Kids into books: The Gizmo

The Gizmo

Author: Paul Jennings

Publisher: Puffin books $10.95

Illustrator: Keith McEwan

Age group: 8-13 years


I did promise, too. But I was just showing off. Pretending to be tough. What an idiot.

I don't want to take anything. But I promised. And Floggit will tell the kids at school that I wimped out. Broke my word. I couldn't let that happen. No way.

I swallow and try to hold down my dinner. I look at the little man who owns the stall. He is sort of strange. Like a man from another world. There is something not quite right about him. His eyes are wrong. When he blinks you can see through them as if they are windows. It seems to be raining inside his head. He looks as if he could snap his fingers and turn me into a worm. I am scared of him and I am scared of Floggit. I am too scared to steal something. And too scared not to. What will I do?


Tommorow: Thieves will be punished!