Agatha Parrot and the Heart of Mud

By Kjartan Poskitt and Wes Hargis

First, Martha’s mom bans her from playing soccer, and Agatha and friends must get Martha back on the field. Then Agatha’s brother, James, receives an email from a mysterious girl, Bella, and Agatha secretly responds for him. It’s just one of those things that sisters have to do!
     Agatha discovers Bella’s love of spelling might hold the secret for getting Martha permission to play soccer again. Several forged emails—and a few spelling tests—later, will Martha play in the big game? And what will happen when the innocent Bella meets the real James?
     The irresistible adventures of Agatha Parrot continue in this funny and unpredictable installment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Dec 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9780544509085

Kjartan Poskitt

Kjartan Poskitt is the author of many popular children's books sold around the world. A children's television presenter and a musician as well as an author, he lives in Yorkshire, in the UK. Visit him online at agathaparrot.com.

Book preview

Clarion Books

3 Park Avenue

New York, New York 10016

Copyright © 2013 by Kjartan Poskitt

Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Wes Hargis

First U.S. edition, 2016

Text originally published in the United Kingdom by Egmont UK Ltd.

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

Clarion Books is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

www.hmhco.com

Cover design by Lisa Vega

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Names: Poskitt, Kjartan, author. | Hargis, Wes, illustrator.

Title: Agatha Parrot and the heart of mud / neatly typed out by Kjartan Poskitt; art by Wes Hargis.

Description: First U.S. edition. | Boston ; New York : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. | Originally published in the United Kingdom by Egmont UK Ltd. | Summary: When Agatha Parrot joins the spelling club to support her friend Martha, she gets help from an unexpected source—her cousin, Bella, who thinks she is emailing Agatha’s brother.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015041138 | ISBN 9780544508767 (hardback)

Subjects: | CYAC: English language—Spelling—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction. | Email—Fiction. | Humorous stories. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Soccer. | JUVENILE FICTION / School & Education. | JUVENILE FICTION / Love & Romance. | JUVENILE FICTION / Holidays & Celebrations / Valentine’s Day. | JUVENILE FICTION / Girls & Women.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.P65 Ad 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2015041138

eISBN 978-0-544-50908-5

v2.0517

This book is dedicated to Auntie Zoe, who is so nice, so cool, so stylish, and SO like me.

The Heart of . . . What?

Hiya! I’m Agatha Jane Parrot and THANKS for reading this book. It’s very nice of you, because the title is a bit strange!

If you want to know why this book is called The Heart of Mud, it’s something that somebody says later on in the story. If you like, you can flip through the pages and see if you can spot who says it. Remember, you’re on page 2 now, so I’ll wait here and you can come back when you’ve found it.

I’ll just hum some waiting music . . . Tum-tee-tiddly-tum!

If you think the title is kind of silly, it could have been a LOT worse. There’s one part in the story where my friend Ivy sends secret messages with her leg! It’s true. She really does, so Ivy wanted this book to be called Ivy Malting and Her Secret-Message-Sending Leg. Ha ha! But it was too long to fit on the front, so we used that title for one of the chapters instead.

Before we start, I should warn you that this book does have a bit of LOVE in it. (That’s why it has Heart in the title.)

Don’t worry. There’s no long kissing or holding hands or anything gross like that. YUCK! We don’t do that sort of thing on Odd Street—except once. It was Dad’s birthday, so Mom had to give him a kiss, but they didn’t like it much because he’s bald and she’s got hairy legs. What a pity Mom couldn’t take the hairs off her legs and plant them on Dad’s head! That would have been an awesome birthday present for him. How very thoughtful.

Anyway, Ivy’s leg is waiting for you, so we’d better get on with the story. WAHOO!

The Return of the Mud Creature

In our house, Wednesday’s dinner is the BEST dinner of the week.

What makes Wednesday so good is that Mom cooks up A Real Taste of Italy. It’s made with fresh pasta and handpicked tomatoes with an exciting blend of herbs and covered with a rich cheese sauce. Each serving also contains 377 calories, 13 grams of fat, and 832 mg of

Reviews for Agatha Parrot and the Heart of Mud

[khaddox-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was provided to me as an advance reader copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

First, Martha’s mom bans her from playing soccer and Agatha and friends must get Martha back on the field. Then Agatha’s brother, James, receives an email from a mysterious girl, Bella, and Agatha secretly responds for him. It’s just one of those things that sisters have to do! Agatha discovers Bella’s love of spelling might hold the secret for getting Martha permission to play soccer again. Several forged emails—and a few spelling tests—later, will Martha play in the big game? And what will happen when the innocent Bella meets the real James? The irresistible adventures of Agatha Parrot continue in this funny and unpredictable installment.

This being my first experience with Agatha Parrot, I had no preconceived notions of what to expect. This book made me snicker out loud at certain points. Yes, there was some silliness, which I prefer to avoid when reading, but if one is going to convey the true behavior of 7 and 8 year-olds, there is going to be some silliness involved. Agatha and her friends felt real and I can imagine the circumstances in the book actually occurring. The children do engage in some deceit (cheating, lying), but in the end, honesty wins out (somewhat), and the characters go to bed happy. I would recommend this book to kiddos 7 to 10 years-old. They will love the antics of Agatha and her friends, and will likely clamor for more.