To the Lighthouse: A late-night adventure doesn't go to plan - Softcover

Burne, Cristy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1925164616 ISBN 13: 9781925164619

Verlag: Fremantle Press, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

Isaac arrives on Rottnest Island hoping for an awesome holiday adventure, but his mum would rather he stayed inside, where it's safe. Then Isaac meets Emmy. She's allowed to do whatever she wants - and she wants to have fun! With Emmy daring him on, Isaac's life gets more and more exciting. But when things go horribly wrong on their secret midnight adventure, they both wonder whether this time they've gone too far ... Award-winning author Cristy Burne is back with another exciting tale filled with adventure, heart and practical advice for younger readers.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Cristy Burne is an award-winning, internationally published Australian author working on the intersection of story, science, technology and creativity. Cristy is a trained scientist and has worked for 20 years as a science communicator, including at CERN (home of the Large Hadron Collider!), at Questacon (as part of a science circus!), and as editor of CSIRO's Scientriffic magazine. She has also worked as a garbage analyst, a teacher and as Santa's pixie. Plus, she has bungee jumped, skydived, camel trekked and exploded sewage on her neighbour (accidentally, she swears it). Cristy writes books brimming with her love for all things science, adventure and creativity. Her work has been shortlisted for the WA Premier's Book Awards and the Wilderness Society's Environment Award, won the WA Young Readers Book Award, and been recognised as Notable by the Children's Book Council of the Australia.Cristy is the author of junior fiction favourites Into the Blue, Beneath the Trees and Off the Track, and co-author of A New World Rises: Tales of a LEGO® Future (all Fremantle Press). Her other titles include Suzy Urbaniak: Volcano hunter and steam warrior, the Wednesday Weeks series and the Ultra Violet graphic novel series. Cristy is an exciting and inspiring presenter specialised in combining science with creativity. Expect the unexpected! Safety goggles advised.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

To the Lighthouse

By Cristy Burne, Amanda Burnett

Fremantle Press

Copyright © 2017 Cristy Burne
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-925164-61-9

CHAPTER 1

LANDING

Isaac stepped off the boat. The island was waiting for him, he could feel it. At the other end of the long jetty, there was white sand to sprint across, sandpaper cliffs to explore, massive fig trees just waiting to be climbed.

'Stay close,' warned Mum. 'You don't want to fall in.'

Isaac looked around. The jetty was wide enough to race monster trucks. One side was bounded by a tumbling wall of giant boulders. The other was roped off at least three metres from the edge. The only way he could possibly fall in was if he took a running leap.

Yeah right, Mum, he thought.

'Okay Mum,' he said out loud.

Seagulls soared and waves lapped and people laughed as they whizzed by on their bicycles. He couldn't wait to start adventuring, but first he had to manage Mum. Convincing her to even come to the island had taken him ages.

School holidays usually meant Isaac was shipped off to vacation care while Mum went to work. These holidays, he'd planted the idea of a winter getaway. She'd studied the website for ages.

'Peace, quiet, fresh air and a good book. It does sound perfect,' she'd said. Then she'd looked at Isaac and frowned.

'I'll be fine,' Isaac had promised. 'Seriously, Mum, you can relax all you like.'

Mum had wrung her hands. She wrung her hands a lot.

'We can play cards, and ride our bikes, and bake cakes ...' Isaac hesitated.

Mum hated baking.

'I just worry that something might happen,' she'd said.

Isaac had nodded. Something might happen. An awesome holiday might happen.

'I'll be fine,' he promised.

'You'll make sensible decisions?' Mum asked.

'Super-sensible,' Isaac had assured her.

So here he was, sensibly standing in the middle of a jetty the size of a small nation, trying not to fall off or jump in. He scanned for kids his age, but only saw littlies, running and screaming and drooling. There was no one interesting. No one to hang out with and explore with.

And then he saw the girl.

She was climbing on the wall of boulders. Racing across them. If Mum saw, she'd have a heart attack. The girl had long, bronzed hair, and although it was winter, she was wearing just a T-shirt with shorts, the khaki sort, with lots of pockets. Isaac checked his own clothes. He was trussed up in so many layers he could hardly bend his arms to scratch his nose. Mum had smiled and called that a sensible decision. It didn't feel so sensible now.

The girl saw Isaac staring and made a horrible face at him. Isaac made his own face back. She grinned right at him.

'Isaac,' said Mum. 'Keep an eye out for our bikes.'

High above them loads of bicycles were lined across the ferry's deck in a twist of colourful metal. There weren't many cars on the island, so almost everyone rode bikes. Up on deck, a man with sticking-up hair was rolling bikes down a narrow ramp and onto the jetty. Isaac's bike was up there. Somewhere. It was a blue mountain bike with an all-black helmet and chunky pedals. He'd never done actual mountain biking, because Mum thought actual mountain biking was dangerous, but since there were no actual mountains on the island he might be okay. There were loads of hills and trails. He couldn't wait.

The next bike down the ramp wasn't a mountain bike. It was a white BMX, with pegs out the sides for doing tricks.

The bronze-haired girl in the khaki shorts jumped down from the boulders. She thanked the crewman, grabbed the BMX in her strong, brown hands and rode away down the jetty. Alone. With her helmet dangling on her handlebars.

'There's your bike,' Mum said, pointing to the sticking- up hair guy, high above them on the deck.

Isaac watched the girl. Was she really alone? Where were her parents?

Then he spotted a tall man in jeans and a red jacket. He seemed to be calling out to the girl, but Isaac couldn't hear what he was saying. Neither could the girl, because she didn't stop and she didn't turn around. The man's words were swept into the salty wind, where only seagulls would hear them. Isaac watched as the man swung a bag onto his back, then heaved a wriggling toddler into the seat on the front of his bike. A kindy kid streaked past him on a balance bike.

'Come on, Dad!' the kindy kid yelled, racing ahead. Balance bikes have no brakes, Isaac thought. Mum would've been wailing about the edge and the cracks and be careful of seagull poop. But the man was busy juggling his bike and backpack and small child. He had no time for anything else. And the bronze-haired girl was way ahead.

'And there's mine!' Mum sounded relieved to spot her slightly larger but equally unused bike.

Isaac got his bike and waited while Mum collected hers, and waited while she double-checked that the luggage truck wouldn't forget their bags and that the weather wasn't going to be stormy. Then he waited while she triple-checked that the island wouldn't sink or flood or otherwise be struck by catastrophe. Then, about an hour later, she and Isaac finally wheeled their bikes away, very carefully, down the centre of the jetty. Isaac stared into the lapping water and wanted to jump. Sometimes Mum could be too much.

At last, they stepped off the jetty and onto the island. Isaac breathed deep, just as the bronze-haired girl whizzed past on her BMX. She made an even worse face at Isaac, grinned, then pulled an awesome wheelie, her front wheel spinning in the breeze. She disappeared up the hill and around the corner.

Isaac's stomach tangled into itself. He'd tried wheelies a few times, but they'd never really worked. Perhaps this was the place to learn how. Perhaps this island was the place for loads of new things, like making friends with the bronze-haired girl, for a start. Only, he wasn't sure Mum would agree.

What he needed was a plan.

Later that afternoon, Mum and Isaac settled quietly in their little yellow house. Mum unpacked her case, read up about their gas heater, tucked all the extra blankets onto their beds, and photographed the evacuation instructions, in case the real instructions were stolen/burnt/swept away in a freak tsunami. Then she stood on one foot, and then the other. Isaac sat at the kitchen table, trying to focus on drawing the view. Mum liked it when he drew. She thought it was safe.

She shifted back to her other foot.

'Why don't you read your book?' he suggested helpfully.

'Really?' Mum looked lost.

'Really.' He smiled his most calming smile. She fetched her book and incredibly, finally, actually relaxed, even putting her feet up on the couch. Isaac returned to his drawing, but mostly he was staring out the window at the rippling bay beyond. The sky was blue, the water was bluer. It was time to put his plan into action. He cleared his throat.

'Can I get you a cup of tea?' he asked.

Mum looked up. Her face softened into such a loving smile that Isaac felt almost guilty. 'That'd be great,' she said. 'Thank you.' But then she added 'Will you be alright with the kettle?'

No, Mum. The kettle has a black belt. I won't stand a chance, Isaac thought.

'I'll be careful,' he said.

He filled the kettle, switched it on. He made a big show of finding a mug, and then unearthing a tea bag, then opening the fridge.

'Oh no! Mum, there's no milk.' He pulled his best responsible face. He'd practised it about a million times. 'No worries, I'll just jump on my bike. Ride down to the shops.'

He waited. Mum...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Fremantle Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1925164616
• ISBN 13: 9781925164619
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 114
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland