Kids Into Books: A Whistle from the Blunder

Author: Diana Noonan

Age: 10+ years

Illustrator: Jenny Cooper

Publisher: Longacre Press, $14.95


The kitchen ceiling creaked. That meant Liz was out of the shower and moving about her bedroom. Cadence walked over to the bench where Ralph was trying to open a milk carton. She peered over Liz's ridiculous half-curtains that blocked the view of the paddocks, to the forest-covered hills beyond the river.

"Do you ever hear anything - very early in the morning?" she began hesitantly. "You know, something that wakes you up."

"Alarm clock? Lizzy snoring? Every morning!" Ralph laughed. It was too early for him to take anything seriously, Cadence knew that, but she tried again anyway.

"Not an inside noise," she said. "One that comes from over there somewhere." She nodded toward the forest. "From behind the trees, I think."

Ralph put down the milk carton and looked out the window. "From up the old train line?" he asked curiously. "What sort of noise?"

Cadence was about to explain when Liz's voice startled her from behind. She was standing in the open doorway with her brief case under one arm and an overflowing carton of books under the other.

"That smell!" she cried, dropping the carton and rushing to open the door of the oven. "Something's scorching! Ralph! If you've put your socks in the oven again, look out!"