Shadow

By Ghita El Mernissi

Rose and Star meet at a child welfare home for abandoned kids and form a special bond. They come from similar backgrounds, but they have something else in common, too: a love of cats. The young girls rescue two small felines under strange circumstances. Shadow is found hiding in a pit during a forest fire, and Pearl is saved from an attack of angry squirrels.
As their friendship developsbetween the girls and the catsa twist of fate has them running for cover. The eldest staff member at the welfare home, Eliza, threatens to send Rose and Star to boarding school, so they escape! However, they lose their precious pets in the process and now must find Shadow and Pearl before its too late.
Tobie, a regular at the inn where the girls hide out, assists them in their search and gives them newfound confidence. They make other friends, as well, but some enemies, too. The most important thing is finding their friendly felines, but amazing things happen when the girls realize their cats are actually magic and have powers they could never have imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Dec 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482854855

Ghita El Mernissi

Outward, bubbly and ever inquisitive , I am called a book worm by my classmates, and got told off on several occasions by my parents to stop reading during meal times and focus more on the plate than on the printed word. But all that has not changed my voracious appetite for reading, which has begun since my very first years. My name is Ghita El Mernissi. On 12th December 2015, I celebrated my eleventh birthday. I was born to a British family of Arab Moroccan origin, where three languages are routinely spoken and books occupy a big space of our house. In fact, these were the first thing that had attracted my attention when I was a baby. My father, a journalist by profession, has the greatest impact on me taking the habit. He has been telling me that reading is not only a pleasure but a lifestyle. I was born in Doha, Qatar, where I'm currently attending the last year of my primary education in a British community school – a highly stimulating learning environment for me.

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Copyright © 2015 by Ghita El Mernissi.

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Contents

1 Star

2 Bullies

3 Trouble

4 Gone

5 The Inn

6 Leaving

7 Bats

8 Unusual

1

Star

M y name’s Star. I am twelve years old, and I live in Sydney, Australia. I have always wanted a pet, preferably a cat or a dog, but my parents said that pets are a nasty, smelly nuisance. Anyway, enough about me. Let’s talk about Shadow.

Shadow is the cat I found while I was running away from a forest fire.

I should probably tell you the whole story. I was going for a walk in the woods when I heard a cat yowling. The sound was coming from a tree not far away from me. I peered all around it and even climbed up the tree to see if the cat was hidden in the branches or something.

Then I realised there was a hole in the ground; it was about half a metre wide, ten centimetres deep, and filled with mud. I jumped down from the tree and looked into the hole. I saw a little black face with emerald-green eyes staring back at me. The cat meowed louder, almost as if it were trying to warn me of something. That’s when I smelled smoke behind me. I swivelled around on my heel and saw a huge fire quickly advancing towards me.

I scooped up the little black cat and held it tightly in my arms. I ran out of the woods and straight to the police station, the kitten still clutched to my chest. When I arrived, I breathlessly panted, ‘Fire … in woods. Found kitten … Help!’

‘Whoa! Slow down, darling. Breathe in; breathe out. There we go. Now, what were you trying to tell me?’ the officer asked.

‘There’s a fire in the woods! A big one!’

The policeman pressed his buzzer to alert the fire station about the fire.

‘Now, what’s your address, missy? I need it to help get you home. The streets are bad places for young children like you. I’ll need your name and age too.’

‘My name is Star.