Here's a preview of the book
Skinny Melon and Me
by Jean Ure
Monday
Skinny Melon and me have decided that we're going to keep diaries.
Skinny is going to start hers on Saturday, after she buys a special book to do it in. She says it's no use doing it in an ordinary pocket diary with spaces for each day because there will be times when we feel like writing a great deal and other times when we may not want to write anything at all, except perhaps what we had to eat for lunch. I agree with Skinny. But I feel inspired to start immediately and can't wait to buy a special book, so I'm using an old writing notebook with wide lines (I can't stand narrow ones).
I think that when a person is writing a diary, they ought to introduce themselves in case it's unearthed in a hundred years, when nobody would know who has written it. I will say right off that this is the diary of me, Cherry Louise Waterton, age eleven (and two months), and I am writing for prosperity, in other words, the future. To begin with, I suppose I must put down some facts, such as, for instance, that I'm of average height and neither fat not thin but somewhere in between, have short brown hair, with bangs, and a chubby round face (I think I have to be honest).
I know that it's round because I saw these charts in a magazine at the dentist's office, showing all different shapes of faces: heart shaped, egg shaped, diamond shaped, turnip shaped, square shaped, and round.
Mine is definitely round. Unfortunately. Round-faced people tend to have blobby noses, which is what I have.
The school I go to is Ruskin Manor. It's not the school I would have chosen if I had a choice. If I had a choice, I would have chosen a boarding school because I think boarding school would be fun and also it would take me away from Slimey. Anything that took me away from Slimey would have to be a good thing. I did ask Mum if I could go to a boarding school, but she just said, 'Over my dead body.' She was really pleased when I got into Ruskin because it's the school she wanted for me. She says all the others are rough.
Ruskin is okay, I suppose, though we have tons of homework, which Mum, needless to say, approves of. On the other hand, I have only been there for three weeks, so there's no telling how I might feel by the end of the term. Anything could happen. Our class teacher, Mr. Sherwood, who at the moment seems quite nice, could, for instance, suddenly grow fangs, or the principal could turn out to be a werewolf.
I mean, you just never know. (The principal is called Mrs. Hoad. What kind of name is Hoad? It sounds sinister to me.)
My best friend, Melanie, also goes to Ruskin. Her last name is Skinner, and she is very tall and thin, so I call her Skinny Melon, or Skinbag, or sometimes just Skin. John Lloyd, a boy in our class, said last week that we were the 'long and the short of it,' but that's only because Skinny Melon is so tall, not because I am short. Skin's face shape wasn't shown in the magazine description. It's long and thin, the same as the rest of her. Sausage shaped, I suppose you would call it. Like a hot dog.
Me and Skin have been best friends since third grade, and we're going to go on being best friends 'through thick and thin and come what may.' We've made a pledge and signed it and buried it in plastic bag under an apple tree in my mother's garden. If we ever decided to stop being best friends, we'll have to dig up the pledge and solemnly burn it. This is what we've agreed on.
I live at 141 Arethusa Road, London W5. W5 is Ealing and it's right at the end of the red and green lines on the Underground. Skin and I once decided to go and see what Epping was like because we had heard there was a forest there, but we got on the wrong train and went to a place called Fairlop instead.
Ealing doesn't have any forests, just a bit of a scrubby downtown that you can walk from Arethusa Road. There's also a park where Skinny Melon and me take her dog, Lulu, to meet other dogs. I wish more than anything, I could have a dog! Well, almost more than anything.
What I would wish for more than anything is to turn the clock back, which is something you cannot do unless you happen to be living in a science-fiction novel where people travel into the past and change things. I would love to travel into the past and change things. That's what I would like more than anything else. But after that, the next thing I would like is a dog.
Any sort of dog would do. Big dog, small dog, I wouldn't mind.
The reason I am suddenly starting to write this diary is that Mrs. James, who is our English teacher, said that would be a good thing to do. She said that there are several reasons for keeping a diary. These are some that I can remember:
a. It's good practice when it comes to writing essays for school.
b. It's a record of your life and will be interesting to look back on when you're older.
c. It's a social document (for historical purposes, etc.)
d. It can help to clear out the cupboard.
The class did not immediately understand what Mrs. James meant about clearing out the cupboard, and some people started giggling and pretending to open cupboard doors and take out cans of fruit and stuff and throw them away. But Mrs. James said that the cupboard she was talking about was 'the cupboard in your head'. She said that sometimes the cupboard in your head gets clogged up with bits and pieces that may worry you or upset you or make you angry and that writing them down in a diary helps get rid of them.
(Copyright by Jean Ure)
Return to the page of book previews.