I Didn't Mean To

Mama Mira had been weaving the blue cloth since spring. Deep blue, like the sky just after sunset, with small silver stars worked all the way through it. Each star took her most of an evening. The merchant was coming at the end of the month, and the money would keep them warm all winter.

There was one rule in the cottage. No flying indoors.

Ash meant that promise completely when he made it. And then one wet afternoon he was alone, and his wings would not stay still, and he thought: just one try.

For one whole second, Ash flew. It was the best second of his life.

Then his wing caught the shelf.

This is a story about a mistake that does not get undone. The cloth is not secretly fine underneath. Nobody arrives with money. The winter really is harder, and the book says so. What gets repaired is something else entirely, and it happens in the rain, under a crooked thorn tree, when his mother tells him she is angrier than she has ever been and that he is still hers, and that both of those are allowed to be true at once.

For children aged 4 to 8, followed by 20 pages of activities: sort what can be mended from what cannot, trace the words Mama said, and a page for two things that are both true about you at the same time.

• Read aloud for ages 4 to 5, read alone for ages 6 to 8
• Large 16 point text and a full colour illustration on every page
• 20 pages of activities with a printed answer key, no apps and no links
• A complete standalone story. Any book in the series can be read first