T. M. Alexander likes short words more than long ones and spinach more than cabbage. She writes in a little room hidden away behind a secret door that’s disguised as a bookcase. If the door ever gets stuck she will never be seen again.
Find out more at www.tmalexander.com
Get to know the Tribers at
www.tribers.co.uk
Have you read these other Tribe books?
A Thousand Water Bombs
Labradoodle on the Loose
Monkey Bars and Rubber Ducks
For Otter, Wib and Boo
First published in Great Britain in 2009:
by Piccadilly Press Ltd,
5 Castle Road, London NW1 8PR
Previously published as:
Jonno Joins © T.M. Alexander, 2009 This edition published 2012
Text copyright © T.M. Alexander, 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
The right of T.M. Alexander to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 84812 293 2 (paperback)
eISBN: 978 1 84812 299 4
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Cover design by Patrick Knowles
Cover illustration by Sue Hellard
Contents
Bribes, Beetles, Bark and Bobotie
please let the ground swallow me . . .
the Tribers all want to say one last thing
Jonno Joins
day one of the summer term
You never know what’s round the corner. My mum says that all the time.
When I was small, I used to think she was giving me a warning. I thought she meant that you should watch out in case you turn a corner and get caught up in the middle of an army of purple aliens clambering back on to the mother ship, and disappear FOREVER. Even though I thought it was unlikely, I would find myself slowing down e v e r s o s l i g h t l y at corners until I had a proper view ahead. As soon as I saw the coast was clear, I’d speed up again. I don’t do that now of course, because I understand she means that you never know what’s going to happen next. It’s not about luck or un-luck because Mum says it when someone’s won the lottery and when someone’s died. It’s just a fact.
And the fact of my story is that something’s come round my corner and all of a sudden I’m part of it, and it feels important, so I’m keeping a record of how it started.
Actually it began with a kind of alien – a new boy. I expect our teacher (she’s called Miss Walsh) introduced him and told us to be nice and all that, but if she did, I didn’t take any of it in. Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m actually a bit of a nerd, but I only listen to the interesting bits. The in-between stuff that teachers like to say but I don’t need to hear gets separated off and binned, like