Hello God (9 page)
Authors: Moya Simons
I went to the children’s hospital and read the end of Stephanie’s story to her friends in the ward.
Molly came in to listen, this time dressed as a porcupine, and so did the parents and nurses and a doctor.
The boy had taken the small cat away on a grand sailing ship that lifted up its sails into the sky and disappeared into the vast sea of stars.
How can such a thing happen in the Canadian wilderness? That’s not for us to know.
The cat understood. She would wander the universe with the boy and together they would sail the stars, until one day they would land on some wonderful uncharted island deep in the oceans of space.
There, within a jungle, they would find a special place. They would climb the rope ladder up to a tree house, and inside they would be safe from harm. There would always be books on shelves and parrots in nearby trees, and there would be a broom to keep leaves out of the tree house. The rain that fell outside would be gentle and there’d be rainbows after the rain. Sometimes double rainbows.
Mum and Dad went through a million names. Dad had his heart set on Roberta and Mum wouldn’t agree to it. And Dad said that Mum’s favourite name, Amber, was awful.
So, in the end, they came to me. At least that’s what they told me. They asked me to help them out. Could I think of a name for our baby girl?
We called our baby Stephanie.
M
OYA
S
IMONS
has been writing for children for fourteen years. She has been shortlisted in the Young Australian Best Book Awards, and in the West Australian Young Readers Book Awards. She writes mainly for eight- to twelve-year-olds, and her books are concerned with science fiction and family life. Moya’s books have been published in the USA, throughout Europe and Taiwan.
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Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
, Australia
First published in Australia in 2007
This edition published 2010
by HarperCollins
Publishers
Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Moya Simons 2007
Illustrations copyright © Lisa Coutts 2007
The right of Moya Simons to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968
, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollins
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Simons, Moya.
Hello God,
For children aged 10+.
ISBN 13: 978 0 7322 8534 0 (pbk.).
ISBN 10: 0 7322 8534 8. (pbk.)
ISBN 978 0 7304 4417 6 (epub)
I. Coutts, Lisa. II. Title.
A823.3
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