Witch Baby and Me Read online

Page 9


  ‘Great,’ mutters the Toad. ‘That’ll be another thing we’ll have to replace when we leave.’

  ‘LEAVE?’ squawks the Chin. ‘Who said anything about leaving? Read my thin little sneery lips. Nobody leaves until the job is done. Understood? Now, stop moaning and come and give me a hand with this thing.’

  The three Sisters stand round their new white plastic computer box-thing, staring at it in bafflement. Mr Harukashi donated it to them with his compliments. None of the Sisters has the least idea how to make it work. Somehow, they’re going to have to find out. Four hundred years of living in their cave at the top of Ben Screeeiiighe has left them ill-equipped for life in the twenty-first century, but this must not be allowed to stand in their way. The Hisses must learn about computers, cars, electricity, televisions, mobile phones, cinemas, aeroplanes, music, history, geography and hundreds of other things that Lily and her family take utterly for granted. If the Sisters of Hiss want their Witch Baby Plan to work, then they are going to have to learn an awful lot very quickly indeed.

  ‘You haven’t anything yet,’ hisses the Nose under her breath as she turns the computer on at the wall.

  And for once, she’s absolutely right.

  About the Author

  Debi Gliori is the acclaimed author and illustrator of six fabulous novels about the Strega-Borgia family, a series which started with Pure Dead Magic, and more than forty popular picture books, including the Greenaway-shortlisted Always and Forever. Her picture books are loved for their glorious, glowing colours and carefully studied detail. Her longer fiction has been lavishly praised for its immensely inventive and entertaining narratives. Her wonderful storytelling is combined with intricate black-and-white line drawings to fantastic effect in Witch Baby and Me, her first foray into younger fiction and the start of a new series.

  Debi was born in Scotland to a Scottish-Italian family, and trained at Edinburgh College of Art and in Milan. She still lives near Edinburgh, where she combines raising her large family with working in her small, private studio in the back garden. In the small amount of spare time that this leaves, Debi loves cooking and gardening.

  Also by Debi Gliori

  PURE DEAD MAGIC

  PURE DEAD WICKED

  PURE DEAD BRILLIANT

  DEEP TROUBLE

  DEEP WATER

  DEEP FEAR

  WITCH BABY AND ME

  AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 407 04781 2

  Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,

  an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK

  A Random House Group Company

  This ebook edition published 2014

  Copyright © Debi Gliori, 2008

  First Published in Great Britain

  Corgi Childrens 9780552556767 2008

  The right of Debi Gliori to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.