An Owl Called Star E-Book

Helen Peters

• Herausgeber: Nosy Crow
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: The Jasmine Green Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 82

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

The eighth in a fantastic series of animal stories for younger readers by Waterstones Children's Book Prize-shortlisted author Helen Peters, with beautiful black-and-white illustrations by Ellie Snowdon. Jasmine's dad is a farmer, and her mum is a large-animal vet, so Jasmine spends a lot of time caring for animals and keeping them out of trouble. Unfortunately, this often means she gets into hot water herself... When Jasmine and Tom discover an injured barn owl in the woods, they race to save his life. But as Star recovers, Jasmine realises that this beautiful bird is also a deadly hunter. Has Jasmine taken on more than she can handle? Brilliant storytelling that will make you laugh and cry, this is Dick King-Smith for a new generation. Perfect for readers aged seven and up. Check out Jasmine's other adventures: A Piglet Called Truffle, A Duckling Called Button, A Sheepdog Called Sky and many more!

Leseprobe

For Orlando and Noah

H. P.

For Clo

E. S.

Chapter One

A Perfect Place for a Party

“I can’t believe my parents won’t let us have a Halloween party,” said Jasmine to her best friend, Tom. “They promised! How can they just go back on their word like that?”

It was a Thursday evening just before October half term, and they were taking Jasmine’s sheepdog, Sky, for a walk in the woods at the edge of Jasmine’s farm.

“Did they definitely say no?” asked Tom.

“Completely. Mum denied she’d even promised us. She said she didn’t remember anything about it and she’s far too busy. And then Dad started going on about how the house still hadn’t recovered from Manu’s birthday.”

“But that’s not your fault,” said Tom.

“Exactly! I wasn’t the one who spilled food colouring all over the carpet or set fire to the dolls’ house.”

Tom shook his head in sympathy. “It’s so unfair.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any chance of having it at yours?” asked Jasmine hopefully.

Tom snorted. “No chance, sorry. Mum said she’s got enough to do without a load of marauding children all over the house.”

Jasmine kicked at a pile of crunchy autumn leaves with her wellington boot, scattering twigs and nuts across the narrow path.

The wood at the edge of Oak Tree Farm was Jasmine’s favourite place. It was especially lovely at this time of year, when the leaf-littered ground was scattered with shiny ripe conkers and little brown acorns. Fat purple sloes and gleaming red holly berries lent splashes of colour to the autumn hedgerows, and mysterious toadstools sprouted up among the mossy tree roots.

Sky was enjoying the walk too. His feathery tail wagged happily as he trotted up the path ahead of the children, darting in and out of the woods to sniff at piles of leaves and investigate rabbit holes. Now he disappeared into a clump of trees away to their right.

“Sky!” called Jasmine, when he didn’t reappear.

Sky didn’t come. They carried on walking for a minute and then Jasmine called him again.

They heard leaves rustling and twigs snapping. He was clearly having a lovely time.

“He’s pretending to be deaf,” said Jasmine. “Let’s go and find him.”

Away from the path, the woodland floor was a tangle of bracken and brambles. Jasmine and Tom gingerly stepped through the waist-high undergrowth, treading down the brambles and trying not to snag their jeans on thorns.

They were close to the edge of the wood now, where the landscape opened out into fields that ran all the way to the South Downs. The sun was setting behind the hills in a blaze of red. In the wood, the light was becoming grey and shadowy.

“I wonder if he’s in that old barn over there,” said Tom.

There was a tumbledown barn in a field at the edge of the woods. It wasn’t part of Jasmine’s farm, but belonged to somebody else. It looked as though it had been abandoned for a hundred years. There were great gaps in the walls where the wooden planks had rotted away or were hanging off at crazy angles. The tiled roof sagged in the middle and some of the tiles had slipped off, leaving jagged holes. The walls were covered in ivy, and the ground around the barn was overgrown with nettles, brambles and scrubby bushes.

Tom and Jasmine climbed over the fence at the edge of the wood and walked towards the barn.

Suddenly, from somewhere overhead, came a loud, spooky, screeching sound.

The children jumped in shock.

“What was that?” whispered Tom.

Jasmine gasped and pointed out into the field.

“Look!”

A barn owl was flying towards them, ghostly white in the twilight. It swooped silently over their heads and vanished into the shadowy trees.

“Wow,” said Tom, when the owl was out of sight. “That was amazing.”

“So cool,” said Jasmine. “I’ve never seen one before. Its wings didn’t make a sound, did they?”

“It must be hunting,” said Tom. “Do you think it was the owl making that screeching sound?”

“Yes,” said Jasmine. “I’ve heard it before, and Dad said it was a barn owl.”

They had reached the old barn now.

“Sky!” called Jasmine.

There was a scuffling sound from inside, and then Sky bounded out, wagging his tail happily.

“Good dog,” said Jasmine, ruffling his soft furry coat.

Tom was gazing through the barn doorway. “Look at this. Have you ever been inside?”

“No,” she said, stroking Sky’s silky ears. “It’s probably full of rats.”

Jasmine loved all animals, but a barn full of rats wasn’t a tempting thought.

“Come and look,” said Tom.

Jasmine stepped through the undergrowth to join him, followed by Sky.

The barn was completely empty. The dirt floor was covered in animal and bird droppings. Enormous rough beams held up the roof and ran across the width of the building. In the one window, Jasmine was surprised to see the glass was still intact.

She gazed at the dim empty space, and all at once she wasn’t just seeing the inside of a dirty old barn. In her mind’s eye, she saw glowing pumpkin lanterns; decorations strung from the beams; Halloween-themed cupcakes; biscuits in the shapes of cats and owls.

She turned to Tom, excitement bubbling up inside her.

“Tom!” she said. “Wouldn’t this be an amazing place for a Halloween party?”

Tom’s eyes widened.

“It would be perfect. But it’s not our barn.”

“So? The owner lives in London. He doesn’t care about it.”

“But our parents will never let us.”

“No,” said Jasmine. “They’ll never let us. So we’ll just have to have the party in secret. Won’t we?”

Chapter Two

Something In the Brambles

“How can we have a Halloween party without anyone finding out?” said Tom.

“We just tell everyone not to tell their parents.”

“But won’t their parents want to know where they’re going?”

Jasmine thought for a second. “I know! We’ll tell them all to meet at your house to go trick-or-treating. Then we’ll just walk here instead. It will be a great spooky start to Halloween, walking from your house through the woods. We can tell ghost stories on the way.”

“What about my parents, though, when everyone turns up at my house?”

Jasmine screwed up her mouth in thought. “Can you get them to go out? They like going to the cinema, don’t they?”

“I could tell them I’m going to be with you for Halloween,” said Tom. “Which won’t be a lie. So then they’ll have the evening free to go out.”

Jasmine stepped inside the barn. “We can make paper bats and spiders and hang them from the beams. It will look so good.”

“We’ll never reach those beams,” said Tom. “And we can’t carry a ladder all the way here.”

Jasmine thought quickly. “So we’ll tie a decoration on to each end of a long piece of string and then throw the string over the beam. We can make loads of them. And we can have fairy lights too.”

“There’s no electricity to plug in fairy lights,” said Tom.

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Honestly, are you just trying to find problems? We’ve got fairy lights with batteries. Mum puts them on the mantelpiece at Christmas. And we can make cupcakes and biscuits and popcorn. It will be amazing.”

“It will be amazing if it works,” said Tom.

Sky ran out of the barn and started bounding across the field.

“He’s heading home,” said Jasmine. “Shall we go? It’s nearly dark.”

Standing in the doorway, Jasmine glimpsed something white in the brambles outside. She tutted.

“Look, a plastic bag. Why are people so horrible? Don’t they know animals can die from eating litter?”

She picked her way through the undergrowth towards it. Jasmine was constantly coming home with her pockets full of other people’s rubbish. She couldn’t bear to think of an animal suffocating inside a bag, or choking on a piece of plastic they’d mistaken for food.

As she drew closer, though, and saw the patch of white more clearly, she realised it wasn’t plastic after all.

“Feathers! Oh, no, it’s a dead bird.”

“Oh, that’s so sad,” said Tom.

Jasmine made her way to the bird and crouched down.

She gasped. “Look!”

Tom hurried towards her. He drew in his breath.

“A barn owl!”

The owl lay motionless on its side amongst the dead leaves. It had a beautiful white heart-shaped face and a white chest. Its head and wings were light brown and grey, speckled with black-and-white dots. Its eyes were closed.

“It might still be alive,” said Tom. “Let’s check.”

Trying to avoid the thorns, they moved the brambles out of the way. Jasmine wriggled her hand through the gap and felt through the bird’s outer feathers to the soft down beneath.

“It’s warm!” she said, her heart beating faster with excitement. “But we need to get it home quickly. I’ll wrap it in my coat.”

“I wonder what happened to it,” said Tom. “Do you think it will be all right?”

There was a rustling in the undergrowth as Sky ran back towards them, head down, sniffing the ground. He barged past Tom, heading straight for the owl. Tom grabbed his collar.

“Oh, no, you don’t. Come away, Sky. Have you got his lead, Jasmine?”

Jasmine took Sky’s lead out of her coat pocket and handed it to Tom. Then she took off her coat and spread it on the ground. Cautiously, she scooped up the bird.

“It’s so light! It weighs practically nothing. I wonder how long it’s been here.”

She wrapped the owl in her coat so that only its face was showing. Then she picked it up and held it close to her chest.

“Be careful of its beak,” said Tom. “If it wakes up, it might peck you.”