Island of Lost Dolls

Eric Scott

Description

"Kellie had a dragon living the paddock at the back of her house. She also had trolls, but she didn't know about them yet. The dragon hadn't been there very long and it had never spoken. It hadn't breathed fire, nor roared a scary roar. But that was because it was made from wood." When a large tree branch dried out it looked a lot like a dragon with a long forked tail, four wriggly limbs protruding from a thick body, and a large mouth where the branch had separated from the tree. It looked fearsome enough but when Kellie and her Dad had finished with the paint tins, it looked even scarier. Kellie called it David the Snake Dragon. In this fast-moving and exciting book for early readers, which is also designed for parents to read to their children, Kellie and Gregory discover that their favourite toys have been stolen and David comes to life. He takes the children to the Island of Lost Dolls, a place where lost dolls used to live happily ever after, but when a wicked doll declares herself queen she make all the dolls her slaves. Kellie Gregory and David with the help of the mysterious Regina must fight to save not only their own toys but all the others too.

Sujets

• Children's

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 20 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783334018
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
THE ISLAND OF LOST DOLLS

Eric Scott



Publisher Information
This edition published in 2013 by
Acorn Books
www.acornbooks.co.uk
Converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2013 by Eric Scott
The right of by Eric Scott to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.



Chapter One
Kellie had a dragon living the paddock at the back of her house. She also had trolls, but she didn’t know about them yet.
The dragon hadn’t been there very long and it had never spoken. It hadn’t breathed fire, nor roared a scary roar. But that was because it was made from wood.
After a sudden summer storm a large branch had come crashing down from a tall tree. When the hot sun dried it out and the bark had fallen off, the branch looked remarkably like a dragon with a long forked tail, four wriggly limbs protruding from a thick body, and a large mouth where the branch had separated from the tree.
It looked fearsome enough but when Kellie and her Dad had finished with the paint tins, it looked even scarier. They painted its tail a fiery red and its back a mixture of patterns, with diamonds and love hearts in purple and yellow, surrounded by blue, green, and orange spots.
Kellie called it David the Snake Dragon.
The biggest adventure of Kellie’s life began one morning when she was sitting on David’s back, swinging her legs, and cuddling Belinda. Belinda was a soft toy rabbit and she was the first toy that Kellie ever had...
These days Belinda spent most of her time lying on Kellie’s bed, but on this particular day Kellie was feeling lonely and she’d brought the rabbit into the paddock to keep her company.
If she hadn’t been deep in thought she might have noticed four very ugly trolls hiding in the shadows of the gully that ran through the paddock. She might even have noticed the arrival of her best friend, Gregory, when he came marching across the paddock in his oversized gumboots. But she didn’t.
Gregory was in the same class as Kellie at school. They were both eight years old. He was a little taller than Kellie but, like her, he had fair, sun-bleached hair. Kellie had blue eyes, but Gregory’s were big and brown.
“Hi,” he called as he came closer.
Kellie quickly hid Belinda behind her back. “Hi,” she said. She jumped down from David’s back.
“Have you seen my Batman?” Gregory asked. “I thought I left it by that dead tree branch,” he said.
“It’s a dragon,” Kellie told him.
“Well it looks like a tree branch to me.” Gregory, as he glanced at David’s brightly painted body.
Kellie stroked David’s back gently. “He might have been a fallen branch once, but now he’s a dragon,” she said.
Gregory shrugged. “It’s just a fallen branch that you and your Dad painted,” he said.
“Ah,” said Kellie. “We used a magic paintbrush. That turned the branch into a Snake Dragon.”
Gregory laughed. “A Snake Dragon? There’s no such thing,” he said.
“There is now,” retorted Kellie.
“Okay,” said Gregory, taking a steady walk round David. “If he’s a dragon, how come he doesn’t roar and breathe fire?”
Kellie paused for a moment. Then she said defiantly: “Because he’s asleep.”
Gregory saw the stubborn look in Kellie’s eye and knew it was a waste of time arguing. He changed the subject. “Are you sure you haven’t seen my Batman. I can’t find it anywhere.”
“I’m not surprised,” said Kellie. “Your room is the messiest place in the world.”
“It’s not as untidy as yours.
“Oh yes it is.”
“It is not.”
“It is too.”
Gregory was about to say something else, but he saw that Kellie had her chin stuck out in her stubborn way and changed his mind. Then he noticed she had her hands behind her back.
“What have you got behind your back?” he asked.
“Nothing,” said Kellie, looking guilty.
“You’ve got your old rabbit haven’t you?” said Gregory, moving quickly to look.
Kellie turned round quickly as well. “No I haven’t,” she said.
But Gregory moved more quickly than Kellie and saw Belinda. “You said you didn’t play with her any more.”
Kellie threw the rabbit on the ground, “I don’t,” she said. “I just found her lying around.”
Gregory picked Belinda up and dusted her down before leaning her against the tree. “There’s no need to treat her like that,” he said. “You’ve had her a long time - ever since you were born. My Mum still has the teddy bear she was given when she was a baby.” Then he looked slowly around the paddock, shading his eyes. He sighed, “I can’t see Batman anywhere. Maybe I left him in the gully.”
“You mean the jungle,” said Kellie.
“All right, the jungle. Shall we go and have a look?”
“Okay,” said Kellie. “But it’s probably at the bottom of a pile of junk in your room.”
Gregory shook his head. “There’s something strange going on,” he said. “I’ve never know so many toys go missing. As soon as I turn my back, something else disappears.”
“You’re just careless,” said Kellie. “Come on, let’s go, and search the jungle.



Chapter Two
As the children ran down the slope the trolls came out of hiding. There were four of them: Tumpy, Bumpy, Tiny and Tina, and their arms were full of toys. There were new dolls, old dolls, Barbie dolls, Ken dolls, turtles, lots of different animals and dozens of soft toys. And Tumpy was carrying Gregory’s Batman.
It was Tiny who spotted Belinda sitting comfortably at the bottom of the tree. “Goodie, another one, Her Lowness is going to be very pleased with us today.”
The trolls, who were short, squat, and extremely ugly, stood and stared at Belinda.
“This one doesn’t look very lost to me,” said Tina. “It’s sitting much too neatly.”
“Can you see any humans?” asked Tiny.
“No,” said Tina, hesitantly.
“Then it must be lost,” said the impatient Tumpy.
“Under the new rules I’d definitely say it was lost,” said Bumpy, falling over his own feet and bumping into Tumpy.
“I suppose you’re right,” said Tina. “But it looks very unlost to me. It’s well cared for - and it’s almost as old as Old Ted.”
“That,” said Tiny severely, “was a very untroll-like thing to say. It was almost nice.”
“I didn’t mean it to be,” said Tina. She picked up Belinda and threw her to Tumpy, who caught her by one leg.
“Come on, let’s go,” said Tiny. “We don’t want to be seen by the humans.”
Cackling nastily, the trolls hurried away into the darkness of the gully, well away from where Kellie and Gregory were searching for the missing Batman.
The children stood on a huge log that had fallen across the gully, and created a bridge for them. The floor underneath was sandy.
Kellie jumped down into the soft floor and Gregory followed her.
“Look,” said Kellie, crouching on her heels and pointing, “kangaroo footprints.”
Gregory examined them closely. “More like a wallaby,” he said. “They’re too small for a roo.”
Kellie looked again and agreed with him.
They then pushed their way though the sticky spider webs that hung from the wattle’s low-hanging branches, in order to climb the steep clay sides of the dam wall.
“What about Batman?” shouted Kellie, as she scrambled quickly after Gregory?
“He’s not here, that’s obvious,” said Gregory. Obvious was the new word he’d learned at school that morning.
They stood beside the dam for a few minutes, threw stones into the water, and watched the ripples flow from one bank to the other. Then they wandered slowly back to the tree in the paddock. Kellie got a nasty shock when she saw Belinda was no longer there.
“Maybe your dragon ate her,” said Gregory.
“Don’t be silly,” said Kellie. “David doesn’t eat rabbits.”
“He doesn’t eat anything,” giggled Gregory.
“Only when I’m hungry,” said a strange voice.
“Who said that?” asked Gregory, startled.
“I did,” said the voice.
Gregory turned to Kellie. “How did you do that?” he demanded.
“I didn’t,” said Kellie, her eyes firmly fixed on the dragon. “It’s David. He’s talking to us.”



Chapter Three
“Wooden dragons can’t talk,” said Gregory.
“Why not?” said the voice. “Dolls talk, bears talk and reindeers sing, so why can’t a wooden dragon talk?”
Then David surprised them both. He stood on his wriggly back legs, stretched and yawned, then brushed the dead leaves from his tummy.
Gregory’s mouth fell wide open in shock. “He did talk,” he stuttered. “How ... how ...”
“What are you stuttering about, boy?” said the dragon, who tried unsuccessfully to look fierce.
“I must be dreaming,” said Gregory.”
“Nonsense,” said David impatiently. “You’re wide-awake and of course I’m talking. That’s what happens when you get painted with a magic paintbrush.”
Kellie gave Gregory a triumphant look. “Why haven’t you spoken before?” she asked David.
David looked sadly at Kellie. “I never had any need before.”
“Something bad has happened to Belinda hasn’t it? Kellie cut in anxiously.
David looked serious. “I’m afraid she might have been doll-napped,” he said.
“ Doll-napped? ” said Kellie.
“She’s been stolen and, if I’m not mistaken, she’ll soon b