Author: Joy Cowley
Illustrator: Trevor Pye
Publisher: Harper Collins, $12.95
Age Group: 8-12 years
Drawing plans for a house was Mr Fromish's idea of a maths project.
He said to our class, 'Start with yourself, your interests, your needs. Design the kind of home that suits you. first, draw a rough plan and when you think you've got it right, you can draw it to scale.'
'Fish scale or music scale?' said my cousin Royce, trying to be smart.
Fromish got his tired look. 'Act your age, West, not your shoe size.'
Royce grinned. He was feeling good. He had seventy dollars fattening his pocket. He'd shown it to us.
Seventy whole dollars, as much as I earned in seven weeks of cutting Mum's lawn, and he'd got it from selling a bag of old junk to Mr Vivek's second-hand shop.
The kids who saw the money didn't know whether to be mad at him or extra nice. I figured that Royce was so stingy he wouldn't part with a cent, so I just got mad.
'What kind of junk?' I wanted to know.
'Old stuff, Mickey,' he said. 'Thrown out.'
'Thrown out where?'
'Just rubbish.' He looked a bit squinty and I knew he was trying one of his dodgy answers.
<i>Kids into books:</i> The Wild Wests and Pong Castle
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