Chocolate Box Girls: Coco Caramel
Read Chocolate Box Girls: Coco Caramel Online
Authors: Cathy Cassidy
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #General, #Social Issues, #Love & Romance, #Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance, #Family, #Juvenile Nonfiction, #Siblings, #Marriage & Divorce
PUFFIN
Hiya …
Have you ever wanted to change the world?
Coco Tanberry reckons she might just be able to do it, armed only with an old violin, a
fluffy panda hat, a rucksack full of cupcakes and a LOT of determination. Sadly, she has
reckoned without surly loner Lawrie Marshall, who seems to think everything she does is
ridiculous. When the two of them find themselves working together to rescue some
ill-treated ponies, there’s bound to be trouble …
Coco is a tomboy with big plans and
bucketfuls of enthusiasm. She cares so much about so many things and wants to fix them
all, but she’s impulsive – she doesn’t always think before she acts. While she’s busy
trying to save the world, her own family is falling to pieces – but Coco can’t help the
big sister she loves without drawing attention to herself and the tangle of lies and
deceit she has woven to hide the dangerous risks she is taking.
Coco reminds me a lot of myself back at the
age of twelve. I am still crazy about animals and hate injustice of any
kind … and like Coco, if I thought I could save the world with cake, I’d
definitely give it my best shot!
Coco Caramel
is the fourth book in
the Chocolate Box Girls series … a story of growing up and finding the courage
to do the right thing, even if the ‘right thing’ turns out to be a little different from
what you first imagined. Curl up with a cool chocolate milkshake and let the adventure
begin …
The Chocolate Box Girls
To Liam, Cal and Caitlin for being generally
awesome, and to Mum, Joan, Andy, Lori and all of my fab family. Thanks to Helen, Sheena,
Fiona, Jessie, Lal and Maggi for the hugs, the chocolate and the pep talks, and to all
of my lovely friends for putting up with me.
Thanks to Ruth my ever-patient PA, to
maths-guru Martyn and to my brilliant agent Darley and his team. Hugs to Alex, my
editor, and Amanda too; also to Sara for the stunning artwork. Huge thanks to Adele,
Jayde, Julia, Emily, Samantha, Helen and all of the creative, clever team at Puffin.
Special thanks to Roy and Jean for letting
me borrow their names for the story. Jean ran the riding school I went to back when I
was nine; I had zero talent at riding, but Roy and Jean have been much loved family
friends all these years. Last but not least, thanks to all my lovely, loyal readers –
YOU make all the hard work worthwhile!
1They say that families are like chocolate –
mostly sweet, with a few nuts. More than a few, in my family’s
case … and they say that I’m the crazy one? Yeah, right.
They also say that life is like a box of
chocolates, and that you can’t expect every one you pick to be exactly the way
you’d like it to be. This seems a little ridiculous to me – and as my mum and my
stepdad Paddy run a chocolate business, well … I think I should know. Better
just to pick out your favourites, even if they don’t come in a fancy box. With a
little planning, you can get what you want, with no nasty surprises. Simple.
I lean back against the tree trunk and rest
my violin across my lap.
I have just finished my practice. I have
only been playing
for a year and because my family is not especially
musical and not especially tolerant of beginner violinists, I am banned from playing
indoors.
Our house, Tanglewood, is a B&B, and Mum
says that my playing might disturb the guests, and that she cannot afford to lose custom
because of it. This shows you the kind of thing I have to put up with because only one
or two guests actually complained, and that was
ages
ago, when I was just
starting out. These days I am lots better and my playing sounds nothing at all like cats
being strangled.
The B&B business is winding down a
little lately now that the chocolate business is taking off, so why anyone cares about
losing one or two guests who are probably tone-deaf anyway is quite beyond me. Still, I
am banished from the house and so I have to practise outside, perched in my favourite
climbing tree, an oak. It is quite a comfortable tree because there is a wide branch
that meets the main trunk almost at a right angle. I have added a cushion from one of
the garden chairs, and if you want to you can pull your legs up and lean back as if you
are sitting in a lumpy old armchair.
Or you can let your legs dangle, the way I am
right now, and look down through the oak leaves at the ground below. It is October, the
end of the half-term break, and the leaves are a hundred shades of gold and burnt orange
and crimson. There is a definite chill in the air, and I am wearing a scarf, a jumper
and a beanie hat. It’s not quite cold enough yet for gloves, but it will be soon.
If you have ever tried playing a violin wearing red and black striped woolly gloves, you
will know that this is not good.
You’d think my family would take pity
on me and let me practise indoors, but there’s no chance of that. Sometimes I
think they are philistines.
My friends at school think my family is
cool, but they don’t know the half of it. Mum and Paddy are always hassled and
busy, juggling B&B stuff with chocolate orders and new truffle ideas and designs for
the handpainted boxes. As for having four sisters … well, that can be
seriously hard work, especially when you are the youngest.
Like I said, my family is mostly nuts.
Honey, my eldest sister, is definitely more
sour than sweet – she looks cute on the outside, but inside she’s pure rebel.
It’s like she has no limits, no rules. She
accidentally caused a
fire back in the summer and tried to run away; a few weeks after, she stayed out all
night and skipped the first day of school. Everyone thought she’d run away again
and the police and social services got involved. Scary stuff. Honey seems to have
quietened down again now, but for how long?