The previous evening, Rusty and his father had watched the latest episode of Kyle’s new television show, Stalked by Strummer. It was the hit of the season; part talk show, part Kyle in camouflage trailing celebrities in secret before leaping out from behind a bush and interviewing them. And all with his new pet, a baby llama called Lois, in tow. Kyle’s rugged good looks and his gentleness with Lois had made him very popular with the female demographic.
Wilhelmina had moved to the island to live with BJ. Gretel — Rusty had become email buddies with the little black cat — said the tattooed man seemed happier now; he even smiled at the pets occasionally. Miss Einstein had presented Wilhelmina with her own chameleon, named Amber. In Gretel’s last email, she’d told Rusty that Jade and Amber were great friends — though Jade had insisted Gretel tell Bongo that this did not in any way diminish how much she missed her. Both Jade and Amber had joined the latest recruits at Miss Alice Einstein’s School for Talking Pets — with BJ’s blessing. Rusty was happy for the chameleon.
He kept in touch with most of the other children, especially Akira, who had been taught to fly Marguerite by Bongo and Nan before they left the island. She had swooped over the cliffs, with Sora chirping alongside, and when she’d climbed out of the ultralight she’d kissed a blushing Rusty on the cheek. All five children were due to meet up the following week in New York at the opening of Mr Nader Heydar’s School for Talking Pets. BJ and Wilhelmina were coming with their pets too. Bongo had been looking forward to long conversations with the two chameleons.
Rusty was also looking forward to seeing Nader again. The fluffy white cat had been very busy. After Kyle and Wilhelmina had told all on national television, Nader had taken over from Lord and Lady Roderick as the temporary leader of SANCEF. As to what had happened to Lord and Lady Roderick? No-one knew. They had escaped from the police after arriving back on the mainland and hadn’t been seen since. Rusty presumed that having an obscene amount of money helped with that. Rumour had it the filthy rich pair had built a space shuttle and lived on it now, endlessly orbiting around the earth. Rusty thought it more likely they just stayed in their mansion and had their groceries delivered.
At first the other world representatives in SANCEF had been terrified of Nader Heydar. They feared change; and having a talking cat as your new boss was pretty big, as far as changes went. But most came to admire his magnificent brain. Several animals now held positions in SANCEF, and an election to find a new leader would be held within the month. Apparently, Nader was trying to convince a reluctant Hannah to stand, telling Maximilian’s cat that her glorious intellect was too impressive to waste. Rusty thought that if anyone could convince her, it would be the clever cat with the squished-in face.
Rusty was particularly excited that his father was planning to come to New York with them. The story of Bongo’s flight had been turned into a movie, and the Mulligans now had enough money that Rusty’s dad didn’t have to work nights anymore. It turned out he was much happier when he wasn’t tired. Rusty, Bongo and Mr Mulligan had visited a travel agent the previous weekend to book the trip. The woman had been gobsmacked to meet the famous flying lizard and Mr Mulligan enjoyed her excitement.
‘Yeah,’ he’d drawled to the wide-eyed agent as he picked up Bongo and sat her on the woman’s desk. ‘This lizard commandeered a plane, flew it off a cliff, whacked a Lord in the head with it, then landed the plane and started talking. Can you believe that?’
Bongo didn’t comment, but her tongue shot out to seize a small fly the others hadn’t noticed. Mr Mulligan turned to Rusty. ‘I guess there must be some warm blood in the lizard after all. And it probably helped that she was taught by the best, hey, son?’
‘Miss Einstein certainly is the best,’ Rusty had replied, nodding.
‘Rusty,’ Mr Mulligan had said seriously, ‘I meant you. Well done, son.’
Bongo had chewed the fly and winked, and Rusty felt a strange warmth rise up from the pit of his stomach.
Now, he turned his attention back to the front of the class, where Miss Chester stood, smiling. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘Let’s put our algebra books away.’ She pulled out some maracas and a tambourine. ‘Who feels like singing?’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I loved writing this book, but publishing is a group effort and so many people helped me along the way. I’d like to thank my agent, Melanie Ostell, for her faith in me. Thanks to everyone at HarperCollins Publishers Australia, particularly my publisher Chren Byng for her unwavering support and excellent plot advice. Thanks to my editor Kate Burnitt for her patience and brilliance. And a special thanks must go to Shannon Kelly and Kristy Bushnell for their editorial skills. There are so many of you who helped bring The School for Talking Pets together and I am very grateful you chose to do so.
A heartfelt thank you to Beth Harvey. I can’t tell you how excited I was to see my characters come alive in your illustrations. I don’t know how you drew them as if you could see into my mind, but I am so thrilled with every illustration.
Thanks to my children, Asha and Dusty, who inspired me to write in the first place. And to Matt, who I wish more than anything was here to see this book on the shelves. We miss you, Matt.
So many family and friends have supported and encouraged me over the years it took to get here. I’d particularly like to thank my oldest friends, who I see not often enough but who have always been there, through some rough years and also some of our best times — Katie, Clair and Tara, particularly.
And I need to thank all the pets I’ve been lucky enough to have had in my life: Miffy, Fluffy, Tia Maria, Jordan, Bob the Budgie and, of course, Dexter, our crazy-but-calm Labrador.
Because where would we be without our beautiful, hilarious, wise and beloved pets?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KELLI ANNE HAWKINS has worked as a journalist, graphic designer, administration assistant and mystery shopper — she’s even had a job where she just had to remove staples! But all along, her love of books and libraries and reading and daydreaming should have told her she was meant to write books. Some of her favourite things are airports, velvet jackets, mangoes, the colour yellow, the satisfaction of crossing stuff off lists and staring at the ocean. She lives in Newcastle, NSW, with her two children, who are now taller than she is and far better at maths.
Get in touch with Kelli at
[email protected]
COPYRIGHT
HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks
HarperCollinsPublishers
Australia • Brazil • Canada • France • Germany • Holland • Hungary
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Switzerland • United Kingdom • United States of America
First published in Australia in 2021
by HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks
a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Text copyright © Kelli Hawkins 2021
Illustrations copyright © Beth Harvey 2021
The rights of Kelli Hawkins and Beth Harvey to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
ISBN 978 1 4607 5920 2 (paperback)
ISBN 978 1 4607 1292 4 (ebook)
Cover design by George Saad
Cover illustrations by Beth Harvey
Author photograph by Jennifer Blau
The School for Talking Pets Page 18