Contents
Cover Page
Copyright Page
Title page
1. The Haunted House
2. My early days
3. The Corbys move in
4. Lions!
5. Inside No. 1
6. A happy ending
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Epub ISBN: 9781446403396
Version 1.10
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GEEJAY, THE HERO
A YOUNG CORGI BOOK : 0 552 546097
First publication in Great Britain
PRINTING HISTORY
Young Corgi edition published 1998
Copyright © 1998 by Adèle Geras
Illustrations copyright © 1998 by Tony Ross
The right of Adèle Geras to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Condition of Sale
Young Corgi Books are published by Transworld Publishers Ltd,
61–63 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London W5 5SA,
in Australia by Transworld Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd,
15–25 Helles Avenue, Moorebank, NSW 2170,
and in New Zealand by Transworld Publishers (NZ) Ltd,
3 William Pickering Drive, Albany, Auckland.
GEEJAY
THE HERO
Adèle Geras
Illustrated by Tony Ross
1. The haunted house
Once upon a time . . . that’s the way all the very best stories begin. Wendy says so. She loves stories more than anything because, she says, they are full of wonders and marvels, adventures and magic. They tell us about a world that is more exciting than the real world. They are full of heroes and heroines, witches and dragons, and they sometimes have ghosts in them. Wendy likes spooky stories best of all. She is eight years old, and she’s my favourite human. It’s her bed I sleep on, when I rest from my work of hunting and roaming.
“Guess what?” Wendy whispered to me one day, when we were playing in the garden. “I think the house next door is haunted. Doesn’t it look haunted to you?”
Wendy has a habit of seeing ghosts everywhere. The dressing gown on the back of her door was one, and so was the wind, making the curtains blow in at the windows. The haunted house, No.1 Cuckoo Square, stood on the corner of Peacock Street. It had been empty for a long time, and the paintwork was peeling. The windows were covered in spider-webs, and ivy grew all over the walls at the back. When Wendy told her mother what she had told me, her mother, Angela, said: “What a lot of nonsense! Of course it’s not haunted. You know perfectly well that ghosts are only in stories. It’s just a bit neglected, that’s all.”
“You’re not to go inside,” said Nigel, Wendy’s father. “Even though it’s not haunted. Old houses can be very dangerous.”
“What sort of dangerous?” Wendy wanted to know. She is as curious as any cat.
“Loose floorboards sort of dangerous,” said Nigel. “Broken stairs sort of dangerous. Fall over and break your ankle sort of dangerous.”
“Oh,” said Wendy. “How boring!”
“Sorry I’m sure!” Nigel smiled at his daughter. “If I could lay on the odd headless horseman or chain-rattling spectre, I promise you I would.”