The Courage of Cat Campbell

Informationen zum Autor Natasha Lowe knew as a child that she wanted to be either a writer, an adventurer, or to open a fancy teashop. So she did a little bit of everything, traveling from her native London to America where she ran The Tea House bed and breakfast and wowed guests with her grandmother’s shortbread recipe. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and four children. She is the author of the Poppy Pendle series and  Lucy Castor Finds Her Sparkle . Klappentext A charming coming of age story with magic and adventure, "The Courage Of Cat Campbell" is part of the "Poppy Pendle" series. Ages: 8-12yrs The Courage of Cat Campbell Chapter One A Passion for Magic THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON AT 3:35, Cat Campbell was born on the floor of her mother’s bakery, right into the strong, hairy arms of her father. Tristram had been trying to hustle Poppy, who was clearly in labor, away from the caramel cookies she had been baking and off to the Potts Bottom hospital. But Poppy insisted on getting her last batch of cookies out of the oven first, and so Cat was born on a hot August day, in an even hotter kitchen, greeted by the scent of burning caramel. Her father wrapped Cat up in his none too clean shirt, and she gripped his finger tight in her hand. Staring right at him out of deep green eyes, Cat kicked her spindly legs free. Then, opening her mouth wide, she gave a loud, lusty roar. “Little lion!” Tristram murmured, his fatherly heart bursting with pride. “Can I hold her?” Poppy said, stretching out her arms. She sighed with happiness as Tristram gently lowered baby Catherine into them. “Oh, she’s got your red hair, Tristram! How wonderful.” “And I bet she gets your passion for baking,” Tristram said, grinning through his wild, bushy beard. “How could she not, being born in a bakery?” Cradling her baby close, Poppy whispered, “I don’t mind what she does. I really don’t. Just so long as it isn’t witchcraft.” As Cat grew older she loved to sit on the floor of the bakery, which was also the Campbells’ little home, converted from an old, abandoned cottage that sat beside the Potts Bottom Canal. It was a few minutes’ walk from the center of town, but nobody minded the detour because Cat’s mother made the most delicious breads and pastries. Cat would stir imaginary concoctions around in saucepans, banging on their metal sides and chattering away in baby language. When she was two, Tristram made his daughter a wooden stool so she could stand at the counter mixing up her own special recipes beside her mother and Marie Claire, the elderly Frenchwoman who owned the bakery along with Poppy. Cat liked to raid the spice shelf, shaking cinnamon, ginger, and chili powder into her bowl. She’d open all her mother’s canisters, spooning in cornmeal and brown sugar. Anything Cat could wrap her tiny hands around she’d use. One time a ladybug flew onto the table and Cat scooped him up before he could escape, dropping him into her batter. “Insect cake! Yummy,” Cat’s dad said, watching Cat stir it around with her spoon. “Ibeldy gobble,” Cat shrieked, jumping up and down and waving the spoon over the bowl. “A great baker, just like her mother!” Tristram commented. And Poppy couldn’t help smiling because Cat did seem so happy in the kitchen, even though her experiments always ended up getting poured down the sink. “What are you making?” Poppy asked one afternoon, as three-year-old Cat was hard at work. “Is it a lemon cake?” Cat shook her head, sprinkling pepper and cloves into her bowl. “How about a chocolate cake?” Marie Claire suggested. “No,” Cat replied, plopping in a spoonful of cocoa. “Not too much, now,” Poppy said, removing the tin from her daughter’s rea...

Product details

• Authors: Natasha Lowe
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster USA
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 8 to 12
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2015
• EAN: 9781481418713
• ISBN: 978-1-4814-1871-3
• No. of pages: 288
• Series: Poppy Pendle; Poppy Pendle
• Subject: Children's and young people's books