Buch lesen: «Colly's Barn»

Book Band: White

First published in Great Britain in 1991 by Heinemann Young Books

imprints of Egmont Children’s Books Limited 239 Kensington High Street, London W8 6SA. Published in hardback by Heinemann Library,

a division of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Limited

by arrangement with Egmont Children’s Books Limited.

This edition published 2010 by Egmont UK Ltd

239 Kensington High Street, London W8 6SA Text copyright © Michael Morpurgo 1991 Illustrations copyright © Ian Andrew 1999

The Author and Illustrator have asserted their moral rights. ISBN 978 1 4052 02 558

eISBN 978 1 7803 11 708

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

Printed at Oriental Press Limited, Dubai. 5958/13

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 publisher and copyright owner.

MICHAEL

MORPURGO

Illustrated by Ian Andrew

For Catherine, Simon, Jonathan,

Susannah and James

M.M.

To the memory of

Phil O’Connor

I.A.

Chapter One

SOMEONE HAD TO clean out the old barn. Grandad had a bad knee and her mother and father were busy, so Annie had to do it all by herself. But she wasn’t alone. You were never quite alone in the old barn.

Screecher, the barn owl, looked down at her from his perch on the beam above her. She knew that the swallows would be watching her from their nests high on the roof joists. But the owls and the swallows were as much a part of the barn as the mud walls and the thatched roof and she paid them no attention.

It was hot work and smelly too, but Annie was used to that. After all she had grown up on a farm and on a farm there were always smells of one kind or another. This was no worse than most.

‘Be nice if the cows would learn to clean up after themselves,’ said Grandad from the door