One backpack. Two worlds.
One EXTRAordinary girl from outback Australia.
This is not the story my family thinks happened.
I'm Penelope Pickles. I'm ten. And I have had the most extraordinary week of my entire life.
A $300 designer dress. My little sister Polly and her secret fairy bread binge. A dog. A cake. A massive row with Mum. Grounded. As if that was the worst of it. π
I couldn't go back to school. I couldn't stay home. I had to escape. So I grabbed an old backpack and ran away.
I didn't get very far before things got very curious. The neighbourhood felt β different. And then curiouser still.
And then I heard him. The most magnificent man I had ever seen. Enormous. A moustache like two liquorice whips, curled at the tips.
Chaaaiiiii. Chaaaiiiii.
The sound wove through the crowd and drew me toward him. He was pouring something golden and creamy from a teapot held high above his head into tiny glasses on the ground β without spilling a single drop. Without even watching.
Because his eyes were watching me.
The aroma touched me next. Spices and sweetness I had no name for. The most delicious thing I had ever smelled in my entire life. I drifted toward him before I'd even decided to move.
"Drink, Princess."
I reached for the tiny golden glass, my tongue already tingling at the thought of the taste.
Suddenly, a small hand grabbed my shirt.
"Don't!"
The spell broke.
What followed involved tunnels beneath an ancient city, carved with symbols pointing to places I had no business going. A dungeon. Two unlikely saviours. Ordinary objects with impossible powers.
And a choice. The hardest one I've ever made.
I have seen things that would make your head spin. And nobody β NOBODY β is ever going to believe me.
Penelope Pickles is ten years old, proudly Australian, and completely unprepared for what's about to happen to her.
The kind of book children read under the covers with a torch, and then immediately hand to their best friend.
Book One is complete. The world is built. The backpack has barely begun. The best time to join is right at the start.
Sharyn grew up in outback Australia. She looked exactly like Penelope at ten years old. She ran away to her grandma's once too, though she got caught and brought back before the adventure really started.
She lost her father young. And for years afterwards, she quietly imagined he was still out there somewhere. Doing something important. Something secret.
Decades later, she wrote it all down.
Meet Sharyn βI loved it and am keen to read more. So many questions unanswered and directions the book can take!
L., age 11 Beta reader, 2016I think she smashes the rock into the ground hard. The earth splits and as it opens a beautiful golden serpent arises to her rescue!
Child reader, 2016 Predicting what happens nextThe backpack. Yes! It's magic!
Unanimous Every child who read it, 2016