It’s all a bit of a scramble driven by Miss Burton. Louisa wonders if a journalist is the same thing as a reporter. She’s heard of Clark Kent and Lois Lane so reckons she’s probably well on the way. If she’d known the Pommy author Nik Cohn was one, she would have jumped at it. ‘You’ve got a good deal of curiousity in you, young Louisa,’ Miss B says, beaming. It’s lunchtime on a windy day in early summer. A knot of teenage girls gathers on the next bench. They’re using their knees as plates and carefully laying potato chips on buttered white breadrolls then stuffing the chip bags into crevices in the seats. Some bags escape and lift across the yard in the wind like wonky stray birds. Louisa’s on her own under a worn-out gum, hidden by a long fringe of leaves and consuming Catch 22. The chattering girls might not even be there. When Miss Burton slides in beside her, glasses glinting in the bright day, Louisa, always easily startled, gasps as if she’s been attacked and the teacher tries to recover from fright to friendliness.
What do You think about The Book Of Emmett (2009)?
