Return to Wonderland Read online

  ‘Pah,’ she says. ‘Change will come, whether you like it or not. Even now your home is calling. How can you impart wisdom when you refuse to be true to yourself?’

  Deep within the cloud, I stick out my tongue. The magic tastes of bright new things. Of moonshine, and dew on cobwebs; of the rush of spring water, of the morning haze over a green field.

  Perhaps I could see more of it all.

  If I were a butterfly.

  The magic senses a chink in my armour and snuggles in. I stare at the bright wisps of possibility, of unknown things. Catch my sister’s eye.

  ‘You’ll be here when I am new again?’

  ‘I’ll be here all along,’ she says.

  It is dawn. I can tell from the birdsong, and the glow of pink light between the trees, the roll of fog still upon the grass. I cling to a twig, my body scrunched and small and stiff.

  What is this nonsense? I wonder.

  And then I remember.

  There is no cloud of magic now. It is inside me. Inside the wings that

  s t r e t c h

  and shiver

  and kiss the clear, cool air.

  ‘Are you ready?’ asks my sister, as she flutters down to meet me.

  I am unsteady and new.

  I am a butterfly.

  And the world is full of wonder.

  We take to the skies, and we tumble and dance and laugh.

  And there is the dear Dormouse, down below, and there is my beloved mushroom, and there is the Queen – she is arguing with roses that are every shade of the rainbow.

  ‘I’ll be back!’ I call down, and they look up, and they get smaller and smaller

  and smaller . . .

  ‘When I’ve had an Adventure!’

  About the Authors

  Peter Bunzl is the author of Cogheart, which has won numerous regional awards, was selected as a Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Month, nominated for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Branford Boase Award and the Carnegie medal. The third book in the Cogheart series, Skycircus, is out now.

  Pamela Butchart’s bestselling Baby Aliens books include The Spy Who Loved School Dinners, which won the Blue Peter Best Book Award 2015, and My Teacher is a Vampire Rat, which won the Children’s Book Award 2016. She has also written two brand-new Secret Seven stories, and a number of picture books. Pamela lives in Dundee with her family.

  Maz Evans’s debut children’s novel, Who Let the Gods Out was selected for Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month, has sold to seventeen countries worldwide, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Books are My Bag Readers’ Awards and longlisted for the Branford Boase Award. Maz is the founder of Story Stew, a schools’ creative-writing programme, and Book Buddy, a book donation programme for schools.

  Swapna Haddow is the author of the Dave Pigeon books, shortlisted for the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards, selected for the Tom Fletcher Book Club and winner of a number of regional awards. She is also the author of several picture books, including Little Rabbit’s Big Surprise, and the forthcoming My Dad is a Grizzly Bear. She lives in New Zealand with her family.

  Patrice Lawrence is an award-winning writer, whose debut YA novel, Orangeboy, won the YA Book Prize, the Waterstones Prize for Older Children, and was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award. She is also the author of Orangeboy and Indigo Donut, as well as the 2019 World Book Day title, Snap.

  Chris Smith is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, having presented Radio 1’s Newsbeat to millions of listeners daily, as well as hosting shows on BBC Radio 5 Live. He is the the co-author of the bestselling Kid Normal series with Greg James, which debuted in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the British Book Awards.

  Robin Stevens grew up in California and now lives in Oxford. She is the author of the bestselling detective mystery series, Murder Most Unladylike, which won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2015, and has been translated into eleven different languages. She is also the author of The Guggenheim Mystery, a sequel to Siobhan Dowd’s London Eye Mystery.

  Lauren St John worked as a veterinary nurse and a sports and music journalist before turning to children’s books. Her bestselling White Giraffe series is inspired by her childhood in Zimbabwe, and Dead Man’s Cove, the first in the Laura Marlin detective series, won the Blue Peter Book Award. Her new detective series, the Wolfe and Lamb Mysteries, began with Kat Wolfe Investigates.

  Lisa Thompson’s debut novel, Goldfish Boy, was selected as Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month, nominated for the Carnegie Medal, the Branford Boase Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and sold in nine languages. She is also the author of The Light Jar and The Day I was Erased. She lives in Suffolk with her family.

  Piers Torday’s books include The Last Wild, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, The Dark Wild, winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, There May Be a Castle and The Lost Magician, which won the Teach Book Primary Award 2019. He is also the writer of the stage adaptation for John Masefield’s Box of Delights.

  Amy Wilson is the author of A Girl Called Owl, which was a top-ten fiction debut, longlisted for the Branford Boase Award and nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Her other magical fantasy novels are A Far Away Magic and Snowglobe, which was selected for WHSmith Travel Book of the Month in December 2018. Shadows of Winterspell, her fourth novel, will publish in October 2019.

  Discover Lewis Carroll’s original classic stories

  The perfect gift for all Alice fans

  First published 2019 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  This electronic edition published 2019 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  an imprint of Pan Macmillan

  20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 978-1-5290-0686-5

  Copyright:

  ‘Acorns, Biscuits and Treacle’ © 2019 Peter Bunzl

  ‘The Queen of Hearts and the Unwritten Written Rule’ © 2019 Pamela Butchart

  ‘The Sensible Hatter’ © 2019 Maz Evans

  ‘The Missing Book’ © 2019 Swapna Haddow

  ‘Roll of Honour’ © 2019 Patrice Lawrence

  ‘The Tweedle Twins and the Case of the Missing Crow’ © 2019 Chris Smith

  ‘Ina Out of Wonderland’ © 2019 Robin Stevens

  ‘Plum Cakes at Dawn’ © 2019 Lauren St John

  ‘The Knave of Hearts’ © 2019 Lisa Thompson

  ‘How the Cheshire Cat Got His Smile’ © 2019 Piers Torday

  ‘The Caterpillar and the Moth Rumour’ © 2019 Amy Wilson

  Illustrations © 2019 Laura Barrett

  The right of the above authors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.

 

 

  center>