Starfell: Willow Moss and the Lost Day. Dominique Valente
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019
Published in this ebook edition in 2019
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Text copyright © Dominique Valente 2019
Illustrations copyright © Sarah Warburton 2019
Cover design copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Dominique Valente and Sarah Warburton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Source ISBN: 9780008308391
Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008308414
Version: 2020-08-28
For Catherine, who loved it first, to Helen for helping to make a dream come true and to Rui for always believing that it would
Contents
1. The Girl Who Found Lost Things
2. A Question of Time
3. The Monster from Under the Bed
4. The Portal Pantry
5. The Broom-makers
6. The (Newly) Forbidden City of Beady Hill
7. Amora Spell
8. The Sometimes House
9. The Dragon’s Tale
10. The Forgotten Teller
11. The Lost Spells of Starfell
12. The Moon Garden
13. The Midnight Market
14. The Hag Stone
15. Wait and Forget
16. Calamity Troll
17. The Troll Army
18. The Witch’s House
19. Magic in Wolkana
20. Enough to Make a Kobold Explode
21. Yesterday Again
Acknowledgements
Keep Reading …
About the Publisher
The Girl Who Found Lost Things
Most people think being born with a magical power would be a bit of a dream come true. But that’s only because they assume that they’d get exciting powers, like the ability to fly, become invisible or turn an annoying relative into a pig. They think magic is a big feast, where everything is laid out, ripe for the picking.
However, in the world of Starfell, not everyone who is lucky enough to have a bit of magic up their sleeve these days gets the really good bits – like, say, the triple-chocolate fudge cake. Some just get those wilted carrot sticks that no one really wanted to eat anyway. This seemed to be the unfortunate case for Willow Moss, the youngest and, alas, least powerful member of the Moss family.
Willow had received an ability that was, in most people’s opinions, a little more magical scrapyard than magical feast. Useful, but not in a snap, fizzle and bang sort of way. Not even a little snap, or a low sort of bang, though there was almost a fizzle, when you squinted.
Willow’s power was in finding lost things.
Like keys. Or socks. Or, recently, old Jeremiah Crotchet’s wooden teeth.
That hadn’t been fun; the teeth had landed in Willow’s outstretched palm, covered in gooey saliva from the mouth of Geezer, the Crotchets’ ancient bullmastiff.
After the Crotchets paid Willow a spurgle – the standard rate since she was six – Willow decided that an increase was long overdue. She also made a vow from then on to keep a fisher’s net with her at all times to catch the more unsavoury items she was likely to find.
So, while it wasn’t exactly a profitable talent, it did put food on the table – usually a half loaf of bread most days. Which was something at least. Unless you compared it to her middle sister Camille’s talent. Camille had recently lifted a plough, donkey still attached, off Garron Jensen, with her mind.
Yup … Camille’s powers were a bit flashier.
It was at age six, when Willow’s power had finally surfaced, that her father had explained to her that the world was made of different types of people. ‘They’re all necessary, all important. It’s just that some attract a bit more attention than others. There are people like your mother, who commands respect