One gutsy eleven-year-old, a cool beach town, a hilarious crew of friends and oodles of adventures.
Once upon a beach, there was a girl called Isabelle Necessary. A girl with an unusual name and a rather extraordinary life. She roams around a sleepy beach town with her loyal team of friends. Follow Isabelle, Tammy, David, Nin, Draino the cat and Champ the wonder dog as they navigate one sticky situation after another and figure out how to turn a frog into a movie star, deal with a never-ending milkshake and escape being trapped in a lighthouse.
The type of book that brings back childhood memories and captures the essence of being a free-spirited kid.
Perfect for teachers and educators as the book comes with a teacher’s resource guide and student maker kit by Isabelle Necessary herself. Middle-grade reading level.
Extract
Here is an excerpt from chapter six, “Isabelle Necessary Goes Rock Collecting.” Isabelle is out with her friend Tammy collecting rocks. Enjoy!
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The bottom of the quarry was littered with loads of pebbles, stones, rocks and even boulders of all different shapes. Isabelle and Tammy started searching immediately for the most interesting rocks they could turn into pet rocks and lucky rocks. They had to be big enough to be interesting, but not so big that they were too heavy to carry. And the rocks had to be smooth and not crumbly.
Before long they each had a pile of rocks as high as their knees.
‘So many rocks,’ said Tammy. ‘Do we need this many?’
‘Probably not,’ answered Isabelle. ‘Let’s have morning tea and then we can pick out the best ones.’
‘I have a theory,’ Tammy said a few minutes later, holding up her first rock for inspection. ‘If a rock really is interesting I should be able to think of a name for it. If I can’t, then I won’t keep it because it’ll probably be too boring for someone to love.’ She giggled.
‘Very scientific, professor,’ said Isabelle. A few moments later, she said, ‘George,’ naming her first rock.
Tammy took a turn. ‘Sam.’ ‘Bruno.’
‘Elizabeth.’
‘Donald.’
The names kept coming.
‘Sprocket.’
‘Fernando.’
‘Oooh!’ said Tammy, holding up a large, mysteriously shaped rock.
‘That’s a beauty,’ said Isabelle. ‘What’s its name?’ Tammy stared at it and turned it over in her hands slowly. ‘It’s big, so I’ll call it Mr Bigg.’ ‘Great name,’ said Isabelle.
‘And,’ continued Tammy, ‘we can decorate it and give it to Mr Bigg as a present.’
Isabelle smiled. ‘Unless we find some gold for him.’
The girls finished collecting, sorting and naming their interesting rocks.
Isabelle looked at the discarded rocks and her eyes sparkled. ‘Before we go, want to have a race?’
Tammy nodded. ‘Massive fun.’
They used the non-interesting rocks to mark out a track. Every racetrack in the quarry was new and different because they were always being remade or unmade by other kids who also came to the quarry. The girls loved making windy racetracks, yelling ‘ready, set, go’ and racing around the tracks on their bikes. It was thrilling to skid the bikes around a tight bend, with the back tyres sliding and kicking up clouds of dust and dirt.
‘Six races, and we say go three times each, to be fair,’ said Tammy.
‘Okay,’ said Isabelle. ‘And the winner gets, um … their bike washed by the loser.’
‘Agreed.’
They shook hands and moved to the starting line.
‘Who says go first?’ Tammy said.
‘You can.’
Tammy won the first race and Isabelle won the second. That was how it usually worked— with the person who called ‘go’ winning that race, at least until they started getting tired and the clouds of dust made it hard to see.
‘Race number five,’ Tammy called. ‘Ready, set, go!’
They pedalled fast around the track. Isabelle was so close to Tammy that her front tyre rubbed on Tammy’s back tyre, making a sound like ripping paper. Isabelle sped past Tammy, then moments later Tammy caught up and she felt Tammy’s tyre nudging on her back tyre. Then Tammy zipped around her and crossed the line first.
‘Last race,’ Isabelle said. ‘Ready, set, go!’
They both pedalled hard and were soon coming up to the last bend in the track—a sharp left-hand turn.
Isabelle squeezed her handbrake lever, but her bike wheels were so dusty that the brakes wouldn’t grip. She couldn’t stop. She skidded wildly around the bend, straightening up at the last second. Just as she was coming to the finish line, the brakes finally gripped and her bike stopped suddenly. She was flicked off her seat and over the handlebars. She tumbled through the air and landed on the ground with a thump. Unhurt, she sat up and started laughing and spitting yellow dust out of her mouth.
But Tammy wasn’t laughing. ‘Are you all right?’ she gasped. Oh no! Look what happened to the special rock. I made you crash and now the rock’s broken.’
Isabelle’s bike had landed right on top of the rock that Tammy had named Mr Bigg. The rock had a deep crack right down the centre.
‘I’m okay, and it was just an accident,’ Isabelle said, ‘I—’
‘But it was the best rock.’
Isabelle sat in the dust. She didn’t know what to say. It was an accident, but Tammy seemed really upset. As Isabelle watched, Tammy put her bag of rocks into her bike basket and rode up Quarry Road without saying goodbye.
‘It was just an accident,’ Isabelle repeated to herself.
Thank you, Martii Maclean and RachelsRandomResources.
About the author
Martii Maclean lives in a tin shack by the sea, catching sea-gulls which she uses to make delicious pies, and writing weird stories. She likes going for long bicycle rides with her cat, who always wears aviator goggles to stop her whiskers blowing up into her eyes as they speed down to the beach to search for mermaid eggs. Or how about this…
Martii Maclean writes fantastical, adventurous tales for children and teens and sometimes adults. She was born in Sydney, Australia and now lives in Brisbane with her husband Trevor and her cat Minerva. Her work as an educator and librarian, allows her to share her love of stories and of story-telling with many young people. This inspires Martii to create thought-filled stories that explore the wonderful world of ‘what if’. Find out more about Martii and her stories at http://www.martiimaclean.com
Social Media Links – Twitter: @MacleanMartii IG: -https://www.instagram.com/martiimaclean/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15385250.Martii_Maclean https://www.facebook.com/MartiiMacleanAuthor/
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