Titaaniiiuuum

By Neville Bagnall

‘We are so tiny we poison the plants and starve the fish of oxygen. Oh, and we get breathed into children’s lungs. You, Toxie, might not think we are bad, but we are called pollutants for a reason,’ she seethed with gritted teeth.

– Tamin (pollutant). 

‘Firstly, I wouldn’t encourage the children to jump out of a moving vehicle, Mrs. Hawkins,’ she grinned sympathetically. ‘Please feel free to boot the little darlings out once you have stopped in the drop-off marked areas.’

 – Miss Violet (teacher).

Katty Sheehan’s family is always chaotic – especially with her little brother – the annoying ‘know-it-all’ Mummy’s boy, Jake, and then there’s Mum’s obsession with cooking and hiding chocolate brownies. Really?

Katty is one small girl in a very big world who makes an unexpected discovery.

There are a handful of suspects and a lot more baddies.

All aboard the journey of discovery, where nothing is as it seems!

As Katty, Jake and Miss Violet fight to save a polluted planet, can they unravel the truth about the harm and misery and find a way to bring the polluters to justice?

Everything is spinning out of control.

Can anyone really stop the mutant ninja pollutants?

Time is running out. Seriously. Time is running out fast. Many lives are at stake.

A mystery story that is not actually a mystery! Get it? Oh, you defo will get it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398465718

Neville Bagnall

Neville Bagnall lives in Llanelli, South Wales. He studied BSc (Hons) in health, safety and environmental management, and MSc in sustainable business risk management. His work includes teaching about protecting the environment which gave him the idea to put into his writing to highlight the real environmental challenges to the children of today in the hope of a cleaner climate for their future tomorrows and beyond. In Titaaniiiuuum, Neville exposes the real dangers of not protecting the environment from the invisible ninja pollutants. Titaaniiiuuum is the first in the Enviro Kids series adventures exploring environmental impacts all around planet Earth.

Book preview

About the Author

Neville Bagnall lives in Llanelli, South Wales. He studied BSc (Hons) in health, safety and environmental management, and MSc in sustainable business risk management. His work includes teaching about protecting the environment which gave him the idea to put into his writing to highlight the real environmental challenges to the children of today in the hope of a cleaner climate for their future tomorrows and beyond.

In Titaaniiiuuum, Neville exposes the real dangers of not protecting the environment from the invisible ninja pollutants. Titaaniiiuuum is the first in the Enviro Kids series adventures exploring environmental impacts all around planet Earth.

Dedication

To those whose actions to protect the environment are resourceful, meaningful, genuine, and selfless whilst making a real difference and giving renewed belief and pride into the future generations of today’s children to come…

…and not to those governments and big corporations who shamefully choose to issue empty promises and seek to profit through greed and continued pollution of our planet. Your children will not be so proud.

Copyright Information ©

Neville Bagnall 2023

The right of Neville Bagnall to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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

ISBN 9781398465701 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398465718 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the submissions department of Austin Macauley Publishers for their faith in the concept of Titaaniiiuuum’s environmental message and the editorial department for giving the book’s content the opportunity to be made available for publication. Further thanks to everyone in the production team who have been so supportive throughout the process and for producing the creative and illuminating cover design.

Chapter 1

Same Old Horizons

It was a whirling tornado of excitement. They squealed to a giggling, chuckling, frenzied quivering fever. The joyful howling trills trailed off sharply and quickly flip-flopped into a growling, snapping, cursing fury of rage. One moment they were euphoric; the next moment flared tempers, riotous cries, and bitter misery. Two tantrums colliding, Mum would say with gritted teeth. The seismic collision of sibling hysterics shuddered in the chaos. Crashes, bangs, and wallops. It was destined to happen this way. The wiggling thumbs and compressing fingers on the gaming consoles had stopped. The consoles had been discarded, flung onto the sofa and armchair. The game had come to an abrupt and early finish. The exciting gaming competition had been replaced with jutted out chins and the snarling reflective glares of brother and sister, Jake and Katty. They eye-balled each other menacingly. Insults were thrown and rebounded in a bout of raging verbal exchanges. The tension in the air crackled and sparked. The noise cracked into a sonic thunderous boom that reverberated and seemed to shake the whole house. It had been deafening; it had been explosive. The clash was inevitable and exploded into a volley of shouting accusations of cheating. There was nothing worse than a cheat. To cheat was wrong. To cheat and then blatantly blame the other of cheating was unforgiveable. Trembling fists were clenched tight. Beetroot faces glowed. War had been declared in the living room. A barrage of shrieks and screams erupted from their bellowing mouths. They hissed and barked. Evil, conniving, unpleasant name-calling spat out of their snarling slavering mouths. The screeches, screams and shouts continued to pound the living room walls and rattle the windows and doors. Hatred spilled from their glaring eyes, and volcanic saliva spewed from their drooling mouths. The light bulb flickered as the lightning thunder of squealing tonsils shrilled and echoed around the living room like a tornado as they threw even more bitter nasty insults at each other.

In the kitchen, next to the living room, Mum was cooking her speciality of large brick-size brownies. The brownies were set in the oven at one hundred and eighty degrees celsius. Mum gazed at her yummy brownies gurgling and sizzling in the oven as she listened to the background sound of the radio. This was the life, she sighed and crooned. Peace and quiet, brownies, and sprinkled nicely with a bit of light entertainment humming on the radio. It was Simon Mayo’s drivetime radio slot, and she smiled and rocked her head side to side at the familiar uplifting mood jingle:

Enjoy yourself it’s later than you think – Enjoy yourself while you’re still in the pink,

The years go by as quickly as a wink – Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.

The rumbling riots in the living room meant that her temperature was rising, too. She was rapidly rising to gas mark nine at two hundred and twenty degrees celsius. For a moment, she cursed Simon Mayo’s upbeat jingle enjoy yourself. Her mood swung from bliss and calmness to utter misery, seething rage and boiling stress. She pursed her lips and drum-rolled her fingers on top of the marbled island, staring at the illuminated oven door. She tried to focus on the sizzling gleaming brownies beckoning her to release them from the glowing inferno. The digital timer on the oven display showed five minutes and twenty seconds remaining and counting down. She tutted and squeezed her eyes tight shut. If only she could somehow drown out the other noise from the next room. A waft of chocolate teased her nostrils, her eyes drooped. If it wasn’t for the continued ever increasing shouty blabbering noise coming from the living room she would be salivating by now. Her lips trembled in anticipation. But it was not to be. She’s the one who felt cheated out of these precious moments of touching, smelling, and savouring the experience of cooking her favourite snack. She dreamed about brownies. Her precious brownies had to be protected. Strategies had to be put in place with great military precision. She would put four in a tupperware container and label it with care – Do not touch…or else! Mum XX (kiss, kiss). Mum decided to sign it off with an emoji…an angry face. But Mum and two kisses meant Mum and two children, didn’t it? It didn’t say wife or Elspeth, so Dad might think it didn’t mean him. Really, though? But seriously, Dad was the brownie thief, and everybody in the Sheehan household knew it. Another two brownies would be left out on a plate in public view for anyone to snack on. Mum concluded that this gave the illusion of sharing and so they (the two screaming kids in the next room, and their father, Damian) would be less inclined to look for more brownies. Mum hoped they would be put off the scent of the other brownies and, as a back-up plan, she would wrap them up in a plastic freezer bag and stuff them into the bottom of the bran flakes box. Bran flakes being nobody else’s breakfast choice, other than hers, of course.

‘You cheat,’ screamed Katty. He always cheated in Super Mario, she seethed. Why she bothered playing with