THE GIRL WHO LOVED TO READ

Laura loved to read.

She read all day, every day.

She read all night, every night.

Her parents would say:

“Stop reading Laura!”

Then one day, one dreadful day, her parents banned her from reading completely.

“It’s for your own good” they said. “You need to start living in the real world and play with your little sister.”

Laura groaned; playing with her little sister was such a bore.  Tears pricked her eyes as she remembered all the times she had snuggled down on the sofa to read a wonderful story.

Her dad put his arm around her.

“Don’t worry” he said “It will only be for a month.”

Laura’s stomach tightened.  She couldn’t spend an hour away from her books, let alone a month!  It would be torture!

When she woke the next morning all her books were gone.

Laura knew she had to find them.

She tiptoed into her parents’ room, looking round cautiously to see if anyone was around – no-one was.

Kneeling down by the wardrobe she carefully opened the door.

She fumbled around, moving shoes, bags and coats.  Then her hand touched the familiar, worn spines of her books – she had found them!

Laura pulled out a book from the pile and gasped – it was Black Beauty – her most favourite book of all!  She picked it up with shaking hands and traced the gold lettering with her finger.

“I love you Black Beauty” she whispered.

Suddenly, Laura heard footsteps. It was her mum coming to put the washing away!

With her heart beating fast, she quietly closed the wardrobe door and slipped into the bathroom.

She stood behind the door and held her breath, her heart still beating hard.

When she thought she was safe, she sunk to the floor, opened the book, and disappeared into the story.

Time passed in an instant.

Much later, Laura peered round the door and saw it was quiet once more.  There were just piles of laundry on the bed.  She tiptoed out of the room and hid the book in her toy box where nobody ever looked.

She was happy again.

She had found her books.

Everything was perfect.

But Laura still had to find ways to read.

She wanted to read by torchlight but she knew she might fall asleep and her parents would find her books.

So Laura had to find different ways to read.

She hid in cupboards and wardrobes where she had about five minutes to read in peace before her mum came searching.

She stuffed books in her backpack to read at school.

Sometimes Laura would lock herself in her room and read in secret but her little sister always came banging on the door demanding to play.

But no matter how many times she got caught,

No matter how much trouble she got into,

Laura would still find ways to read…

Phoebe is 10 years old and lives in Southampton with her family. At weekends she likes to go swimming, play board games, go for walks and write stories – but most of all she LOVES to read!

Her favourite authors are Jaqueline Wilson and Enid Blyton and she loves classic books like Pollyanna, The Secret Garden, Heidi and of course Black Beauty.

Phoebe came up with the idea for The Girl Who Loved To Read as her parents tell her she reads too much – but they haven’t banned her from reading…yet!