Whetū Toa and the Hunt for Ramses E-Book

Steph Matuku

• Herausgeber: Huia Publishers
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Whetū is about to start school, and no one is happy. Not the chicken. Not the bull. Especially not Ramses the golden ram, who goes missing. Tori the cat and Whetū go on a rescue mission. They catch starbeams to zany worlds and end up on a planet run by an evil magician who gets his power by draining the magic from animals. However, Whetū's tāniko woven friendship bracelet and a clever Ramses are more than a match for the evil sorcerer.

Leseprobe

First published in 2021 by Huia Publishers

39 Pipitea Street, PO Box 12280

Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

www.huia.co.nz

ISBN 978-1-77550-622-5 (print)

ISBN 978-1-77550-630-0 (ebook)

Text copyright © Steph Matuku 2021 Illustrations copyright © Katharine Hall 2021

This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without the prior permission of the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of Creative New Zealand.

Ebook conversion 2021 by meBooks

For Wi Henry and Elsie.

Always.

CONTENTS

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT SCHOOL, ANYWAY?

RAMSES’ GIFT

GIVE HER A WAVE

HORSING AROUND

GOODNIGHT … BUT NOT FOR LONG

DISAPPEARANCES

WHETŪ’S FAULT

ANIMAL TROUBLE

NO PICTURES, PLEASE

TRICKY QUESTIONS

TWINKLE TWINKLE

STAR-STRUCK

SUPERSONICALLY SERPENTINE

THE PRICE OF FAME

PEOPLE MAKE GREAT PETS

JUNGLE FARM

RESCUE MISSION

RED MEANS GO

A RISKY PLAN

IF IT AIN’T BROKE, BREAK IT

THE EVIL MAGICIAN

MAGIC IS EVERYWHERE

LOST AND FOUND

1

– WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT SCHOOL, ANYWAY? –

Whetū Toa and her mum lived in a little cottage in the country. They both worked for a magician called The Mighty Mikaere. Mum did his paperwork and show bookings, and took care of his house while he was away on tour. Whetū was in charge of looking after the animals on his farm.

One morning, Whetū gave the animals some exciting news.

“What do you mean, you’re going to school?” asked one of the horses. He was named Socks, because of the purple bandages he wore on his legs. “What’s school, anyway?”

“It’s where you learn things and have lunch,” said Whetū. “The holidays end next week, so I’ll be starting a new school. I’ll have to get up extra early to do the feeds and mucking out.”

“An early breakfast?” grumbled another of the horses, who called himself Superstar Starlight Chrysanthemum. The other horses had told Whetū that his name was really Spot, but he didn’t like it, so he’d changed it to the grandest thing he could think of. “Horses cannot digest anything before eight o’clock on weekdays and ten o’clock on the weekends. It’s a well-known fact.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” said Whetū. “And if it is, you can eat when you like. All I’m saying is that I’ll be down here at six o’clock, whether you’re up or not. I can’t be late for school.”

“School sounds stupid,” snorted the third horse. Her name was Daisy and she always wore a plastic daisy chain around her neck. “Forcing people to learn and making them eat lunch. It should be banned.”

“It’s good for kids,” said Whetū. “I have to get an education. It’s the law.”

“I think it’s a silly law,” said the fourth horse. He didn’t have a name and didn’t want one either. “And I bet everyone else agrees with me.”

He was right. None of the other animals were very enthusiastic at all.

“But … but …” the bull said, his bottom lip trembling. “You’re leaving us?”

“Don’t cry!” Whetū said hastily. The bull was very big and looked extremely fierce, but really, he was rather sensitive. “I’ll only be gone during the day. I’ll still see you every morning and evening, and all through the weekends.”

“But don’t you like us any more?”

“Of course I like you!”

“Then why are you going away?” the bull wailed. “Is it me? Do you hate me?”

“Of course not!” said Whetū. “You’re my favourite bull in the whole world!”

But the bull wasn’t listening. With tears streaming down his face, he let out an anguished howl and galloped off down the field to hide behind his favourite clump of flax.

Whetū didn’t follow him. The bull liked to calm down in his own time. Meanwhile, she still had the other animals to tend to. She clambered over the fence and headed for the chicken coop. She told the chicken her news, but it just pecked at her and stalked back into its coop. Whetū was glad she hadn’t magically multiplied the chicken before telling it her news. One beak was sharp enough let alone thousands of them.

Rubbing her leg, Whetū limped to the pigsty and looked over the top of the stone wall. The three pigs were sprawled out on the straw, as usual. One was white, one was black, and one had black and white and pink blotches, and they were all incredibly lazy.

“I have some good news,” Whetū said, putting an extra cheery note into her voice and hoping she sounded convincing.

The white pig opened one eye. “We heard you telling the chicken. And we don’t care. We never see you during the day, anyway.”

“Only because you’re always asleep,” said Whetū. “I am here quite a lot, you know, fixing things and cleaning up.”

“That means nothing to us,” said the white pig, closing her eye again. “And we like eating breakfast as soon as possible, anyway. In fact, you could consider coming the day before and then we could eat our breakfast straight after our dinner.”

Whetū frowned. “I don’t think so. Six o’clock in the morning is quite early enough.”

“Then stop keeping us awake and go away. We have to be up at six o’clock, you know.”

“It’s not for another week. I’m just giving you plenty of warning. And don’t forget our new fitness programme. We’ll be doing some cardio exercise before dinner, okay?”

“Why do you hate us so much?” the white pig hissed bitterly.

Whetū began to protest, but the white pig just rolled over and went back to sleep. The other two pigs hadn’t even bothered opening their eyes.

Gritting her teeth, Whetū headed to the barn to visit one of her closest friends, Ramses. He was quite stern with the other animals, but he had always been very kind to Whetū. In fact, once he’d even saved her life. Whetū had always thought that her job as animal keeper would be much more difficult if Ramses wasn’t there to support her and help keep the other animals in line.

She felt in her pocket for her sunglasses, put them on and opened the door.

2

– RAMSES’ GIFT –

A blaze of golden light greeted Whetū as the door swung open. Ramses was lying, as usual, on his bed of straw in the corner. Inside the shadowy barn, his fleece shone as bright as the day, and his diamond horns twinkled, making little white spots dance all over the walls.

“Good morning, young Whetū!” he said. “How is our animal keeper this morning? And what’s got him so riled up?”

Him was the bull, whose sobs could be heard through the barn doors from half a paddock away.

“I told him I’d be going to school next week,” said Whetū. She filled up Ramses’ trough with grain and began to sweep the floor. “He wasn’t very happy about it.”

“Ah yes, school,” said Ramses in a cheerful voice – but his expression wasn’t very cheerful. “Next week, is it? Well, goodness me. Are you sure you should be going? Because I’m sure the magician would get you a tutor. Or perhaps your mother would consider homeschooling?”

“We can’t afford a tutor,” said Whetū in surprise. “And Mum’s got far too much to do already. Besides, she’s always going on about how the holidays are too long and she can’t wait for me to get back to school.”

“What about all the germs?”

“What do you mean, germs?”