It was a nice sunny day in the woods. A fox called Mr Pickles jumped from a tree in front of a girl called Stella with blonde hair. She was afraid and ran away.
She went home and got money to go to the shop and to meet her friend Stacey. They all lived in a place called Valley Rose, where it is always raining and there are lots of shops, different coloured houses and a big castle.
The castle is very fancy and has lots of nice things inside. Outside there is a big statue of a toad, which comes to life at night.
Outside the shop Stella and Stacey meet Jake, who is short with brown hair and black eyes and his favourite thing to do is ride his bike.
The girls are always mean to Jake.
Stacey tells Stella, “Let’s go to the park” and Jake asks to come along. But Stella says, “No, you are too small to go with us to the park.”
Jake runs to the park crying. He sits down on a bench and Mr Pickles appears. Mr Pickles doesn’t know that Jake has been given a magical drink by his uncle, Mr Stumble. Mr Stumble is a wizard who works as a gardener in the castle.
The magical potion gives Jake the power to understand Mr Pickles and makes people invisible. Mr Pickles tells Jake, “Let’s scare them at the park by using invisible powers.”
Jake and Mr Pickles make themselves invisible and creep up on the girls, float rocks past them, make scary noises, like mouse sounds to scare Stacey and barking sounds to scare Stella and they take the girls tablets.
The girls are frightened and run towards the woods and are grabbed by a pterodactyl called Mr Cucumber, who drops them off a cliff. They land in a giant web and a giant spider with 1,000 legs and 300 heads suddenly appears.
The spider is about to eat Stacey and Stella when Jake arrives with an army of cobras.
Will he save them … because Stella is his sister!
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Explore all Books and Culture articles
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
