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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2018
Published in this ebook edition in 2018
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Text copyright © Sarah Lean 2018
Illustrations copyright © Anna Currey 2018
Cover illustration © Polly Noakes 2018
Cover hand-lettering type © Anneka Sandher
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Sarah Lean and Anna Currey assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator respectively of the work.
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Source ISBN: 9780008165772
Ebook Edition © 2018 ISBN: 9780008165789
Version: 2018-01-08
For Hazel and Lolly
Contents
Map
Chapter 4. What Are Villages For?
It was spring, and Tiger Days was visiting her grandmother, May Days, for the school holidays. May Days used to live in Africa, and Tiger had met her for the first time a year ago when she moved back to England to live at Willowgate House. Since then, Tiger loved staying with her grandmother, exploring the great gardens and wildlife, and becoming more and more adventurous each time. Tiger had made friends with a boy called Tom and his grandfather, Grumps, who lived next door. She was disappointed to discover that this time they were away on holiday at the seaside, but she was looking forward to having May Days and Holly the cat all to herself.
While Willowgate House was being fixed up, Tiger and May Days had slept in the garden in a tent. Over winter, rather than move into one of the finished bedrooms, May Days had simply pitched the tent inside the big kitchen, and she was still sleeping there now.
Tiger, Holly and May Days spent their first day together wandering the gardens to see what wildlife they could find. Birds were in the sky, fish were in the river, squirrels leapt between budding trees and a hedgehog shuffled in the undergrowth.
Tiger and her grandmother were full of wonder, chatting about what they had seen while they grilled sausages for tea on a campfire under the willow tree. They had gone to bed full and contented, listening to an owl hooting and bats squeaking through the open kitchen window.
“Nobody would know so many things live in the garden unless they looked and listened like we do,” said Tiger.
“The garden is always full of life,” said May Days, yawning. “And your grandmother is full of tiredness. Time for sleep. Night, night.” And she turned out the
