as Miss Pears turned
her back and started mixing more pink.
She hated painting. She hated anything
to do with art. She loathed messing
with clay and smudging with pastels.
She disliked greasy crayons and
despised collages. She hated all nontoxic glues and tatty little scraps of
coloured material and dried pasta shells
and leftover Christmas wrapping paper.
She was bored stiff by all those
interminable discussions about what
everyone was going to do.
‘What a good idea, Henry! Who else
has an idea? Anyone? No one?’
She hated the chaotic sharing out of all
the horrid stuff that they were going to
do it with.
‘Bags the red!’
‘I asked first!’
‘No, you did not!’
‘Swap the green lace for half those beads? Please? Pretty, pretty please?’
‘He asked first!’
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‘No, he didn’t!’
She hated all discussion of themes.
‘Winter? We had that last week. Sunshine? Not enough yellow and orange scraps left, I’m afraid.
Any more bright ideas? Henry? Aliens from Outer Space? Good, Henry. That should get rid of
some of this tin foil.’
And whatever the theme chosen in the end, Anneli hated doing it. She’d toil away, getting it
finished as soon as possible, but she resented all Miss Pears’ encouraging remarks as she made her
way round the room, rescuing a warped drawing of a cat for one person, mixing an awkward redbrown colour for another, breaking up fights. She hated having to show the finished product to
her friends afterwards, especially to Henry. She hated carrying it home, whatever it was. She hated
having to stand there while her mother praised it, however awful it was, and stuck it on the fridge
door for the whole world to see. She hated having to look at it every morning over her crunchy
cereal while it got grubbier and grubbier, until the sellotape at last dried up and mercifully it fell
off and slid out of sight under the fridge, the final resting place for all Anneli Kuukka’s artistic
endeavours.
To be fair, she hated other people’s art more. She walked down school corridors with her eyes
averted from all the bright splashes of colour pinned up on the walls. When Tony Hart came on
the television she clutched her belly, pretending to vomit and switched him straight off. Class trips
to the local Art Gallery made her squirm.
‘Look at that! Isn’t that breath-taking? Have a good peep at the brush work. Don’t we all wish that
we could paint like that?’
‘No.’
‘Yuk.’
‘Well, he got paid.’
Yes, Anneli Kuukka was a real art hater. Miss Pears turned back with the freshly mixed pink and
Anneli wiped the scowl from her face, but still it sat in her heart as she dabbed and poked and
scraped about with the bald old paintbrush, trying to use up a bit of the extra pink anywhere there
was room so as not to seem rude, longing for the bell to ring and release her.
Brrrrrrr!
‘Heavens! The bell! We haven’t even begun putting away. Oh, dear me!’
Anneli sighed. It happened every week. Everyone knew the bell was going to ring, and nobody
warned her. They all preferred ten minutes of clearing up the art material to ten extra minutes of
whatever might come after. It was a gamble. By afternoon, Miss Pears only sporadically fell in
with the time-table. You might be lucky and miss maths. But, then again, you might miss
wonderful, peaceful, almost-as-good-as-being-back-home silent reading. It all depended on how
much strength Miss Pears had left.
And she was pretty old. Towards the end of the afternoon it started showing more. Wisps of grey
hair escaped from her bun and straggled down the back of her neck. Her woollies sagged on her
like bean sacks. Her stockings wrinkled round her legs. She always seemed to shrink an inch or
two between morning register and afternoon bell.
What are your first impressions of a.) Anneli b.) Henry?
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Today she looked completely worn out. It came as no surprise to Anneli to see her sink onto her
chair well before the clearing up was completed. A stream of commands came from behind her
desk, laced with advice and praise for the co-operative, scoldings and threats for all the rest. She
kept her feet up all the same.
‘And now I want to talk to you about the new Art Room Appeal.’
Groans. Mutters. The surreptitious sliding out of desks and on to laps of books and comics. What
did she want to go on about that again for? Hadn’t they given enough of their pocket money, and
wheedled enough out of their parents to build a new Art Room out of ivory bricks and equip it
with diamond-studded easels and ermine paint-rags? Perhaps there were plans to fill the paint
pots with molten silver and gold? They’d been collecting long enough...
‘Even more money...’
Oh, not again! The giant jam jar on her desk had been filled up and emptied four times. Art
Room Appeal receipts curled over one another on the notice board. They’d reached the class
target three times already, but Miss Pears was mad on painting, and wouldn’t stop.
‘... not go running to your parents, who have more than enough strains on their purses, but think
of things to do yourselves. Can anyone think of any ways of making a little money? No one?
Henry?’
Anneli slumped down on her folded arms and shut her eyes. She heard good old Henry droning
on about baking cakes to sell in break-time, and sweeping up dead leaves (not that it was the time
of year for that, but Miss Pears didn’t seem to notice), and looking for precious old forgotten
things in attics. Then Henry’s drone tuned into the sound of waves lapping a sunlit shore, and she
was miles away, knee-deep in salty water, her arms speckled with gritty golden sand, her eyelids
spangled with glistening water drops.
Surina brought her back by passing a tattered Beano across her to Owen, and asking:
‘What are you going to do, then?’
‘What?’
‘To make money. What are you going to do?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. I’ll think of something.’
And think she did, all the way home. It wasn’t so easy. She almost began wishing she’d listened to
Henry. After all, if money were so very easy to come by, someone smart would already have
scooped it up. All very well to talk of baking cakes to sell at break-time. Anneli’s mother came
home worn out. Teaching stiff, shy beginners to dance is no joke. Anneli could imagine only too
easily the look of pain her mother would turn to the ceiling if Anneli fixed stern eyes on her and
told her it was baking time.
What about Jodie? Jodie and Josh lived in the top half of the house, and just as Anneli’s mother
looked after little Josh whenever Jodie had to go back and work in the evenings, so Jodie was
supposed to be in charge of Anneli when her mother taught her dance classes at the Community
How has the author built up a vivid picture of Miss Pears?
What plans would you have for making money?
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Centre. Would Jodie help her bake the cakes? No doubt she would; but she’d be bound to let Josh
help – she was his mother, after all – and Josh was only two and a half. He was a messer. He’d
drop bits of egg shell in the cake mixture, and fiddle with the oven temperature dial while they
were cooking, and spoon the runny icing over the tops while the cakes were still too hot to take it.
He’d put the cherry halves on upside down. He’d ruin the whole batch. Anneli knew it.
She reached the corner. The towering wrought-iron gates guarding the driveway that led up to
Carrington Lodge were padlocked shut, as usual. As usual, Anneli stopped, dropped her school
bag and clutched the bars, peering inside. The Lodge was now a children’s home, and sometimes,
in fine weather, the children could be seen in the gardens, some lying on waterproof rugs on the
lawns, some scuttling around in their wheelchairs, some being carried to and fro by paid helpers
like Jodie. Anneli liked to wave, if they were there. They always waved back, if they could. They
all knew Anneli because Jodie sometimes had to take her and Josh along in order to get to work
at all.
But today there was no one in sight. Only the drive and what little could be seen of the long
sloping lawns, and the six great holly trees shading the high stone wall behind. No point in
hanging about. Anneli picked up her bag and strolled on, into her own street, her thoughts
turning back to Henry and his ideas for making money.
Cake baking might be out, but what about the other two ideas? What were they, now? Oh, yes.
Sweeping up leaves. Ridiculous! Anneli hadn’t seen a dead leaf for months. And looking for
precious things in attics.
Anneli sighed, raising her eyes to heaven. Sometimes she really wondered where Henry’s
reputation came from. In looking up, she caught
sight of Old Mrs Pears’ pale face behind the glass of
an upstairs window. Mrs Pears waved. As she came
up the shared garden path, Anneli waved back,
politely feigning a happy smile. When your own
teacher’s mother lives next door, you don’t take
chances. Safe in the porch, the smile dropped away
like a discarded Hallowe’en mask, and moodily
kicking the door open, Anneli walked in.
Chapter two
Behind the door, Josh was standing on one leg,
waiting for her, his thumb in his mouth and the
purple velvet cloth to which he’d been attached for as
long as Anneli could remember clutched tightly in
his fist as usual.
‘Hello, Josh.’
‘Lo.’
Why didn’t Anneli enjoy meeting old Mrs Pears?
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