Violet Mackerel's Possible Friend Read online

  The ladybug smiles and lets Violet try on her antennae while Simone paints a sparkly bug on the ladybug’s face.

  Soon it is Violet’s turn to have her face painted. While she is keeping still so her violet doesn’t get smudged, she watches other people giving Rose their presents. The daffodil gives her a matching jewelry set with a locket, a ring, and some earrings for pierced ears, even though Rose doesn’t have pierced ears yet. Rose squeaks happily. The forget-me-not gives her a nail-polish kit and a little electric fan for drying your nails. Rose squeaks even more. Violet looks sadly at her small present. Rose will not squeak when she opens it. Violet does not want to give it to her at all. So when no one is looking, she hides it behind a vase.

  Her only hope now is that there are so many big presents from her very good friends that Rose might not notice if there is none from just an ordinary friend. No present is probably better than a dresser made of matchboxes, Violet thinks.

  Next, Simone says it is time for some games. She shows everyone a game where she puts lots of flowers on a tray and then covers them all up and you have to remember as many of the different kinds as you can. They play other games too, and people win glittery pens and flower bangles. Even though Violet is feeling quite sad, she wins a notebook for pinning the poppy on the stem with a blindfold on. The stalk looks gloomy again after winning hair clips in a round of pass the parcel, so Violet gives him her notebook. She suspects you shouldn’t really win a prize if you don’t give a present. The stalk looks a bit less gloomy after that.

  Then they have the birthday cupcakes, which look even more beautiful than they did in the brochure, with sparklers and candles burning between them for Rose to blow out while everyone sings “Happy Birthday to You.”

  After the cakes, everyone goes outside into Rose’s beautiful garden to play a game where you have to stand back and throw a wishing pebble into the sunflower. If it lands in the petals, you get to keep the pebble, and if it lands in the middle, Simone gives you a much more special pebble with a flower painted on it. It is a good game, Violet thinks, and she would like to win a pebble. But much more than that, she would like to go home.

  Violet goes over to Rose and taps her on the shoulder, to tell the small fib of a slight headache and to say an early good-bye. But before she can say anything, Rose squeaks and whispers something in her ear.

  “Come inside for a minute. I want to show you something,” whispers Rose.

  Everybody is busy, so no one notices them disappearing into the house and up the stairs together. Violet wonders if Rose now has a whole street of pink and white dollhouses to show her. On the way, Violet grabs her present from behind the vase. If you only have a small thing to give someone, it can be easier without everyone watching.

  There are a few new birthday things in Rose’s room. There are white cushions on her canopy bed that spell out “R-O-S-E” in pink letters, and there is a shiny new car beside the dollhouse. But those are not what Rose wants to show Violet.

  “Look!” says Rose, pulling up her green top, which has leafy points all around the collar, to show Violet the top of her beautiful swirly rose-pink skirt. At the side there is a wooden peg.

  “It’s my mama’s skirt,” says Rose. “She said we could get it made the right size for the party, but I wanted a peg, so it would be like yours.”

  Violet pulls up her green top to show her matching peg. It is a funny surprise but a very nice one. They both twirl, and their skirts fly out in fluttering circles.

  “I wish I had leaves in my hair,” says Rose, admiring Violet’s. “Then we would really match.”

  Violet takes a deep breath and holds out her present.

  “It’s only very small,” she says.

  Rose opens the card Violet made.

  “A rose and a violet! That’s us!” she says.

  Then she carefully unwraps the present. Suddenly her eyes get very big.

  “It’s my dresser!” she squeaks. She holds it up to compare it with her own actual dresser. “It’s perfect!” she squeaks again and does some slight twirling.

  Violet is so happy she wants to squeak and twirl too.

  Rose pulls out the dollhouse to put it in the bedroom right away, but Violet says, “Look inside the drawers first.”

  Pulling open the drawers with the tiny rose quartz knobs, Rose takes out the little jagged leaf hair clips and squeaks even more. Violet puts them in Rose’s hair, and they look at themselves in her special tilting mirror. They are a matching leafy rose and violet. Rose gives Violet a thank-you hug, and they put the matchbox dresser in the dollhouse. It is a very good fit. Then they run back downstairs. No one has even noticed they were missing.

  After that, it feels like almost no time before the parents start arriving to pick everyone up and the party is over. Violet says good-bye to the ladybug and the stalk and thank you to Simone and Rose’s mama. Rose says good-bye and thank you to most of the guests as they leave, but when Violet leaves she gives her another big hug. No one needs to pick Violet up because she only has to walk back next door.

  “Did you have a good time?” asks Mama later on, while Violet is in the bath carefully washing around the sparkly violet on her cheek.

  “I had a very good time,” says Violet.

  That evening, in the hole in the fence, she finds a note from Rose saying thank you again for the dresser and the hair clips. It is addressed to MY VERY GOOD FRIEND VIOLET, and at the bottom is a picture of a violet and a rose, tied together with a ribbon. Violet twiddles the piece of amethyst in her pocket. The Theory of Swapping Small Things might be quite a good theory, she thinks.

  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. You can visit Anna at annabranford.com.

  Elanna Allen lives in New York with her husband and sons, 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. Stop by and say hi at itsymitsy.com.

  Atheneum Books for Young Readers

  Simon & Schuster * New York

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  authors.simonandschuster.com/Anna-Branford

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  Also by Anna Branford

  Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot

  Violet Mackerel’s Remarkable Recovery

  Violet Mackerel’s Natural Habitat

  Violet Mackerel’s Personal Space

  Atheneum Books for Young Readers

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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 © 2013 by Anna Branford

  Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Elanna Allen

  Text was previously published in 2013 in Australia by Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd.

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

  ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Also available in an A
theneum Books for Young Readers paperback edition.

  Book design by Lauren Rille

  Jacket design by Lauren Rille

  Jacket illustrations and hand-lettering copyright © 2014 by Elanna Allen

  The text for this book is set in Excelsior.

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

  0414 FFG

  First US Edition

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Branford, Anna.

  Violet Mackerel’s possible friend / Anna Branford ; illustrated by Elanna Allen. — First US edition.

  p. cm.

  Summary: After moving to a new neighborhood, a girl who is both a worrier and a problem solver meets a possible very good friend next door.

  ISBN 978-1-4424-9455-8 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-9456-5 (paperback)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-9457-2 (eBook)

  [1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Worry—Fiction. 3. Moving, Household—Fiction. 4. Family life—Fiction.] I. Allen, Elanna, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.B737384Vhq 2014

  [Fic]—dc23 2013013568