The Umbrella was like a flower, a great blue flower that had sprung up on the dry brown hillside.’In exchange for her lucky leopard’s claw pendant, Binya acquires a beautiful blue umbrella that makes her the envy of everyone in her village, especially Ram Bharosa, the shop-keeper. Ruskin Bond’s short and humorous novella, set in the picturesque hills of Garhwal, perfectly captures life in a village, where both heroism and redemption can be found.

Angela is always having fiendish ideas that get Charlie into trouble. Like the time they hijack the milkman’s float, and lock Miss Bridge in the gym shed, and when Angela pretends to kidnap a baby. But in the end Charlie gets her own back with a vengeance.