Alex & Josie (Just Kids series)

Alex doesn't trust any of her friends to look after her mouse Josie while she is away visiting her Dad, so she secretly puts her in her pocket and takes her on the plane with her. But the inevitable happens and her curious mouse decides to explore a little, and escapes from Alex's pocket. It's a madcap race against time as Alex tries to find and rescue Josie before the plane lands … or before someone steps on her. This is an adventure story - in the Just Kids series for younger readers.

When I first found out that Pearson Education Australia were producing the Just Kids series, there were only two days left to submit story proposals and a character breakdown. To make matters worse, I was about to leave on a holiday with my sister so I was seriously strapped for time. Carol and I brainstormed in the car on the way to Taupo and talked about things that had been in the news. That week there had been an incident on an American plane where a pet potbelly pig had gone nuts and attacked passengers and air crew. I decided to play around with that story and come up with something that would have plenty of suspense for the Just Kids series. It must have worked. It's my mother's favourite book.

The book was produced in Australia and sold on to the United States and Canada. It's fascinating how each publisher modifies the book to suit their own market. The city name changes, from Auckland to San Francisco and Calgary. Even Alex looks slightly different on the cover (see the images to the right). The American version of the text was also modified because the publisher thought that a comment about a person with an artificial leg may offend people with disabilities. It made me realise there are subtle differences between people and the countries in which they live.

•	Read other books in the Just Kids series. Look at how long they are and how many chapters are in them, and then try writing a book yourself.
•	Find out about looking after animals and offer yourself as an animal babysitter to make some extra pocket money. You could walk people's dogs after school, feed their cats at their own place, or you could keep their rabbits or guinea pigs in a hutch at your house when they are on holiday.
•	Do research, take photos (or find photos), and write a magazine article or a book about how to look after animals. If you want to, you can publish it yourself online using ebook publishing such as Lulu.
•	Read animal books by people like Dick King-Smith, or read some beautiful and popular books about mice like the ones below.

Click on these images to buy these books by other authors at Fishpond

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Alex and Josie (Just Kids series)
Longman, Pearson Education
ISBN 0-7339-3353-X
Scholastic, Canada
ISBN 0-7791-2235-4
Sundance, USA
ISBN 0-7608-5812-8