Читать книгу Discovering Bravery: Beyond the Stars - Niamh Sharkey - Страница 7

Competition winner Emma Brade is fourteen and lives in Ormskirk, Lancashire. She loves art, reading, music and writing. She has previously had some poetry published but this is the first time one of her short stories has ever made it into a book. Since Emma wants to be an author when she’s older she was very delighted to have won – though also a little shocked!

Niamh Sharkey is a picture-book maker based in Dublin. Her books have won numerous awards, including the Mother Goose Award and the CBI/Bisto Book of the Year Award. Her books have also been translated into over twenty languages. Niamh was Ireland’s second Children’s Laureate.

“Be brave for me. I know you can do it. You just have to believe, that’s all.”

Ruka opened her eyes. She hung on to her brother’s words, just in case they grew wings and fluttered away from her memory. As she lay in bed, she imagined they were written on the ceiling; stuffed inside the blanket that kept her warm; whispered by the chilly, morning wind. “Be brave for me. I know you can do it.”

It had been almost a year since Rowan Brown had disappeared. To Ruka, he was more than an older brother; he was her best friend and her only ally. She could still remember his smiling face, the stories he would tell her when she was bored and the warm hugs he would give her whenever she cried. But one day, he went out hunting in the woods and never came back. The whole village had tried looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found.