Iggy and Me on Holiday

Jenny Valentine

Iggy & Me

ON HOLIDAY

Illustrated by Joe Berger

Contents

Cover

Title Page

The last day of school

Packing

The longest journey ever

At the seaside

Iggy makes a friend

Where is Iggy?

A rainy day

Iggy and Barnaby

About the Author

About the Illustrator

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Last Day of School

It was the end of term for me and my little sister, Iggy.

Iggy didn’t want it to be. We were eating our breakfast and she was quite worried.

“Who will look after the hamsters and the guinea pigs?” she said.

“Someone will take the hamsters and the guinea pigs home,” said Mum.

“What will all the teachers do?”

“Someone will take the teachers home too,” Dad said. “The teachers will get some peace and quiet.”

“What about us?” Iggy said. “What will we do?”

“Oh peace and quiet will be off the menu here,” Dad said, “that’s for sure.”

“We’ll have fun,” I said.

“Flo,” Iggy said, like I was being silly. “School is fun.”

“Holidays are fun too,” Mum said. “We’ll have a holiday.”

“Will we?” said Dad.

“What will we do on holiday?” Iggy said, and she pulled her shoulders up high and her bottom lip down low.

“We’ll put you in a dark box and let you out again when school starts,” Dad said.

“I don’t think so,” said Iggy, and she scowled at him.

“We’ll get up when we want,” I said. “We’ll watch telly and wear our pyjamas all day.”

“Oh no you won’t,” said Mum, and Dad said, “Sounds like heaven.”

“We’ll go out on our bikes,” I said, “and have picnics and go to the playground and eat ice cream.”

“OK,” Iggy said. “That sounds good.”

Dad was making coffee and Mum had tea. I ate my toast and Iggy listened to her cereal popping.

“How long is our holiday?” Iggy said.

“Six weeks,” Mum said, and Iggy’s mouth fell open like a trap door.

“Six weeks,” she said. “That is forever.”

“No it’s not,” Mum said. “It’s a month and a half.”

“It’s forty two days,” Dad said, and he looked at us and then at Mum.

“That is a long time,” Mum said.

“We’ll have a nice long holiday,” I told Iggy. “You’ll see.”

On the way to school, Iggy walked extra fast because she wanted to get there early.

“Hurry up,” she said to me and to Mum. “There’s only one day left, and it’s now.”

Her extra fast walking made her whole body wiggle and she looked very funny from behind. It made us laugh. But Iggy wasn’t laughing. She turned to us and pointed. Iggy only points when she is cross.

“Hurry,” she said, pointing, “Up.”

So we did.

We got to school very early. I took Iggy to her classroom. We were the first people there apart from Rwaida, her teacher. Rwaida was sharpening pencils.

“Did you know?” Iggy said, “That this was the last day of school?”

“Yes I did,” Rwaida said and she looked happy about it until she saw Iggy’s face.

“What will we do for forty-two days and six weeks?” Iggy said.

Rwaida smiled. “We’ll think of something,” she said, and she dropped the sharpened pencils into a cup with a clatter.

“I hope so,” Iggy said. “I hope we do.”

It was a good last day of school. We had lessons in the morning like normal. At lunchtime we had foods of the world. We ate things from India and Morocco and France and Somalia and Poland and Bosnia. Most of them were very tasty.

Then we had Golden Time, which is the same as extra play but with a special name. We could choose football, or aerobics, or making things. I chose making things and so did Iggy. There were jigsaw puzzles and arts and crafts and decorating biscuits. Iggy decorated biscuits. I made a picture for Mum and Dad. I made a beach with blue sea and blue sky, and real sand poured onto glue, and the four of us cut out and stuck there, on holiday.

While I was drawing and cutting and sticking, Iggy came to see what I had made. She had biscuit dust all round her mouth and icing on the ends of her fingers.

“What are you doing?” she said, spraying biscuit dust around.

“I’m making a holiday picture.”

“Who’s that?” she said, and she wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

“That’s you and me and Mum and Dad,” I said. “Being on holiday at the seaside.”

“What, swimming in the sea and getting shells and making sandcastles?” she said.

“Yep.”

“Ooh, I think I like doing that,” Iggy said.

“Me too,” I said, and we looked at the picture together for a bit longer.

I said, “I’ll draw some shells and sandcastles in a minute.”

“And starfish,” Iggy said. “Draw some starfish and a mermaid.”

Mermaids are Iggy’s favourite thing to draw and make up stories about. Sometimes Iggy wishes very hard that she was a mermaid. Sometimes she is quite disappointed to have legs.

“Maybe, this holiday,” I said, “we could go to the seaside, you and me and Mum and Dad, just like in the picture. It’s ages since we’ve been to the sea.”

Iggy tightened her mouth and shook her head. She looked very serious and solemn.

“I’m not really having a holiday,” she said in a whisper, like when she tells a secret.

“Why not?”

“Rwaida says she has an important job for me to do.”

“What sort of job?”

“I told you,” she said. “An important one.”

“I know, but what kind?”

She shrugged. “Rwaida says it is for the whole summer.”

“Oh.”

Iggy was still looking at my picture. She said, “I think I’m going to be a bit busy for the seaside.”

I thought about what Iggy’s job could be.

“Is it the Guinea pigs?” I said.

Iggy shook her head. “Josh Green’s having those.”

“Is it the hamster?”

“Nope,” Iggy said. “It’s not Gruffles.”

“Who else?” I said.

“It’s not the fish,’ she said, “because they get to stay at school and the cleaning lady feeds them.”

“Then what can it be?”

Iggy shrugged again and her eyebrows went as high as they could go.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But I think it must be very important.”

At the end of the day I waited for Iggy and Mum in the playground. We had to take all of our work home with us, all our books and pictures in a special folder. I had my folder under my arm. It was quite heavy. When Iggy came out of her classroom she had her folder and a little suitcase. She was having trouble carrying it all so I went to help her. I took Iggy’s folder and I put it with mine.

“What’s in the suitcase?” I said.

Iggy was bursting to tell me.

“It’s my job,” she said. “Do you want to see?”

We stopped in the playground and I put the folders down. Iggy put the little suitcase on the floor and she fiddled with the clips until it popped open.

“There!” she said.

Inside the suitcase was a bear. Iggy lifted him out. He was brown with a white patch on his eye and a shiny black nose.

“This,” Iggy said while the other kids and their mums and dads hurried and chattered around us, “is Barnaby.”

“Hello Barnaby,” I said, and I pretended to shake his hand. “How do you do?”

Iggy was very pleased with me. She hid behind him and she said, “I’m fine thank you,” in a gruff little bear’s voice.

Barnaby was wearing trousers and a tiny school jumper, just like the ones we were wearing. There were other clothes in the suitcase too, all folded neatly, and a real camera, the kind you have to throw away when you are finished with it.

“Look at his holiday clothes,” Iggy said, and she fished out a little flowery shirt to show me, and a baseball cap, and she giggled. I picked up the camera.

“Don’t drop it,” Iggy said. “Be careful.”

“What’s it for?” I said.

“It’s Barnaby’s camera,” Iggy said. “I mustn’t lose it.”

Just then, Mum came to find us in the playground. She carried our folders and I carried the little suitcase and Iggy carried Barnaby. She put him on her shoulders like Dad carries us sometimes. She held onto his hands just like Dad does.

“Can he see?” she said.

“Yes,” I said, and Mum said, “Who is that?”

“It’s Barnaby,” Iggy said.

“Who’s Barnaby?” Mum said.

“He is Iggy’s very important summer job,” I told her.

“I have to look after him,” Iggy said.

“You’ll be good at that,” said Mum.

“I know. I’ve got to take him everywhere, and take his picture. And I’ve got to show all the pictures to the whole class when I get back to school.”

Mum laughed. “How lovely,” she said.

Iggy said, “So every day he has to do something new and exciting for me to take a picture of.”

“OK,” said Mum.

“So it’s good news,” Iggy said.

“What is?” I said.

“About the seaside,” Iggy said.

“What seaside?” asked Mum.

Iggy said, “Flo said we could all go to the seaside and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to come. I was worried that my job would be too busy.”

“I see,” said Mum.

“Show Mum your picture, Flo,” Iggy said.

I took my folder from Mum and pulled out the picture of us at the seaside.

“There we are,” Iggy said. “And now Barnaby can come too.”

“I’ll draw a Barnaby and stick him on when I get home,” I said.

Iggy and Mum smiled at me at exactly the same time.

“Good idea,” they both said.

“So you don’t mind about the last day of school anymore?” I said to Iggy.

“No,” she said. “Not now I’ve got a job. Not now I’ve got Barnaby.”

“And you don’t mind about the long holiday?” I said to Mum.

“No,” Mum said and she winked at me. “Not now we’re going to the seaside.”