Kids Into Books: A Whistle from the Blunder

Author: Diana Noonan

Age: 10+ years

Illustrator: Jenny Cooper

Publisher: Longacre Press, $14.95


"Come back!" shouted Cadence. "Wait for me!"

Ahead of her, Josh pedalled his two-wheeler furiously toward Burchfield, half a kilometre away. Cadence jogged behind him, catching up only when he braked for a scattering of brown chooks fleeing across the road.

"Who's there?" called a voice from behind the hedge they had scuttled under. "Who's that?"

A bulky, grey haired woman, wearing a pink apron, appeared at a gate. She looked Cadence up and down suspiciously.

"Hi, Mrs Gaynor," called Josh.

"Oh, it's you, is it," said the woman.

"We're just going to the shop."

"Well you watch yourself on that road, young man," she warned. "And no going past Barney Abbott's. Not today."

"No going past who's?" asked Cadence, when Mrs Gaynor had gone.

Before Josh could answer, a loud bellow carried along the road towards them. With it came snatches of music, perhaps from a piano accordion, and then the tangled rise and fall of an unsteady voice singing.

"He'll be in his garden," said Josh mysteriously.

"Who?" asked Cadence, annoyed with all the secrecy.

"You know," whispered Josh. "Barney Abbott."