Violet Mackerel's Personal Space Read online

  “Yes,” says Violet.

  Before Dylan takes the last of Violet’s things downstairs, she pulls out her Box of Small Things.

  “I’ll need this just for a minute,” she says.

  When Dylan has gone downstairs with the others and she is all by herself again, she pulls up the carpet in the corner of her room where it has always curled up a little bit. Underneath the carpet are wooden floorboards with thin little cracks between them. Violet pushes a small red button into one of the cracks and then smooths the carpet back down again. It looks exactly as it did a moment before.

  Next Violet goes over to the other corner of the bedroom where the thick paint on the walls has peeled a little bit. Standing on her tiptoes, she tweaks a tiny gold sequin in behind the peel of paint. Nobody would ever guess it was there.

  Finally she goes over to the window and feels behind the curtains for the string you pull to make them open and close. She ties a small piece of purple ribbon around the string and pushes it up as high as she can. It will probably never be noticed by anyone.

  When she has finished, she closes her Box of Small Things and gets ready to leave her room for the very last time. Everyone is calling her from downstairs and saying, “Hurry up, Violet!” and “Get a move on, please!” but she turns around for just one last look at her empty room.

  Places, even personal spaces, look the same after Violet has been in them. But they are not.

  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 son, 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 elannaallen.com

  Atheneum Books for Young Readers

  Simon & Schuster * New York

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  Also by Anna Branford

  Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot

  Violet Mackerel’s Remarkable Recovery

  Violet Mackerel’s Natural Habitat

  Atheneum Books For Young Readers

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

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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 © 2012 by Anna Branford

  Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Elanna Allen

  This title was originally published in 2012 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 Atheneum Books for Young Readers paperback edition.

  Book design by Lauren Rille

  Jacket design by Lauren Rille

  Jacket illustrations and hand-lettering copyright

  © 2013 by Elanna Allen

  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 personal space / Anna Branford ; illustrated by Elanna Allen. First US edition.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Violet finds a special way to cope with moving to a new home after Mama marries Vincent.

  ISBN 978-1-4424-3591-9 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-3592-6 (paperback)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-3593-3 (eBook)

  [1. Remarriage—Fiction. 2. Weddings—Fiction. 3. Moving, Household—Fiction. 4. Family life—Fiction.] I. Allen, Elanna, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.B737384Vhm 2013

  [Fic]—dc23 2012025783