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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781782692355 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Steerforth Press |
| Publication date: | 10/06/2020 |
| Sold by: | Penguin Random House Publisher Services |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
| Age Range: | 8 - 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
It probably started that Wednesday afternoon,
the one when it rained and the sun shone at the
same time and there was that long, echoey tumble
of thunder. I guess, looking back, you could say it
was a sign—or a portent, as Granny C liked to say.
When there was sun and rain at the same time,
Granny C said it meant that, somewhere, a dog
and a cat were getting married. But then again,
Granny C smelt of stale lavender sticks and dust,
and always wore strange clothes from the charity
shop. Mainly tartan.
Still, anyway, that’s probably when it started.
The rain had stopped, but the sun was bright
and sharp as a wasp’s wing, and Anna and Nils were
walking home from the park. Nils had fallen off the
“whizz-wheel”—that’s what he called it—and had
scraped his knee a little, so he wanted to go home
and get a Spider-Man plaster. They were walking
along the dirt path that wound its way through
Timberton Woods. Well, they called them “woods”
but really it was just a small explosion of trees
between the park and home. It was a bit odd they
were there really, as there weren’t any other trees
close by, just this thick cluster of dark oaks, sweet
chestnuts and silver birches. The children were on
the bit of the path leading into the woods, when
they noticed a little man walking ahead of them.
He was no taller than Anna—who wasn’t very
tall for her age anyway—and was walking in a
very determined and speedy manner. He splashed
through a puddle on the path and wobbled slightly,
looking rather like a discombobulated penguin
trying not to drop his best fish.
Nils raised his hand to point at the fast-moving
figure, but Anna pushed it down and shushed
him. One of their mum’s best friends had a sister
about the same size, who told really funny stories
and had dyed-blue streaks in her spiky hair. They
had met her once when Nils was quite young,
and she’d explained that she was a “little person”.
Something had happened to her when she was in
her mummy’s tummy, so she didn’t develop like
other people. She explained there was nothing to
be scared of and how she was used to people staring
at her, but Mum told them afterwards that it
isn’t nice to stare or point or make fun of people
just because they are a bit different.
The little man really was hurrying along the
path, but he kept stopping and muttering every
now and again, so the children had nearly caught
up to him just before the path entered the woods.
Then they noticed the really strange thing. He
had a dog lead in his hand, which trailed down to
where you might expect to see a dog, but there was
nothing there. The collar the lead was attached to
was just sort of… hanging there. Now, that wasn’t
the strange thing, as they had both seen novelty
items like that before—you can get them in the
party shop in town, the one next to the estate
agents, and the lead is actually stiff plastic to make
it look like you are taking an invisible dog for a
walk. So, no, that wasn’t the strange thing. The
strange thing was that, in the bright sunshine, you
could clearly see the little man’s shadow and the
shadow of the lead, but also the shadow of some
sort of small dog trotting along besides him. The
shadow of a dog that wasn’t there!
At first, Anna thought the joke-shop leads
were getting really clever, but then the dog (that
wasn’t there) did some type of sneezy bark. The
little man yanked on the lead, bent down to the
dog and grumbled loudly.
“Be quiet, Dimple! Bad dog. Bad, bad dog. I know
you’re hungry, but we’re so late!”
As he had bent down he had also half turned,
so he saw Nils and Anna just behind him.
“Oh crumblesnips,” they heard him say, and
then he quickened his pace and pulled hard on
the lead. They saw the shadow legs of the dog that
wasn’t there—Dimple, I guess—move briskly with
a quiet little bark of annoyance. The little man and
his accompanying shadows moved faster along the
path. The path turned as it entered the woods and
the children lost sight of him.
“Come on,” Anna said to Nils, “let’s catch him
up!” and they broke into a slight run.
Well, when they turned into the woods, the path
straightened out and continued between the darkness
of the trees, but they couldn’t see the little
man anywhere.
“Where’s he gone?” asked Nils.
“Shh,” said Anna, putting a finger to her lips and
stopping Nils with her other hand. “Let’s see if we
can hear him,” she whispered, and they were both
quiet and still. They heard nothing, apart from
scattered birdsong and a slight rustle of leaves in
the breeze.
Nils bent down and picked up something from
the path. “Do you think he dropped it?” he asked,
handing the item over.
It was a tiny book, which just fitted into Anna’s
palm. The book was cracked, brown leather, and
in fancy gold-leaf writing the title read:
Gribblebob's Book of Unpleasant Goblins
and Other Unnecessary Shadowfolk