Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat Read online

  “Maybe you could make a special sign to say that you made yours out of beads because it is better for real living things to be in their natural habitats,” suggests Violet. “And anyway, the things you make are as beautiful as real things.”

  Nicola smiles and says, “Thanks, Violet.”

  Nicola looks thoughtfully at the encyclopedia’s life cycle of the ladybug. “It would be a lot of work to make all those different stages out of beads and things,” she says.

  “But I could help you,” says Violet.

  “Thanks,” says Nicola again.

  Between Mama’s basket of scraps, Nicola’s collection of jewelry-making supplies, and Violet’s box of small things, they collect everything that they need to re-create the life cycle of the ladybug. Then they get to work. Violet holds a real leaf very still while Nicola traces around it to get its shape on the green felt. Nicola cuts it out and stitches on tiny yellow seed beads in little clusters while Violet passes her useful things, like scissors and thread.

  Violet has not forgotten Small Gloria, who must once have been inside a tiny yellow egg on a leaf. She wonders if Gloria knew she was actually trying to help her. Violet still wishes she could help Gloria, but since she can’t, she is glad that she can help Nicola.

  With Violet doing so much helping, the first stage of the ladybug’s life cycle is ready quite quickly. While Nicola is sewing on the very last tiny yellow seed bead, Violet reads to her from the encyclopedia.

  “ ‘Ladybugs lay their eggs on leaves in groups of ten to fifty. They are laid as close as possible to an aphid colony, since ladybugs like to eat aphids.’ ”

  It is funny to think that Small Gloria would probably have preferred a spindly green aphid to cheese-on-toast, Violet thinks, but that is the way of ladybugs and no wonder it is hard to understand them. Using one of Nicola’s special gel pens, which would not usually be allowed, Violet draws a green aphid colony to go near the felt leaf.

  “ ‘Next is the larva stage, which is when the eggs hatch and long, thin gray-black grubs with colored patches on their backs emerge.’ ”

  They don’t look much as if they will ever become ladybugs. But when Violet was brand-new she looked quite like a pink hairy monkey and not very much like herself, so it is possible, she thinks.

  Nicola makes a long larva body out of wire and then strings on some grayish-black beads that look a lot like the little sections of the larva body in the encyclopedia. Using what is left of the nail polish after the spillage, Violet carefully paints the colored parts on. Then Nicola uses her pliers to make feelers for its head and little lumpy legs on either side of its body. Violet makes it another leaf to sit on. And that is stage two.

  Stage three is the pupa stage.

  “ ‘A pupa is a sort of case that the larva curls up in while it grows and develops a bit more,’ ” reads Violet.

  It is probably quite cozy inside a pupa, Violet thinks. Like being in a sleeping bag but with your head in too.

  Pupae have almost the coloring of a ladybug, but they are much wrinklier on the outside. At first it seems quite tricky to make one. Nicola has a bead that is about the right shape (like a baked bean) but it is blue, which is not at all the right color. However, in her room, Violet has a collection of the little pieces of foil that chocolates are sometimes wrapped in. One of them is a sort of rusty red, which is just the right color. Nicola wraps it around the bead and wrinkles it a bit. It is a perfect pupa and sits very well on another of Violet’s felt leaves.

  The final stage is the best one, Violet thinks.

  “ ‘The new ladybug emerges from the pupa, hardens, and begins to search for food.’ ”

  It must be quite exciting to be a newly emerging ladybug, Violet thinks. A bit like coming out of a dark movie theater into the busy daytime world.

  Nicola makes a round ladybug body out of tiny red beads all sewn next to each other, round and round, spotted with black ones. This takes the longest time of all, and Violet thinks that soon she may need to begin searching for food.

  But as she watches Nicola cleverly forming the beaded ladybug with her tiny needle, Violet thinks again of Small Gloria and, as well as hungriness, she has the feeling of sadness inside her.

  When the beaded ladybug is finished, Violet and Nicola pin all the different stages of the life cycle of a ladybug onto velvet boards that Nicola made for displaying her earrings at the market. Underneath the velvet the boards are made of cork, so they are very good for pinning things to.

  It is a good display, and Nicola has the look of someone who is trying not to be too pleased, in case someone thinks that it is boasting. Violet does not think it is boasting. Violet thinks it is the most beautiful beaded life cycle of any creature that she has ever seen.

  “Nicola,” says Violet, “do you still need that box?” She means the matchbox that Nicola usually keeps red beads in, but now they are all used up on stage four of the ladybug, so it is empty.

  “I was going to put some more beads in it,” says Nicola.

  “Oh,” says Violet.

  Even though really it is just an ordinary matchbox, Nicola has covered it in red paper and added some glitter glue, and Violet quite likes it.

  “What do you want it for?” asks Nicola.

  “Well, I need to bury Small Gloria,” says Violet in a quiet voice. “But I’m not sure what to bury her in.”

  Nicola has some little scraps of velvet left over from when she covered the corkboard. She folds one into a little pillow and tucks it inside the red matchbox.

  “How’s that?” she asks.

  “It is perfect,” says Violet.

  Violet carefully tips up the jar that was Small Gloria’s home. Into her hand fall the rainbowy glass pebble and the round body of Small Gloria. She lays them side by side on the velvet pillow.

  “Where do you want to bury her?” asks Nicola.

  “Under the fennel patch,” says Violet. “It was her natural habitat.”

  Violet doesn’t want to bury Small Gloria just yet. She would like to think of a suitable ceremony for the burial first. So she leaves the matchbox in Nicola’s room while they have lunch.

  After lunch Nicola needs a nap because she didn’t sleep all night from worrying about the natural science fair. While Nicola is napping, Violet goes into her own room and writes a song for Small Gloria.

  By the time Nicola has woken up from her nap, Violet has decided on a suitable ceremony for the burial of Small Gloria.

  “I don’t think she would have wanted too much of a fuss,” Violet explains to Nicola. “Just her family gathered around, who live in the fennel patch, anyway, and us, perhaps saying a few things and singing a song.”

  “You want me to come too?” asks Nicola.

  “Well, even though you didn’t know Small Gloria, you know all about ladybugs, and I think it would be nice.”

  “All right,” says Nicola.

  Violet has some red rain boots and she draws black spots on them with a marker, in honor of Small Gloria. Nicola has red spotty hair clips that Violet would like her to wear. Then they take the matchbox outside into the garden, and the ceremony begins.

  “I did not know Small Gloria for very long,” says Violet, “but I expect that ever since she was hatched, she was a special sort of ladybug. It was not always easy to understand her. For example, she preferred aphids to cheese-on-toast. But even though I accidentally did not help her very much, she has helped me.”

  Violet pauses.

  “Is there anything you would like to add, Nicola?”

  At first Nicola cannot think of anything she would like to add. But then she says, “Actually, yes. I didn’t know Small Gloria, but I am pretty sure that she knew Violet was actually trying to help her, not hurt her. Also, I would like to say that I am dedicating my natural science display to Small Gloria, wherever she is, because she gave a very helpful idea to Violet and Violet gave the idea to me.”

  Then they sing the song that Violet has written on a piec
e of paper, and it goes like this:

  Violet and Nicola bury the red matchbox in the fennel patch together with the folded-up piece of paper with the song on it, and Violet sends a good wish to the small ladybug.

  And then it is done.

  On Monday it is the Natural Science Fair, and families and friends are allowed to go and see it in the evening. So Mama, Vincent, Nicola, Dylan, and Violet all go in the car to Nicola’s school.

  The fair is set up in the school hall on tables, one for each student, and their names are on little cards at the front. There are some very good projects, Violet thinks. Wayne Killarney has grown a sort of bean plant in special see-through soil, so you can look at the roots as well as the top. Na-Kyoung Song has split the stem of a white rose and put each half into a different jar of water with food coloring in it, which has made the rose go half pink and half purple.

  At the end of the evening, when everyone has had time to look at every single display in the fair, there will be a prize for the Greatest Contribution to Natural Science. Violet hopes that Nicola will win it, and maybe she will, because lots of people are stopping to look at the beaded life cycle of the ladybug, and one lady is saying that stages one and two are pretty enough to wear as brooches.

  At the bottom of Nicola’s display is a little card where she has written And in very small writing on the back of the card, where no one can see, is written

  It is quite exciting when the time comes for the judging. There are three judges, and they have all been whispering in a serious way about who will get the prize, which is wrapped in gold paper on their desk. Everyone is quiet and some of the people in Nicola’s class have their fingers crossed behind their backs that they will be the winner of whatever is in the gold paper, which Violet suspects is a microscope. The only prize you get in Violet’s class is a jelly bean for twenty-out-of-twenty in spelling. Violet thinks she would practice spelling more if things like microscopes were involved.

  “The winner of this year’s prize for the Greatest Contribution to Natural Science,” begins the main judge, “is a student who has worked hard, thought creatively, and shown a great passion for this interesting subject.”

  Violet is sure that Nicola has worked hard and thought creatively, but she did say that natural science was worse than math—much worse. Perhaps that is not really showing a great passion. Violet feels quite nervous.

  “So we are awarding the prize to . . .”

  Violet crosses her toes in one of her shoes.

  “Anson McGregor, for his ant farm and for his imaginative story entitled ‘A Day in the Life of an Ant.’ ”

  Even though Violet quite liked the story, she does not feel like clapping for Anson McGregor. But Mama quickly says you have to clap for everyone, even if they are not your sister, so Violet claps, anyway, but softly and for a short time.

  When Anson McGregor opens the prize, it is not a microscope. It is only a boxed copy of the same Encyclopedia of Natural Science that Nicola already has, which makes Violet feel a bit better about her not winning it.

  Then the judge says, “However, we would also like to give an honorable mention to Nicola Mackerel for her beaded ‘Life Cycle of the Ladybug,’ because it was especially made leaving all creatures in their natural habitat, which is the way natural science should be, wherever possible.”

  It is much more fun clapping for Nicola, and Violet does it loudly and for quite a long time.

  The judge gives Nicola a special honorable mention bookmark with a tree frog on it.

  And when they get home, Nicola gives it to Violet as a thank-you.

  The next weekend Violet and Mama go to the shopping center again, as Mama needs some green wool that is on sale, and every person in the Mackerel family, plus Vincent, needs a new toothbrush, and Dylan wants some black hair dye, which is part of his stage.

  When they are just about to go home they run into Mrs. Lin again, who is in the mood for a cup of tea.

  “Would you mind?” Mama asks Violet. “I know it’s been a long day already.”

  “I don’t mind,” says Violet.

  So they go down to the food court.

  “Please could I have a doughnut?” asks Violet while Mama is buying the cups of tea.

  Mama says she can, and Violet picks one that is still warm and has been rolled around in cinnamon and sugar.

  She eats three-quarters of the doughnut and, while Mama and Mrs. Lin are saying, “Aren’t there a lot of commercials on television these days” and “There is hardly any time left for the actual television shows,” Violet makes the last quarter into crumbs.

  Soon the small brown sparrow flies down. Violet thinks that maybe he has remembered her because of the daisy dress thread, which is woven into his nest in the roof of the shopping center.

  “I have something different for you today,” says Violet, sprinkling the doughnut crumbs onto the floor. The sparrow hops and jumps just near where she is sitting, pecking at the crumbs and nibbling.

  As she sprinkles, Violet thinks a bit more about the Theory of Helping Small Things, even though there isn’t any particular help she needs today.

  She wonders if the sparrow might like her to make him a soft nest in her room, perhaps in between the boxes of puzzles on the bookshelves. She could listen to him chirping in the morning and bring him worms from the garden for breakfast.

  Maybe the sparrow would like to have a bath with Violet so she could shampoo his feathers while Mama shampoos Violet’s hair.

  Just as Violet is wondering if the sparrow might even like to come to school with her, tucked safely in her schoolbag, she finds that she has stepped onto the mat in front of the big automatic doors of the food court.

  They slide open and in a flash of feathery wings, the small brown sparrow flies out.

  Violet watches him flutter up into the sky and swoop over toward the park, where there are trees and a small pond and lots of other sparrows too.

  Violet waves good-bye a little sadly. It would have been fun to take the sparrow to school.

  But it is nice to think that perhaps she has helped him find his way back to the place he lives and grows best.

  Anna Branford was born on the Isle of Man and spent parts of her childhood in Africa and in Papua New Guinea. She now lives in Melbourne, Australia, with a large black cat called Florence. She writes, drinks cups of tea in her garden, and makes dolls and other small things, which she sells at early morning markets. (That’s where she first imagined Violet and her family.) You can visit Anna at annabranford.com.

  Elanna Allen lives most of the time in London with her husband and son, but sometimes you might find her in New York, visiting her old stomping grounds. At this very minute, she is in London, where she writes and illustrates children’s books and designs characters for television. She wrote and illustrated Itsy Mitsy Runs Away and has created characters for Disney, Nickelodeon, and PBS. Whether she is in New York or London, you can always say hi to her at elannaallen.com.

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  Also by Anna Branford

  Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot

  Violet Mackerel’s Remarkable Recovery

  Atheneum Books For Young Readers

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2011 by Anna Branford

  Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Elanna Allen

  Text was originally published in 2011 by Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd.

  All rights reserved, including the right
of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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  Also available in an Atheneum Books for Young Readers hardcover edition.

  Book design by Lauren Rille

  Cover design by Lauren Rille

  The text for this book is set in Excelsior.

  The illustrations for this book are rendered in pencil with digital ink.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Branford, Anna.

  Violet Mackerel’s natural habitat / Anna Branford ;

  illustrated by Elanna Allen. — 1st US ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: As the youngest in her family, seven-year-old Violet identifies with small creatures in the natural world, but when she tries to help a special ladybug, she learns an important lesson about animal habitats.

  ISBN 978-1-4424-3594-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-3595-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-3596-4 (eBook : alk. paper)

  [1. Family life—Fiction. 2. Ladybugs—Fiction. 3. Habitat (Ecology)—Fiction.] I. Allen, Elanna, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.B737384Vh 2013

  [Fic]—dc23 2012015000