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A New Friend for Mathilda?

by Louise Hegarty; Illustrated by Cathy Smith

113 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-2825; ISBN 1-4251-1066-5; US$13.69, C$13.69, EUR9.35, £7.07

Mathilda's friend, Sebastian, has a problem. He doesn't know he has because he's a rather dreamy, magical person. But it's OK! Mathilda can sort it out - or can she?

About the Book

Mathilda is a happy girl with a caring family, though her older brother teases her and her mother doesn't always hear when Mathilda is talking to her and her dad often worked away from home… still, she knows they care for her. She has good friends too and they have lots of fun together. But Mathilda is not happy at the moment. She is worried about Sebastian, one of her friends. He has a problem, but when Mathilda tries to talk to him about it, Seb just laughs. Mathilda turns to her family for help and though they don't quite know how they can help solve her problem, they do manage to keep her busy, having a good time with her friends, while they try to find a solution. In the end, help comes from an unexpected quarter.

This is a story of friendship and family in which a young girl proves her loyalty towards her friends and the trust she has in her family to help her with her problem. Mathilda is a confident, independent girl, whose honesty and generosity make her an appealing character in this adventure.

About the Author

Louise Hegarty is a newly retired, life-long teacher. She never considered writing as a possible hobby, but would often use her imagination to provide starting points for her pupils' writing or to produce original ideas as material for a variety of lessons and activities. Once retired, despite a mound of jobs waiting to be tackled, Louise still had the urge to share her ideas with children, even if it were at a distance. Almost without realizing it, she began writing as a way of maintaining her link with children and of exploring where her experience of people and her imagination would take her. Possibly she will get no further than seeing her own words and the illustrations of her friend in print just once - but the experience has been truly invigorating and very rewarding.

Louise has 2 grown-up children and lives in south Manchester, the area in which she was born, with her husband, John, and, Thomas, her grandson.