Out of the Ashes: Part 3

By MICHAEL MORPURGO

Some time afterwards, I showed it to Mum. After all we'd been through together I wanted her to read it. Once she'd finished she gave me a long hug, and we cried our last tears.

At that moment I felt we had both drawn a line under the whole thing and made an end of it.

It was her idea, not mine, that my diary should be published. She was determined about it, fierce almost.

"People should know, Becky," she said. "I want people to know how it was. I certainly don't want their pity, but I do want them to understand."

So here's my diary, then, with some of my drawings too. Not a word has been changed. The spelling has been corrected, and the punctuation. Otherwise it's just as I wrote it.

Publisher: Macmillan

Price: $14.95

Age group: 8-12 yrs