by Jenny Nimmo
There was a sudden loud bang on the front door. It came again. Someone wasn't even bothering to ring the bell.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Whoever . . . ?" said Paton.
Charlie followed his uncle to the front door.
Grandma Bone stood on the top step with her three sisters behind her.
"What's going on?" she demanded.
"We're having a party" said Paton coolly "What are you doing here?"
"How dare you have a party in my house. Stop it this minute!" snapped Grandma Bone.
"Stop it!" said Lucretia .
"Everybody out!" said Eustacia .
"You can't have a party without our permission," said Venetia .
"SHUT UP!" said Paton. "I can have a party In case you've forgotten, it's half my house."
"What's the trouble, Paton?" Mr. Torsson had come to see what the fuss was about.
"No trouble," said Paton. "Nothing I can't handle."
Whether Paton could handle it or not was beside the point. Mr. Torsson took one look at the four angry sisters, puffed up his cheeks, and blew them down the steps and clean across the street.
Grandma Bone narrowly missed being hit by a bus.
Charlie watched in awe and astonishment as the Yewbeam sisters picked themselves up, patted their hair, brushed their muddy clothes, and shook their fists at Paton and Mr. Torsson .
A loud thundercrack and a sudden cloudburst sent them scurrying away down the street, shrieking and cursing.
"We'll pay for that," Paton murmured.
"But not tonight," said Charlie.
As soon as the four sisters were well and truly gone, Olivia Vertigo said, "Let's dance!"
"Yes, a dance!" cried Fidelio.
Before anyone could stop them they had moved the table in the dining room and rolled up the rug. Emma put some music on the CD player and all three of them began to dance around the room.
The other boys hung back at first, but then Maisie grabbed the judge around the waist and whirled him onto the dance floor. After that, no one else could resist the music. Soon the usually cold and cheerless room was full of swaying, bobbing figures. Uncle Paton even managed to persuade Miss Ingledew onto the floor. The room was so crowded they had to dance very close. Charlie noted that Miss Ingledew didn't seem to mind a bit.
He couldn't see his mother in the room and so he went to find her. She was sitting in the kitchen staring through the window Little flakes of snow were drifting down from the sky but Charlie knew his mother didn't see them.
"Dad will come back," said Charlie quietly
When Mrs. Bone turned to him, she didn't look sad at all, in fact she was smiling.
"You know Charlie, I'm beginning to believe you," she said. “After what happened to Henry I can believe almost anything."
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JENNY NIMMO
I was born in Windsor , Berkshire , England , and educated at boarding schools in Kent and Surrey from the age of six until I was sixteen, when I ran away from school to become a drama student/assistant stage manager with Theater South East. I graduated and acted in repertory theater in various towns and cities: Eastbourne , Tunbridge Wells, Brighton, Hastings , and Bexhill .
I left Britain to teach English to three Italian boys in Amalfi , Italy On my return I joined the BBC, first as a picture researcher, then assistant floor manager, studio manager (news), and finally director/adaptor with Jackanory (a BBC storytelling program for children). I left the BBC to marry Welsh artist David Wynn Millward and went to live in Wales in my husband's family home. We live in a very old converted water-mill, and the river is constantly threatening to break in, which it has done several times in the past, most dramatically on my youngest child's first birthday During the summer we run a residential school of art, and I have to move my office, put down tools (typewriter and pencils), and don an apron and cook! We have three grown-up children, Myfanwy Ianto , and Gwenhwyfar .
SNEAK PREVIEW OF
Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy
BY JENNY NIMMO CHILDREN OF THE RED KING SERIES BOOK 3
A beautiful girl arrives at charlie's house. her eyes keep changing color. she lives with the yewbeam aunts and seems to have a strange power over them. her name is belle. she goes to Bloor's Academy with Charlie, and is put in the art department.
Emma finds a letter that Mr. Boldova , the new young art teacher, has dropped. it reveals that he is the older brother of Ollie Sparks, who disappeared a year ago, made invisible by an ancient blue boa constrictor. emma and charlie decide to help mr . boldova find ollie .
Billy Raven sees Belle change her shape — she becomes a very old woman. bllly is terrified. the old woman Has come to help the bloors control the children of the red king, and to make sure they don't rescue ollie .
Can Charlie and his friends rescue Ollie and make him visible again?