A Talent for Trouble

A Talent for Trouble

by Natasha Farrant
A Talent for Trouble

A Talent for Trouble

by Natasha Farrant

Hardcover

$16.99 
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Overview

A girl determined to follow her dream persuades two friends to join her for an off-the-grid adventure that becomes a survival story as they confront storms, illness, injury, and a gang of international jewel thieves.

Desperate to meet up with her unpredictable father, quiet Alice persuades two friends to abandon their boarding school’s orienteering exercise and head for a remote, inaccessible island. As they confront storms, illness, injury, and a gang of international jewel thieves, the quest tests their courage and loyalty and strengthens the bonds of friendship. Readers will cheer the runaways on, laugh with them at their foibles, and share Alice’s pleasure in overcoming the obstacles that stand in her way. This combination adventure, school story, and family story will delight fans of all three genres.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781328580788
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 11/19/2019
Pages: 272
Sales rank: 1,003,482
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile: 820L (what's this?)
Age Range: 10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Natasha Farrant is a literary scout and has written fiction for young people and adults. She lives in London.

Read an Excerpt

One

Goodbye, Cherry Grange

IMAGINE A HOUSE, in a garden. The paint is flaking and the chimney is cracked and the uncut grass is wild. But ignore all that. Look here instead, at the giant wisteria with a vine as thick as your arm, its purple flowers dripping against the old stone wall. Look at the swing hanging from that ancient oak, those cherry trees planted in a circle around the house. One of the trees is so close to a window that in summer, when it fruits, the girl who lives here can reach out to pick the cherries.
      Imagine that—picking cherries from your bedroom window!
      The house, Cherry Grange, was named for the trees. A man called Albert Mistlethwaite built it over a hundred years ago when he came home from a war, and his family has lived here ever since.
      That’s a lot of cherries, and pies, and cakes, and pots of jam.
      We’ll go inside now. Do you see those pale rectangles on the hall floor, those other pale rectangles on the walls? They were made by rugs and pictures, but those have gone now, along with all the furniture. There’s nothing left but dust and sunlight.
      Let’s move on! Here is the kitchen—and here is the family, finishing breakfast.
      Small, pale eleven-year-old Alice sits cross-legged on the counter with her nose in a book, tracing the words with her finger as she reads, chewing the end of one of her stiff dark braids. Her father, Barney (you may have seen him once on television), stands drinking coffee by the window with his back to the room, while his older sister, Alice’s aunt Patience, in paint-spattered overalls, dries crockery at the sink.
      The last of the Mistlethwaites, in their natural habitat. Take a good look—you’ll not see this again. For the house is sold, and today they are moving out.

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