Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
The Birthday Box
The Birthday Burglar
The Tooth Fairy Mystery
Edward’s Accidents
Anthony and the Rap Attack
The Zappers!
Looking After Thunder
About the Author
Also by Malorie Blackman
Copyright
About the Book
Birthday-present burglars, a Tooth Fairy mystery, and an abandoned puppy – no adventure is too great for Maxine, also known as Girl Wonder!
This collection of seven funny short stories is perfect for building confidence in new readers, whether reading aloud or reading alone.
For Neil and Lizzy,
with love as always.
The Birthday Box
It was Mum’s birthday two and a half months after Christmas. The twins and I put our money together to buy Mum a present. We had just enough money to buy her a scarf and a card.
“It doesn’t look like much.” Anthony frowned.
“Yeah, not much at all,” Edward agreed glumly.
“It’s all we can afford,” I sighed.
“It’s not very big,” said Anthony.
“It’s not very chunky,” complained Edward.
“It should look like something when it’s wrapped up,” Anthony continued. “A scarf is going to look itchy-titchy.”
They made it sound like it was my fault!
“So what should I do?” I asked crossly.
“I don’t know,” Anthony replied. “You’re Girl Wonder . . .”
“Well, you two are the Terrific Twins,” I replied. “You think of something.”
So we all spun around and around, not feeling very super at all. We sat on the floor cross-legged, staring at the scarf and trying to think of a way to make it seem bigger and better than it was.
Then I had an extra-giga-brilliant idea.
“Let’s wrap it in tons and tons of paper,” I said. “Then it’ll look big and chunky and more like something.”
“Good idea,” Anthony agreed.
“Not bad,” said Edward.
We ran downstairs. Mum was in the kitchen, taking the vacuum cleaner motor to pieces.
“Mum, we need a box,” I said.
“A Ginormous box,” added Anthony.
“A HUMONGOUS BOX!” Edward said eagerly.
“Why?” asked Mum.
“We want to put your birthday present in it,” Anthony told her.
“Oh, I see . . .” Mum said slowly. “If you tell me what you’ve got me, then I’ll be better able to judge what size box would suit you best.”
“We got you . . .”
“EDWARD! Don’t tell her!” I interrupted quickly. “Mum, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see what it is.”
Mum mumbled something under her breath. It sounded like “worth a try”. She looked in the cupboard under the sink.
“There’s this box that held my printer paper,” Mum suggested, taking a smallish box out from the cupboard.
“That’s much too small,” Anthony said immediately.
“Yeah, far too small,” Edward agreed.
Then Mum fished out a middling-sized box.
“How about this box?” Mum asked. “This box held all the bottles of lemonade and cream soda that we bought from the supermarket before Christmas.”
“Still too small.” I shook my head.
“Much too small,” Anthony said.
“Far too small,” Edward agreed.
Mum looked surprised. She straightened up. “The only other box I’ve got that’s larger is the one the vacuum cleaner came in.”
“That’ll do,” I replied.
“Just,” Anthony added.
“Only just,” said Edward.
“What did you three buy me? A rhinoceros?” Mum frowned.
“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out,” I said.
“Where’s the vacuum cleaner box?” Anthony asked.
“In the cupboard under the stairs,” Mum replied. “Er . . . would you three like some help wrapping up my present?”
“No, thanks. We can manage,” I said.
We got the box out of the cupboard.
“Now, we’ll need some special paper to wrap the box with and we’ll need some more paper to pad the box,” I said.
“Oh? Is my present something that might break if you don’t pad the box?” Mum asked.
I hadn’t realized she was listening behind us.
“Go away, Mum,” I said crossly, my hands on my hips.
“I was only trying to help,” Mum muttered, going back into the kitchen.
More like, she was only trying to be nosy!
Mum came out of the kitchen and handed us a whole roll of brown paper. “You can use this to stuff the box and to wrap it,” she said.
Anthony, Edward and I took the box and the brown paper and went upstairs. Half an hour later, we all sat back to admire our work. The box looked terrific! It was a bit of a shame it had only a scarf in it. We’d filled the box with crumpled, rumpled brown paper and put Mum’s scarf right in the middle. The outside was brilliantly wrapped in more brown paper. We drew stars and moons and comets and spaceships all over the brown paper and coloured them in. Then we carried the box downstairs.
“There you are, Mum,” I said, as we plonked down the box. “This is your birthday present.”
“My goodness! What is it?” Mum said. She bent down and shook the box. It didn’t make a sound.
“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out,” Anthony said.
“Yeah, tomorrow morning,” said Edward.
“Can’t I open it now?” Mum asked, giving it another shake.
“No, you can’t. Wait until your birthday tomorrow,” I said firmly.
“Oh, all right then,” Mum said reluctantly. But she had a strange gleam in her eyes.
That night I dreamed about flying through the air faster than a speeding rocket and leaping over giant trees with just one jump, when I heard a funny-peculiar noise. It woke me up. I listened. The house was very quiet. I wondered if I’d dreamed the noise. Deciding I must have dreamed it, I pulled my duvet up around my ears and snuggled down to go back to sleep.
Then I heard the same noise again. It was the stairs creaking. We were being burgled.
The Birthday Burglar
I sat up, listening in the darkness. I heard another creak from one of the bottom steps. We were definitely being burgled. I got out of bed and tiptoed out of my room. I was scared – so scared – but I was a superhero and we superheroes have to be braver than brave. I went into the twins’ room. They were fast asleep. I might have guessed. It would take fifteen planes flying over our house at the same time to wake those two up.
“Come on, you two. Wake up!” I whispered. “We’re being burgled, so this is definitely a job for Girl Wonder . . .”
“And the Terrific Twins?” Anthony whispered back, instantly awake. “Isn’t this more a job for the police?”
“Definitely a job for Mum or the police,” agreed Edward. “Or a grown-up.”
“No, I’ve got a plan,” I said.
My brothers got out of their bunk-beds and we whirled and twirled around quickly but quietly, so that the burglar wouldn’t hear us. Luckily there was a full moon so we had the moonlight to see by, otherwise the twins would have tripped over their own feet and made all kinds of noise. I whispered my plan to them. Then we crept slowly and silently down the stairs. We got to the living-room. I could hear noises. There was definitely someone in there, trying their best not to make a sound
. We got a chair from the kitchen, then crept to the open living-room door.
“Ready, Terrific Twins?” I whispered.
“Ready, Girl Wonder . . .” the Terrific Twins whispered back.
“Go!”
The Terrific Twins pulled the living-room door shut, then I quickly placed the back of the chair under the door handle. I switched on the hall light, because with the living-room door shut, you can’t see much in the hall.
“Right then, Mr Burglar!” I called out. “We have you now! And don’t even think about getting out through the window, because there are locks on all the windows in the house and the window key is in the kitchen.”
The Terrific Twins were jumping up and down now.
“Hooray! We caught a burglar! Hooray!” Anthony shouted.
“All by ourselves.” Edward grinned. “Yippee!”
“Anthony, you go and get Mum. Edward, you watch the door. I’ll phone the police . . .”
“Maxine . . . MAXINE! Let me out of here THIS SECOND!”
We stared at the barred living-room door.
“Mum . . . Mum, is that you?” I asked, surprised.
“OF COURSE IT’S ME. OPEN THE DOOR! NOW!” Mum didn’t sound too pleased at all.
We were in seriously, serious trouble. Possibly the most seriously serious trouble we’d ever been in. I unlocked the door.
Sparks flew from Mum’s eyes.
“What do you three think you’re playing at?” Mum asked furiously, her hands on her hips.
“I heard a noise, Mum,” I said. “We thought you were a burglar.”
“A burglar . . .” Mum spluttered. “If . . . if you thought you’d heard a burglar in this house you should have come to wake me up first, not tackled him by yourselves. And what do you mean by trapping me in the living room?”
“We couldn’t let you escape, Mum,” Anthony said. “Not when we thought you were a burglar.”
Anthony edged past Mum to look in the living room. I think he still couldn’t believe there was no burglar.
“Right! No pocket money for a month for any of you,” Mum said. “In fact, no pocket money for a year!”
“But Mum . . .” I said, dismayed.
“Wait a minute, Mum. What’s the matter with your present?” Anthony asked.
“What? Er . . . nothing.” Mum tried to shoo Anthony out of the living room. I sneaked past her to take a look. The wrapping paper of Mum’s present was open at the top.
“I . . . I must have tripped over it in the dark and accidentally opened it,” Mum said quickly.
We looked at her. Mum had been doing a spot of burgling!
“Come on, Terrific Twins, let’s go back to bed,” I said.
“But Mum’s been opening . . .” Anthony began.
“But look! Mum’s present is . . .” started Edward.
“I think you two must have been dreaming,” I said to the Terrific Twins. “Mum wouldn’t be so sneaky as to try and open her birthday present before her birthday. Isn’t that right, Mum?”
“Absolutely right, Maxine,” Mum agreed.
“I mean, Mum warned us against opening our Christmas presents before Christmas Day – remember? So she wouldn’t do the same thing herself,” I continued.
“Never mind Mum’s present! What about our pocket money?” Anthony wailed.
“Yeah, our pocket money!” said Edward, dismayed. “This is all your fault, Maxine. It was your flimsy-floppy-drippy-droopy idea to catch the burglar.”
I looked up at Mum.
“Mum, you said . . .” I got no further.
“I never said anything about your pocket money. You three are dreaming! Now go back to bed!”
“Are you coming too?” I asked Mum.
“Yes, I am. I’ve had enough excitement for one night. I think we all have,” said Mum, shaking her head and yawning.
I stuck down the wrapping paper again on Mum’s present and we all went to bed.
The next morning when Mum finally opened her present and found her scarf, she liked it.
“We put it in a big box because it was only a little present,” I explained.
“Size has nothing to do with it. Big things aren’t the best things just because they’re big,” Mum said. “I love this scarf. It’s so pretty and just the thing for the spring chill.”
We all went for a walk to the park so that Mum could try it out. Hooray for spring! We all love the spring!
It means summer’s just round the corner.
The Tooth Fairy Mystery
“Ow! Ouch!” My tooth was killing me! My whole right cheek was puffed up like a balloon.
“That does it, Maxine,” said Mum. “If your tooth isn’t out by tomorrow, I’m taking you to the dentist.”
“Ouch! Ow!” My tooth hurt too much to even protest.
“Let me see it, Maxine,” said Edward.
I opened my mouth and wobbled my loose tooth very, very gently to show him.
“Where? I can’t see anything,” Edward said.
“I . . . ri . . . th . . .” I said, with my mouth still wide open.
Edward frowned. “I still don’t see anything.”
I took my finger out of my mouth. “It’s right there. It’s the tooth I’m wobbling about.” I frowned. “Can’t you see it?”
Edward moved closer until his nose was practically in my mouth.
“I still don’t see it,” he complained.
I frowned at him. “What’s the matter with your eyes?” I asked.
“Let me see,” said Anthony, barging Edward out of the way.
I showed Anthony. He spotted my wobbly tooth immediately.
“When it comes out, put it under your pillow and then you’ll get money from the tooth fairy,” said Anthony.
“Tooth fairy!” I scoffed. “There’s no such thing as a tooth fairy. It’s just Mum who puts money under your pillow when you lose a tooth.”
“Is it?” Mum smiled. “You think so?”
“I know so,” I said. “I caught you the last time, Mum – remember?”
“Ah, but that’s why I got in touch with the Tooth Fairy Society and asked them to take over the job,” said Mum.
“The Tooth Fairy Society?” said Edward.
“Mum’s pulling your leg.” I laughed.
“No I’m not, Maxine.” Mum shook her head. “I won’t be putting money under your pillow any more. Your own personal tooth fairy will be doing it from now on.”
“I don’t believe a word of it,” I said.
Mum shrugged. “Suit yourself. But when your tooth falls out and you put it under your pillow, I won’t be the one swapping it for money.”
“Do we have our own personal tooth fairies too?” asked Anthony, his eyes wide.
“Of course.” Mum smiled.
“It’s not true. It’s just Mum who does it,” I protested.
But from the look on Anthony’s and Edward’s faces, it was clear that they believed Mum rather than me.
In a huff, I marched downstairs.
All afternoon as I sat watching telly, I wibbled and wobbled my tooth around. I turned it to the left and I turned it to the right and I wobbled it back and forth, back and forth. Until at last with a TWORP! it came out of my gum.
By now Mum, Edward and Anthony had come downstairs. Mum gave me some warm, salty water in a glass. “Go upstairs to the bathroom and rinse your mouth out with that,” said Mum. “It will kill infections but don’t swallow any or it’ll make you sick.”
I went upstairs to gargle with the salty water. Now my tooth was out, my mouth didn’t hurt at all.
That’s more like it, I thought to myself.
Then I had an idea. If Anthony and Edward didn’t believe that Mum was the tooth fairy in our house, then I would prove it to them.
“This is a job for Girl Wonder by herself!” I said to my reflection in the mirror. And I sloshed the last of the salty water around and around my mouth before spitting it out. I ran to my bedroom and put the tooth und
er my pillow before going back downstairs again.
“How are you feeling?” Mum asked.
“Fine!” I grinned. “What time will you be swapping my tooth for money, Mum?”
“I’ve already told you, Maxine, I don’t do that any more,” Mum said, smiling.
“Well, I’m going to wait up all night,” I told her. “And if my tooth is still under my pillow by tomorrow morning then that will prove that tooth fairies don’t exist.”
“You’ll never stay up all night.” Mum laughed. “You, Maxine, are a girl who likes her sleep!”
And with that, off Mum went to get a glass of orange juice. Now was my chance.
“Terrific Twins, I need your help,” I said to my brothers.
“You do?” said Anthony, surprised.
“Why?” said Edward.
“For what?” asked Anthony.
“I want you two to help me look out for this so-called tooth fairy tonight,” I whispered to them. “I’m going to prove that Mum and the tooth fairy are one and the same person.”
“But why do you need us?” Edward asked.
“Because Mum’s right! If I try to keep watch by myself, I’m only going to fall asleep,” I replied. “But with your help, at least one of us will always be awake. There’s no way Mum can sneak past all three of us.”
“I’m not sure about this, Maxine,” said Anthony. “I like my sleep too!”
“So do I!” Edward agreed.
“Oh, come on. Do you want to catch Mum in the act or don’t you?” I asked, crossly.
“OK, then,” my brothers agreed reluctantly, and we all spun around, bumping and bouncing and bashing into each other.
“Right then. Edward, you can hide behind the wardrobe and Anthony, you can hide behind the curtains,” I explained.
“And where will you be?” asked Anthony.
“Yeah! Exactly where will you be?” Edward said.
“I’ll be in bed, of course,” I said. “Where else would I be? We don’t want Mum to get suspicious, do we?”
Anthony and Edward frowned at each other.
“How come we get the hardest bit?” asked Anthony.
“Yeah! How come?”