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- Herausgeber: Little Tiger Press
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Serie: Holly Webb Animal Stories
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
Jack is having a hard time at school because he can't read as well as the other children. One day, he visits the animal shelter with his sister and notices a nervous puppy called Daisy. He sits next to her while practising his reading.Jack keeps visiting Daisy at the shelter. As she gets more confident, Jack thinks she is ready to be adopted. But when another family takes an interest in Daisy, Jack is worried that he will lose his friend forever...A new story from best-selling author Holly Webb, perfect for animal-loving children and fans of ZOE'S RESCUE ZOO and MAGIC ANIMAL FRIENDS.
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For Hattie
Contents
Chapter One
Jack stared down at the page in front of him. The words seemed to be getting all blurry round the edges and he blinked hard. He was not going to cry. He was not.
It wouldn’t have been quite so bad if it were Mr Gardner, their teacher, that he was trying to read with. But it was Amarah’s mum.6
Jack had been really pleased when Amarah told him her mum was coming to help out with hearing their class read. He liked Amarah’s mum – he’d known her for years, ever since Amarah’s family had moved in next door.
It was different now that Amarah’s mum was trying to get him to read out loud, though. Every time he saw her over the fence, he was going to remember sitting here. He’d been fighting to read this sentence for what felt like hours.
“Try and sound it out,” Amarah’s mum said gently.
“I can’t,” Jack muttered.
“I bet you can if you try.”
“No, I can’t!” Jack banged the book down on the table. Stupid book! He’d 7thought it would be good, when he picked it. He loved dogs and the book had a photo of a glossy golden retriever on the front. The dog’s dark eyes looked right at him and its tongue was hanging out, as though it had just been for a run.
It shouldn’t be so hard – all Jack wanted to do was read about the dog. But the words just kept swimming away.
8“Maybe we should take a break?” Mrs Iqbal suggested. “You’ve worked really hard today, Jack.”
Jack didn’t say anything. He fixed his eyes on the edge of the table, hoping the bell was going to ring. Waiting for Mr Gardner to say it was someone else’s turn to read. What made it worse was that he had worked really hard – he’d been trying and trying. But it was no good. The words just didn’t make sense.
Mrs Iqbal glanced round. “Oh – there’s Elsa. It’s her turn to read next.”
Jack was almost sure she was glad to get rid of him.
9Jack slouched back down the corridor to his classroom. The rest of the class were doing maths and he was good at maths. Numbers did what they ought to, not like letters. But he was still feeling miserable, and antsy, and cross. He didn’t want to sit down and work out fractions. Mr Gardner would notice if he didn’t get back soon, though, and their head teacher, Mrs Bellamy, had a spooky habit of turning up whenever anyone wasn’t in the right place.
Glumly, Jack opened the door to the Year Five classroom.
Mr Gardner waved at him and said, “Amarah, can you show Jack where we’re up to on the worksheet, please?” 10
Amarah nodded importantly and as Jack slumped into the chair beside her, she started to point out the questions they’d been doing.
“All right,” he muttered, grabbing a pencil.
“What’s up with you?” Amarah asked, peering at him curiously.
“Nothing.”
“Was it the reading?” Amarah sounded sympathetic and Jack knew she was trying to be nice, but that 11didn’t help. It wasn’t fair! Why was it so much harder for him than for anybody else? And what if Amarah’s mum told her that he hadn’t been able to read? Then Amarah would think he was stupid. Jack’s eyes started to sting again and just in that minute he felt so angry with Amarah. And her mum.
“My reading’s fine,” he snapped. “Leave me alone!”
“Don’t be mean!” One of Amarah’s other friends, Lily, pointed her pencil at him. “Amarah’s only trying to be nice.”
Jack glared at her. “Just keep out of it, Lily. And stop waving that at me,” he added, smacking the pencil out of her hand. 12
He had only meant to stop her from waggling the pencil about – he thought it would just land on the table. Instead, it sailed across the room and hit Mr Gardner’s trousers.
“Now look what you’ve done!” said Lily. She sounded half horrified and half excited. “You’re going to get in trouble.”
“Oh no…” Amarah whispered, watching nervously as Mr Gardner came over to their table.
“Since you all look guilty, I’m guessing this came from one of you?” Mr Gardner said, sighing.
“Sorry, Mr Gardner,” Jack muttered, staring at the table. “It was an accident.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Lily put in and 13Amarah elbowed her.
“Be more careful, Jack. I’m watching this table.” Mr Gardner stood there for a moment longer, as though he wanted to say something else, but then the bell rang for lunch.
“What did you do that for?” Amarah whispered to Jack as she came to stand behind him in the line for lunch.
14“Leave me alone!” Jack hissed back. And then when Amarah looked like she was going to keep on talking, he darted out of his place and went further down the line to stand with Mason and James instead.
But all through lunch he could feel Amarah watching him. She was sitting with Lily, like she usually did, but she kept glancing over at him and she looked miserable. Really miserable and confused, as if she didn’t know what she’d done wrong.
Jack didn’t eat very much lunch.
The puppy flinched anxiously back among the weeds as another car roared 15past. She didn’t understand what was happening. Were her people coming back? She’d tried to run after them when their car pulled away, but it was going much too fast and she was limping. She’d landed badly when they’d pushed her out of the car door – she hadn’t expected it and she’d banged hard against the tarmac.
She lifted up her paw now and licked at it, whining softly. She knew the way the car had gone but she wasn’t sure she could walk much further, not with her leg like this. She’d have to wait for them to come back.
She hoped it would be soon. She was so hungry and it felt like ages since she’d had anything to eat. The people had taken her mother away the day 16before, so she couldn’t have milk and they hadn’t given her any dry food that morning either.
The puppy had howled half the night with misery and she still didn’t know where her mother was. She was hungry and lonely and frightened, and she didn’t know what to do.
She huddled back again as the next car approached, but this time the car slowed down as it passed her. It slowed down even more, and then stopped.
The puppy wagged her tail uncertainly. Had her people come back? Perhaps her mother was in the car! She wagged a little harder and tried to sniff the air. She knew her mother’s smell, but the scent was all mixed up with the dusty road and the sharp whiff of cars… 17
“Hey, sweetie … are you lost?” Someone climbed out of the car and began to walk towards her. The puppy looked uncertainly up and down the road. This was a stranger, she was almost sure. Should she try to run? But her paw… She whimpered and the man approaching her slowed down and began to talk again, his voice very soft.
