Now take the liquorice sticks or chocolate fingers and press them into the cooling chocolate coat to make “legs” for your centipede. (Make as many as will fit.) Leave the cake for about an hour until the chocolate has hardened. Cut a slice.
Yum!
Weird food
If you think that George and Harry’s idea of a yummy snack is yeuch!, try some of these strange dishes from around the world.
France
Snails
Australia
Kangaroo
Korea
Live eels
Asia
Deep fried scorpions, silk worms & cockroaches
USA
Grilled rattlesnake
Scotland
Haggis – sheep’s stomach stuffed with mincemeat
Japan
Fugu – a fish so poisonous that if there is a mistake in the way it is prepared, the diner will die. Every year there are fatal accidents…
Tibet
Tea with rancid butter made of yak’s milk
Iceland
Shark
Mexico
Roasted grasshoppers
Bali
Black rice pudding
Puzzling Parents
George said to Harry, “My grandpa is only six days older than my dad.”
“Don’t believe you,” said Harry.
George was right – how come?
Find the Word
Here’s a game you can play that Harry and George would love, if only they could read! It’s a lot of fun.
Take a word and see how many other words you can make out of it. It’s a good idea to have a system. Start with the first letter of the word and then go on to the second and then the third. For example: DINNER can be made into: DEN, IN, NINE, END, RED (amongst other words).
How many words can you make out of: HORNET, BUTTERFLY, DRAINPIPE and CENTIPEDE?
What has 50 legs but can’t walk?
Half a centipede
What do you get if you cross a centipede and a chicken?
Enough drumsticks to feed an army
Are You Scared of Creepy-Crawlies? Quiz
Follow the boxes to find out whether you’re a scaredy-cat!
1 If you got a book on spiders for Christmas, would you give it away?
2 If someone says: “I’ve just seen a HUGE spider,” do you run and hide?
3 If you see an ant on the pavement, do you try and stamp on it?
4 If a wasp buzzes near, do you yell and scream?
5 Would you pick up a worm?
6 Would you pick up a slug?
7 Would you walk into a spider’s web?
8 Would you help a bee to escape out of the window?
9 Would you look at a beetle under a magnifying glass?
10 If something fluttery buzzes into your face, would you calmly try to save it?
If you answered mainly Yes = You may be brave, but you’re scared of creepy-crawlies!
If you answered mainly No = You have no fear of creepy-crawlies. You like them!
If you had an equal number of Yes and No answers = You aren’t scared of creepy-crawlies – but you DON’T like them!
What do you get if you cross a centipede and a parrot?
A walkie-talkie
What do you get if you cross a rose with a poisonous centipede?
I don’t know, but I wouldn’t like to smell it
Make a Scary Bug Headdress
What you need:
A sheet of thick paper, two pipe cleaners, sticky tape, stapler, 2 pom-poms with holes in them, paper, felt tips, scissors and glue. And an adult to help with the cutting and fitting.
What to do:
1 Cut the thick paper in half along the longest side. Fold each piece in half lengthwise.
2 Unfold the pieces and fold the sides in to meet the crease in the middle. Unfold the halves and staple them together to make a long band. Use sticky tape to make the join stronger. Colour the band with felt tips.
3 Now fold the strip back together, coloured side outwards, and stick with tape.
4 Staple and stick the band so it fits your head – you will need help with this! (Cover the staples with tape to stop them scratching you!)
5 Dab a little glue at the end of a pipe cleaner and push it through one of the pom-poms. Do the same for the other pom-pom. Staple and tape the feelers inside the band.
6 Draw eyes on a piece of paper, colour them in and cut them out. Don’t forget to put in a little hole in each “eye” so you can see out! Finally, tape the eyes to the band.
The headdress finished. See how scary you look!
About the Author
WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS BOOK
by Ian Whybrow
We’ve seen unlikely heroes before… misshapen Beasts, Bogeymen, Little Wolves (hem hem)… But who could imagine readers warming to a centipede? A poisonous centipede at that!
It takes a writer as remarkable and original as Lynne Reid Banks to get you to do it. She’s always been a great defender of what others might think of as hopeless cases. That’s why she has the power to make us rejoice when the venomous Hxzltl (sorry… Harry) escapes death by drowning, smothering, slapping and foot-squishing. We’re delighted for the poor starving thing when he gets to chew on a mole-cricket that’s as big to him as a raging bull. We root for this teeny bug in shining armour as he takes on flying-swoopers, belly-crawlers, furry-biters – even when he attacks one of our own kind – a Hoo-min!
As for the bit where he finally gets to explore all the tickly bits of some slumbering Meat-Mountain… What a nailbiting yuck-fest! What a squirmingly magnificent treat!
Ian Whybrow
Ian Whybrow has written over 100 books for children, known for their humour and childfriendliness (including quite a few Harry books of his own!). He takes pride in the fact that his work reads aloud very well. “I loved being read to as a child,” he says. “And I loved the sense that my parents were enjoying it too. For me, that’s the acid test for any book – that there’s something in it for everyone to enjoy.”
Also by the Author
Harry the Poisonous Centipede’s Big
Adventure
Harry the Poisonous Centipede Goes to
Sea
The Indian in the Cupboard
Return of the Indian
The Mystery of the Cupboard
The Secret of the Indian
The Key to the Indian
Alice by Accident
Angela and Diabola
The Dungeon
Stealing Stacey
Tiger Tiger
I, Houdini
Copyright
First published in hardback in Great Britain by Collins in 1996 First published in paperback by Collins in 1996. This edition published by Harper Collins Children’s Books in 2012. Harper Collins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
77–85 Fulham Palace Road
Hammersmith
London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk
Text copyright © Lynne Reid Banks 1996
Illustrations copyright © Tony Ross 1996
Why You’ll Love This Book copyright © Ian Whybrow 2010
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub
Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007402885
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Harry the Poisonous Centipede: A Story to Make You Squirm Page 6