Mind & Me E-Book

Sunita Chawdhary

• Herausgeber: Knights Of
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: Mind & Me
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 102

Beschreibung

Maya's pet rabbit Pooey is missing! She needs to find her quick, before anyone notices, and she's got some very special help from Mind... but when things start to go wrong, can Maya and her Mind work together to save the day? From debut author-illustrator Sunita Chawdhary, filled with delightful artwork and packed with heart, this early reader is perfect for children aged 5 and up as they move into chapter books.

Leseprobe

Dedication

This book is for Shreya and Aarav. Always remember the power and magic of your mind.

To Gaurav for dreaming with me, and to Sandeep and Deepak for the memories.

Special thanks to my Mama and Papa for believing in my mind and me – Vielen Dank für die Blumen!

Contents

Title PageDedicationChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8AcknowledgementsSunita Chawdhary: Author & IllustratorAbout the PublisherCopyright

1

CHAPTER ONE

2Imagine waking up to that!

Well, believe it or not, that is exactly what I woke up to today.

It was very early (way too early to be up) and I was still very, verysleepy …

But Mindhad other ideas. Mind was VERY keen to start the day.

And once Mind was up, there was no chance of getting back to sleep. Mind was already bustling about like a whirlwind of excitement, spinning all around. Mind swirled my way, tossing me up into the air like a pancake and out of bed.

I pressed my toes into the bobbly rug under my feet and wondered what on earth Mind was up to.

It was still dark outside. The rest of the house was quiet. No one else was up yet. Not even Pooey. She’s usually the first one up. 3Pooey always starts her day (and mine) by rustling around. She has to sleep in my room, so once she’s up all I can hear is RUSTLE, RUSTLE, RUSTLE.

Strangely, this morning there wasn’t a peep out of Pooey. In case you were 4wondering, Pooey is my pet rabbit. Pooey sleeps in her little rabbit house, right next to my bed. Every day, I take her out to play and every night before I go to bed, I make sure she’s all snug and tucked up in her bed of hay and sawdust.

So, if no one else was up yet (not even the sun!) what was up with Mind?! I flicked the light switch on and was shocked to find … Pooey was GONE!5

Well, that explained the louder-than-you-can-imagine: ‘WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!’

Mind knew something was off, long before I’d realised anything was wrong.

The door on Pooey’s hutch was wide open. I couldn’t believe my eyes. How did Pooey open it all by herself?!

If that wasn’t odd enough, Mind spotted something else…

Atrailofrabbitpoo!

It led all the way out of my room. But Pooey had never left my room on her own before. We hadto investigate. We did the only thing we could.

We followed Pooey’s poo!

We followed the teeny, tiny poos all the way out of my room.

Mind and I leapt through the air, over the trail of poo and across the landing. It was like 6a strange dance on a dark and silent stage. The only light, peeking out at us through the gap in my bedroom door, shone bright like a spotlight. We crawled past my parent’s room, quieter than a pair of spiders trying to get by without getting caught. Mind had to remind me about the creaky floorboards. We hopped over them to get to the moonlit staircase.

7Pooey’s poo had led us to the top of the stairs.

But Pooey had NEVER gone downstairs by herself before.

Somethingfunny’sgoingon.SomethingBAD.Mind was sure of it.

Mind was also certain that the last thing we needed was for everyone to find out Pooey was missing.

This was OUR mystery and we had to solve it all on OUR own.

So we crept down the stairs, trying not to make a sound.

We followed the trail into the kitchen, counting each and every little poo along the way … 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 … but before I knew it I’d lost count … 8and Mind had wandered off too!

Mind loves to explore. That means, everythingcan distract Mind. And when Mind’s distracted, no matter how hard I try, we get nothingdone. It wasn’t long before we got distracted thinking about rabbit poo. The thing about rabbit poo is that each poo looks a bit like a chocolate chip …

Mmmmm…chocolatechipCOOKIES!!! Mind’s thoughts turned to food.

Uh oh. My tummy started to rumble.

GRRRRRRRRRGGGGLLLLLLEEE

9Shhhhh … whispered Mind.

But it was too late. Papa was awake. We heard his heavy footsteps creaking through the kitchen ceiling right above us. I knew it was Papa because it always sounded like giant frogs croaking when he came down the stairs. I heard Papa call out my name as he marched in, leaving the sound of frogs behind–

‘Maya!’

Mind froze! I didn’t know what to do.

Next thing I knew, Papa had switched on all the lights and he found me standing there – in the middle of the kitchen with rabbit poo everywhere.

‘Maya, why are you up at this time of day?’ he asked, blinking at the clock on the wall.

What was I supposed to say? I didn’t want 10to get told off for losing Pooey.

‘And whyis there rabbit poo everywhere?’ he looked down at the floor.

Just then, Mind had a brilliant idea!

Whydon’twemakesomethingup?

It made sense. Why tell Papa something he wouldn’t want to hear, when we could tell him something he wouldwant to hear?

So I told Papa a BIG, HORRID, OOPSY-DAISY (could this get more CRAZY?!) …

L I E ! ! !

‘Errr … I was cleaning out Pooey’s hutch!’ I started with something he always wanted to hear.

Mind was speechless … so started trying to showme what to say next by acting out the words. But Mind just ended up 11looking like a poo-juggling, hula-hooping, whistle-blowing giraffe, as tall as the tale I was about to tell.

‘I–I was taking the poo outside to throw it away … but then I fell down … and it slipped out of my hands.’

Papa sighed. For a moment, I thought he didn’t believe me. 12

‘Why didn’t you ask for some help?’

I shrugged my shoulders and then I did something I never thought I would do … I lied AGAIN!

‘I wanted to give you a surprise!’

‘You silly billy,’ he said with a smile that made the dimples in his cheeks dip in and out.

‘You didn’t need to do that!’

The really silly thing was that I had lied … not once, but TWICE.

That’saskingforDOUBLEtheTROUBLE!Mind warned me (a few hula-hoops too late).

We’d agreed to tell a lie. But not two of them!

Another creaky chorus over our heads made Mind and me look up. Except … 13we knew there were no frogs upstairs, only floorboards. Oh no! That could only mean one thing …

We’d woken up Mama!

We could always tell when it was Mama because her footsteps were light and quick.

‘Did you find Maya?’ her sleepy words trickled down the stairs, through the hallway and into the kitchen, before she appeared through the doorway.

‘Oh, yes, I sure did.’ Papa reported back to her over his shoulder.

‘Where was she?’ Mama yawned, her eyes still not fully open as she shuffled forwards into the light.

‘Kitchen meymilli,’ Papa replied in Hinglish. That’s what Mama and Papa call it when they speak to each other in a mix of Hindi and English. Hindi is another language we speak sometimes. Mama is 14from India, which makes me half Indian. Not that you can draw a line halfway down me through my belly button and say which half is Indian. Anyway, I like learning new words and it feels special when we speak in our very own made-up language Hinglish. It’s like a secret code.

‘Frühstücken?’Papa asked us if we wanted breakfast. Not in Hinglish this time, but German.

Papa used to work in Germany, so he likes to throw in a few words of German too! I don’t know much German, so it’s mostly Hinglish for me. But Mind loves putting languages together and hearing the different sounds merge into each other, like musical instruments in a 15group playing together making a new blended sound.

It made me think that when we spoke a mix of all three languages at home (Hindi and German and English) we should really call it: ‘Hin-Ger-ish’.

SoundslikeGinger-ish!Mind chuckled. Funny because gingerish is exactly the way I would describe the colour of Pooey’s fur coat. Which reminded me – we were looking for Pooey!

GRRRRRRRGGGLLE … My tummy started to rumble again.

‘You must be hungry!’ Papa patted my belly gently and squeezed me like a tube of toothpaste. I could hear the smile in Papa’s voice. I turned around and saw it in his eyes. It would only disappoint him if 16I told him about Pooey.

‘Go brush your teeth and I’ll make us something yummy for breakfast!’ He grinned and swiped side to side, pretending to brush his teeth.

But the truth was, my appetite had disappeared.

I looked around with no idea where Mind had got to.

I started to feel like I was losing EVERYTHING – first Pooey, then my appetite, and now Mind!

I had been so busy worrying about Pooey that I forgot to check on Mind! I wondered if Mind was hungry too. There are times when Mind can seem like a mystery. But there are some things about Mind that are verypredictable. If Mind is hungry or tired, (or worse, both hungry andtired at the same time) Mind is bound to be cranky. And 17thatis when we get into a real flap. That’s what Mind calls it when we’re panicking.

I charged upstairs, wishing more than anything that Pooey would be in my room, waiting for me. Then everything would be normal again and no one would ever know I had lost Pooey, or that I had lied about it.

Wishing and hoping and imagining that Pooey was there, I pushed open the door to my room and found … pacing around and looking veryworried … was … no, not Pooey (if only!) … a very unhappy Mind.

The BEST thing about Mind is that together we can thinkand feeland doANYTHING.

But sometimes, that’s also the WORST thing about Mind …

Mind could change like the weather. One minute, cold and grey. The next, warm and bright.18

Right now, Mind was swelling up into a ginormous, angry, dark cloud overhead. Mind’s arms were tightly crossed and face scrunched up into a miserable frown that gave off the flappiestvibes.

Yup. Mind was in a FLAP. That was the last thing we needed now, I thought, rolling my eyes. Then I took a deep breath and reminded myself – Mind was always there 19for me, no matter how flappyI got. So, I had to help Mind calm down.

‘Cheer up, Mind!’

Sizzling, hot, little lightning bolts fired out of Mind. I was notabout to get in the way of those. Bringing Mind back from the brink of a thunderstorm of worry was going to be tougher than usual.

‘Chill out!’ I yelled firmly. ‘There’s no need to be so upset.’ I hoped Mind might hear me through the noisy howls of stormy winds building up. 20

But telling Mind not to feel something only made the feelings worse. After all, you can’t control your feelings.

I usually knew how to take care of Mind. You could say it’s a bit like having another pet. You might think that sounds like fun, but it isn’t always that simple.

Mind can be fluffy and snuggly, or FIERCE and ouchy!

Mind can be LOUD and scary, or quiet and scaredy.

And, Mind can be all those things at once, which sounds impossible, doesn’t it?!

If looking after Mind was just like taking care of a pet, that would be easy peasy. But Mind isn’t like any one creature. When Mind is stressed, Mind is like ALL the animals you could ever imagine in one. And right now, everythingabout Mind reeked of STRESS! 21

Imagine training a wild dragon, totally out of control and ready to set fires with every other breath. Add to that: the deafening roars of a ferocious lion baring its pointy teeth and shaking its mane at you every time you try to get close. At the same time, it’s boxing like a kangaroo, so that making eye contact is a risk!