By MICHAEL MORPURGO, Illustrator IAN ANDREW
She was off the sofa now and crouching down in front of me, looking into my face, her hands on mine. 'Come on. Before your dad gets home. You know how it upsets him when you don't practise. Be an angel.'
'I am not an angel,'
I said firmly. 'And I don't want to be an angel either.' I was out of the room and up the stairs before she could say another word. I was ambivalent about my mother. I was closer to her than anyone else in this world. She had always been my only confidant, my most trusted friend. Whatever I did, she would always defend me to the hilt. I'd overhear her talking about me.
'She's just going through that awkward prickly stage,' she'd explain. 'Half girl, half woman. Not the one thing, nor the other. She'll come out of it.' But sometimes she just couldn't stop playing teacher. Worst of all, she would use my father as a weapon against me. In fact, my father was never really upset when I didn't practise my violin, but I knew that he would be disappointed. And I hated to disappoint him - she knew that too.
Publisher: Mammoth
Price: $14.95
Age group: 10 plus years
