Author(s): Valerie Wilding

Middle Fiction 8-12-year-olds

Toby Tucker is an orphan with a secret. He owns a chest filled with torn paper, and a strange message: Piece your family tree together and you'll find out who you are and when you come from. When he manages to put together a name, the most incredible magic happens. Toby travels back in time and becomes his ancestor! He's already been to Ancient Egypt, and can't wait for the magic to begin again! This time Toby is plunged back to Ancient Greece, into Titus' life, where he finds himself dodging the donkey doo. It's hardly a good idea to head-butt a donkey, and I'll never know what made me do it this morning. One minute I was standing there wondering which of the stubborn creatures to take to market, the next I was cross-eyed with my nose pressed up against a donkey's rear end. Not the nicest thing I've smelt today! Melissa the bee woman keeps well back because, she says, she doesn't want to catch my fleas. Cheek! They're not my fleas. They're the donkeys' fleas. They just rest on me now and then.