The Great Book Escape

Chapter 2

“We need a plan,” said TopBook. “We’ll form an escape committee.”

 “What’s an escape committee?” asked BottomBook. “It sounds like something that will take a long time, with no guarantee of anything getting done.”

“Committees are very important,” said TopBook. “We can plan and vote, it’s how things should be done.”

 “Well I plan to leave as soon as possible,” said BottomBook. “Everyone else can vote with their feet and follow if they want to.” BottomBook set off towards the door. It tried to squeeze under it, but the gap wasn’t big enough, and all it got was a bit dog-eared... “Maybe we need a plan,” it said, a little sheepishly.

“Excellent idea,” said TopBook.

“We need to reach the door handle,” said BottomBook. Then everyone started talking at once...

“We could stand together in a stack, and the top one could open the door.

 “We could stack all the boxes up and climb up them...”

“Excellent idea,” said TopBook. “See what we can achieve when everyone shares their ideas.”

“We’re going to need as many empty boxes as we can get. Let’s go and wake some books up...” said Bottombook, setting off to the first box. The lid wasn’t sealed, and flapped back easily. “Wakey wakey – we’re all getting out of here,” shouted BottomBook.

 The whole box gave a little jump, as 50 copies of The Monster under The Bed were startled out of a deep sleep.

“Wake up!” ordered TopBook, and a 100 copies of Outnumbered by Cats sprang out of another box, arching their bindings and trying to look bigger than whoever might be shouting at them. Seeing no threat, they each calmed down and stretched out after their long nap.

“Live up to your title,” said a cheeky little book to 100 copies of But I’m Not Sleepy, and sheepdogs came barking out, followed by several flocks of unruly sheep, and a group of little girls with curly hair, who were all called Lucy...

©Anne m Stephenson