Journey to the River Sea: Part 2

By EVA IBBOTSON

Miss Carlisle was giving a Geography lesson in the big classroom which faced the street. She was a good teacher, but even the best teachers have trouble trying to make the Rivers of Southern England seem unusual and exciting.

`Now can anyone tell me the exact source of the River Thames?' she asked. She passed her eyes along the rows of desks, missed the plump Hermione, the worried-looking Daisy - and stopped by a girl in the front row.

`Don't chew the end of your pigtail,' she was about to say, but she did not say it. For it was a day when this particular girl had a right to chew the curved ends of her single heavy plait of hair. Maia had seen the motor stop outside the door, had seen old Mr Murray in his velvet-collared coat go into the house. Mr Murray was Maia's guardian and today, as everyone knew, he was bringing news about her future.

Publisher: Macmillan

Price: $14.95

Age group: 11+