Kids into books: The Cabbage Patch Fib

Everyday the Herald carries an extract from a childrens' book as part of its commitment to children's literacy.

This week's title: The Cabbage Patch Fib

By Paul Jennings

Illustrated by Craig Smith

Puffin Books. $10.95.

Age group: 7 to 9 years.

My brother Chris is only eight years old, which is rather young to have a baby. Well, 'have a baby' is probably not quite the right way to put it, but there was a baby and it sure thought Chris was its father. He was in charge of it, that's for certain. Anyway, I had better start at the beginning so you know the whole story. If you don't believe it I don't blame you - but it's true.

It all started at tea time. The whole eight of us - six kids and Mum and Dad - were eating spaghetti. We kids were all killing ourselves laughing because Chris (who can be a real pain at times) had put a piece of spaghetti up his nose and left one end hanging out over his lip so that it looked like something I would rather not talk about. It was a grotty thing to do but it really did look funny and we couldn't help cracking up.