By PAUL MAY
The trouble was our teachers. The only decent one was Mrs MacKay. She was the only one of them who didn't actually hate football, and she had to go and have a baby. When Mrs MacKay left, we had supply teachers. And you know what they're like.
Mrs Lamb
was the first one. She didn't last long. Ronaldo, the guinea pig, escaped one lunch-time, and she found him eating her sandwiches. It wasn't Ronaldo's fault. He can't resist lettuce, and Mrs MacKay told us it's cruel to keep animals caged up all day and all night. So it's always been Smithy's special job to exercise Ronaldo at break times.
Mrs Lamb went very still when she saw him. I thought he looked sweet, nibbling away like that, but Mrs Lamb sent Smithy to fetch Mrs Kingsley. Mrs Lamb went on and on about how it was dirty and disgusting having a guinea pig running wild in the classroom - which isn't fair because Ronaldo is a very clean guinea pig, and not wild at all. The next day, Mr Muggs arrived.
Publisher: Corgi
Price: $14.95
Age group: 9-13 years
Want to win this book?
Send us all six of this week's Kids into Books coupons from the print edition of the New Zealand Herald and you'll go into the draw.
