These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr Bucket. Their names are Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine.
Brian Patten was born in Liverpool. His poetry for adults has been translated into many languages, and his collections include Love Poems, Storm Damage, Grinning Jack and Armada. His verse for children includes Gargling with Jelly, Thawing Frozen Frogs and The Utter Nutters. Brian Patten is a popular performer of his work, and he has also written children's plays as well as editing The Puffin Book of 20th Century Children's Verse.
When Rosie, who was only eight anyway, beat him doing ten lengths of the pool, it was the last straw. He didn't show he cared. He made such a point of sauntering carelessly to the dressing-room that he skidded and went flat and everybody laughed. He forced himself to laugh as well, and only found the grazes on his elbows when he was towelling himself. “I got born in the wrong family,' he thought, as he trudged back home alone over the fields. The others were still in the water, getting their money's worth. ‘Ordinary Jack, that's me. It's what they should've christened me – Ordinary Jack Matthew Bagthorpe – with an e.' There were four Bagthorpe children, and the other three were always winning prizes and medals, and William, the eldest, had got to the point where he was winning cups, silver ones, for the sideboard, and little shields with his name engraved on them. ‘You're immortal if your name gets put on cups and shields, thought Jack moodily.
Picked for the all-star soccer team, Michelle fears that her grades will suffer from all the practicing she must do and devises a plan to give up sleep entirely, in order to keep playing and studying.
Ruby and Garnet are ten-year-old twins. Identical. They do everything together, especially since their mother died three years earlier. But can being a double act work forever? When so much around them is changing...
Lots of the kids in Mr Speed's class have something to worry about. From a new stepmum to coping with Maths, everyone has their own private concerns and it's sometimes difficult to discuss them - even when you need advice. So Mr Speed sets up the Worry Website on the classroom computer. Anybody in the class can anonymously enter their worry and anyone else can type in advice to help out. A unique production for Jacqueline Wilson, coming from a story originally published in electronic form on the Internet, and also containing a brilliant story by a 12-year-old fan, who entered a competition to write a companion story to Jacqueline's.
Grandfather is taking everyone on a special holiday trip to an old-fashioned New England inn. The Aldens have fun playing in the snow, ice-skating and working puzzles. Then suddenly they become part of a very special puzzle.
So, Mr. Mack loved his job. It was his job to make sure that the biscuits had the right amount of chocolate, if they were supposed to have chocolate. and he measured them to make sure that they were exactly square,
So, Mr. Mack loved his job. It was his job to make sure that the biscuits had the right amount of chocolate, if they were supposed to have chocolate. and he measured them to make sure that they were exactly square,
Dear Diary,
My hands are shaking so badly, I don't know if I can write in you today. I was so scared last night. I'm still trembling.
Maybe I should start at the beginning. You know my friends chip and shawn and I have been talking about camping out in Full Moon Woods for nearly a year.
The dead man was rich. In life he lived in a lonely house by a river. In the earth outside it is the imprint of a bare foot. His secretary, with whom he was having an affair, is locked in a room. The key is in the dead man's pocket. Superintendent Minter considers it a most queer and unsatisfactory case. However, he is determined not to be defeated. A thrilling, thoroughly intriguing tale of double murder and love.
Mr Twiddle is a kind soul with the best intentions, but he is extremely forgetful, very lazy and more than a little bit silly. One day he thinks he is in for a bit of luck when he finds a new suit under a bush and convinces himself there are coins magically appearing as he cuts the grass.
Hurrah! It's holiday time, and the Famous Five are spending it at Billycock Hill. Most excitng of all, they've made a new friend - a real pilot! But now he has disappeared, with top secret equipment . . . The Five are puzzled, and concerned, too. Could their new friend by a spy - a traitor!.
The ghost of a seventeenth-century sorcerer emerges as a poltergeist and attempts to make young James his apprentice.
