Girl Wonder's Winter Adventures

From scaring Mum at Halloween to building the biggest snowball the world’s ever seen – Maxine always has a super plan and needs the help of her twin brothers, Anthony and Edward. Together the super siblings make all sorts of mischief . . . Can they fix it before Mum finds out?

These seven funny short stories are perfect for building confidence in new readers, whether reading alone or reading aloud.

For Neil and Lizzy, with love as always.

Blackberry Gravy, Blackberry Soup!

Hooray! Today we’re going blackberry picking. Mum says that “winter is just beginning, when blackberries need picking”.

“Now then, Maxine and Anthony and Edward, I want you three on your best behaviour,” Mum said as we set off in the car.

As if we’re ever on anything else!

We drove to some woods near to where we live. The woods were filled with blackberry bushes with heaps and Loads and TONS of blackberries on them.
There were lots of other people there as well. We got out of our car and looked around. Then I had a brilliant idea.

I turned to my brothers and said, “Anthony and Edward, we’re going to pick more blackberries than anyone else here. In fact we’re going to pick more blackberries than everyone else put together.”

“How are we going to do that?” Anthony asked.

“Yeah, how?” Edward said.

So I replied, “I think this is a job for Girl Wonder . . .”

“And the Terrific Twins. Yippee!” the twins shouted.

And we spun around until we were gleefully giddy.

“OK, Terrific Twins,” I said. “We’re going to pick blackberries and not stop until we’ve got tons and tons.”

Mum gave each of us a big wicker basket. We all walked over to one of the mega-tall blackberry bushes and found a space. Then we picked blackberries off the bush and put them into our baskets. We picked and plucked and pulled and we didn’t stop. In fact, the twins and I carried on after everyone else had stopped for a rest.

“Come on, you three. You needn’t work so hard. Let’s stop for lunch,” Mum said.

“We can’t stop. We’re going to pick more blackberries than anyone else,” I replied.

“But I’m hungry,” Anthony moaned.

“But I’m starving,” Edward groaned.

“Come on, Terrific Twins,” I whispered so Mum wouldn’t hear. “We’re superheroes. We have to pick more blackberries than anyone else.”

“Oh, all right then,” grumbled Anthony.

“Ah, OK then,” mumbled Edward.

Sometimes being a superhero is hard work!

So we carried on plucking and pulling and picking the blackberries whilst Mum ate some lunch. After her lunch Mum came back and started working again, but we hadn’t stopped. It was getting quite late when the twins started to complain.

“My arms ache,” muttered Anthony.

“My . . . my hands hurt,” spluttered Edward.

My whole body was hurting by now.

“OK, Terrific Twins. I think that’s enough for today. Our baskets are tip-top full,” I said.

Including Mum’s basket we had four baskets overflowing with blackberries.

It was wonderful.

Mum looked a bit worried though.

“I didn’t expect you to pick quite so many blackberries. What am I going to do with them all?” Mum said.

When we got home, we carried the baskets of blackberries into the kitchen.

“We did a great job, Terrific Twins,” I said.

“A mega-wonderful job,” agreed Anthony.

“An extra super-duper, mega-wonderful, brilliant job,” said Edward.

We had chicken and rice for dinner, followed by blackberries and ice cream, and they were mega-delicious, and we still had whole basketfuls left.

The next morning when we went down for breakfast, I was starving. I knew why too. My brothers and I had had no lunch the previous day. I decided to eat huge amounts to make up for it.

“What’s for breakfast, Mum?” I asked.

“Toast and some blackberry jam I made last night from the blackberries you picked,” Mum replied.

The blackberry jam was scrumptious. And Mum had mashed and crushed some blackberries and added milk to them to make a lovely milkshake drink.

The twins and I played in the garden until lunch time.

“What’s for lunch, Mum?” we asked when we got hungry.

“Sausages, mashed potatoes and blackberry gravy followed by an apple and blackberry pie and a milk and blackberry drink,” Mum replied.

Blackberry gravy?

“Anthony, what do you think of the blackberry gravy?” I asked as we started to eat.

“It’s not too bad,” he said, sniffing it.

“It’s not too good either,” Edward said, whiffing it.

“Hhmm!” I said.

Then came tea time. And what did we have? Blackberry soup to start, followed by fish and blackberries instead of peas, and our pudding was ice cream and blackberries, again. And with our meal we had more mashed, crushed, scrushed blackberries which Mum strained into a jug to make blackberry juice.

“Mum, not more blackberries,” I said, dismayed when I saw our tea.

“Yeah, not more blackberries,” Anthony agreed.

“Oh no! Not more blackberries,” said Edward.

We’d all had enough of blackberries for a while.

“I’m not letting good blackberries go to waste and I’m not going to let them spoil and rot in their baskets either,” Mum said, her hands on her hips. “So we’ll carry on eating the blackberries until they’re all finished.”

“All four baskets?” we asked.

“ALL four baskets,” Mum replied.

Yuk!

Mum went into the kitchen to get some more blackberry juice.

“See what you’ve done, Maxine.” Anthony frowned at me.

“Yeah, we’ll be eating rotten blackberries until Christmas,” said Edward.

“My plan worked though,” I replied.
“We did pick more blackberries than anyone else.”

“So what?” Anthony said. “Your plan was mega-stinky.”

“Yeah! Seriously mega-stinky,” Edward agreed.

Being a superhero is definitely very hard work!

Extra Special Scary

“Heh! Heh! Heh! Heh!” I cackled.

I was practising being a witch for Hallowe’en. We were going to my cousin Jayne’s Hallowe’en party.

“You don’t look scary at all,” Anthony said. He was dressed in a ghost costume which was just a sheet with two eye holes cut out of it. “I’m more scary than you. I’m a good ghost. Oooooh! Oooooooooh!”

“I’m the most scary of all,” Edward argued.

He was dressed as a Hallowe’en pumpkin.

“What sort of noise does a Hallowe’en pumpkin make?” Edward asked.

I thought for a moment.

“I’m not sure.” I frowned. “I’m not sure it makes a noise at all. If it does I expect it’s a kind of whee-squiiish, whee-squiiish sound.”

“Whee-squiiish! Whee-squiiish!” Edward said. Then he complained, “That doesn’t sound very scary.”

Mum came into the kitchen.

“You all look very good.” She smiled.

“But do we look scary?” I asked.

“Yeah! Really scary?” said Anthony.

“Extra special scary?” asked Edward.

“Er . . . you look . . . very good,” Mum replied.

But not scary! Mum must have seen our faces drop.

“The only reason you don’t look scary to me is because I made your costumes,”
Mum said quickly. “None of you could ever be scary to me. Cheer up, you three. We’re going to Jayne’s party soon. I’ll just get Jayne’s presents from the living room and then we’ll set off.”