CELEBRATE STORIES. LOVE READING.
This book has been specially created and published to celebrate World Book Day. World Book Day is a charity funded by publishers and booksellers in the UK and Ireland. Our mission is to offer every child and young person the opportunity to read and love books by giving you the chance to have a book of your own. To find out more, and for loads of fun activities and reading recommendations to help you to keep reading, visit worldbookday.com
World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is also made possible by generous sponsorship from National Book Tokens and support from authors and illustrators.
World Book Day works in partnership with a number of charities, who are all working to encourage a love of reading for pleasure.
The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity that encourages children and young people to enjoy reading. Just 10 minutes of reading every day can make a big difference to how well you do at school and to how successful you could be in life. literacytrust.org.uk
The Reading Agency inspires people of all ages and backgrounds to read for pleasure and empowerment. They run the Summer Reading Challenge in partnership with libraries; they also support reading groups in schools and libraries all year round. Find out more and join your local library. summerreadingchallenge.org.uk
BookTrust is the UK’s largest children’s reading charity. Each year they reach 3.4 million children across the UK with books, resources and support to help develop a love of reading. booktrust.org.uk
World Book Day also facilitates fundraising for:
Book Aid International, an international book donation and library development charity. Every year, they provide one million books to libraries and schools in communities where children would otherwise have little or no opportunity to read. bookaid.org
Read for Good, who motivate children in schools to read for fun through its sponsored read, which thousands of schools run on World Book Day and throughout the year. The money raised provides new books and resident storytellers in all the children’s hospitals in the UK. readforgood.org
First published in Great Britain in 2020
by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2020 by Canongate Books
Copyright © Matt Haig, 2020
Illustrations copyright © Emily Gravett, 2020
Extract from Evie and the Animals
Copyright © Matt Haig, 2019
Illustrations copyright © Emily Gravett, 2019
The right of Matt Haig and Emily Gravett to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 83885 075 3
eISBN 978 1 83885 077 7
Typeset in Bembo by
Palimpsest Book Production Ltd, Falkirk, Stirlingshire
Contents
The Tingle in Evie’s Head That Was the Start of a Brilliant Idea
Four Mosquitoes and a Poison Dart Frog
Evie Navarro opened the front door and saw a crowd of photographers and journalists.
‘EVIE! EVIE! CAN WE ASK A FEW QUESTIONS?’
‘EVIE! WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE FAMOUS?’
‘EVIE! HERE’S A DOG! CAN YOU READ ITS THOUGHTS?’
Evie stood there feeling dizzy and lightheaded. ‘Um, um . . . I’m sorry – I’ve got to go.’
Evie was a superstar.
That’s what her best friend Ramesh said.
‘You are a superstar,’ he had told her the previous Tuesday, while eating a hummus and falafel sandwich on their favourite bench at Lofting High.
But she wasn’t really. Well, Evie didn’t think so. She wasn’t a celeb or anything.
It was just that a lot of people had heard of her.
She had been in newspapers, and on TV. She had been on the cover of the world-famous Nature magazine, and she had over 200,000 followers on Instagram, even though she had only ever posted two photos (one of a sunset and one of an endangered leatherback sea turtle). And every morning the crowd of journalists at her door grew bigger.
The reason for all this fame and unwanted attention was because Evie had a special talent.
The talent now had an official name, given by scientists.
Inter-species two-way telepathic animal communication.
Or, to put it another way, she could talk to animals. With her mind.
She heard what animals were thinking and could chat to them without even moving her lips.
And though she had kept