Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Daisy’s Trouble Index
Daisy’s Piggy Banks Quiz
Spot the Difference
Match the Money
Answers
About the Author
Also by Kes Gray
Copyright
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH LIFE
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH ZOOS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH GIANTS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH KITTENS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH CHRISTMAS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH MAGGOTS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH COCONUTS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH BURGLARS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH SPORTS DAY
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH PIGGY BANKS
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 19428 5
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Penguin Random House Company
This ebook edition published 2015
Text copyright © Kes Gray, 2015
Cover illustration copyright © Nick Sharratt, 2015
Inside illustrations copyright © Garry Parsons, 2015
Character concept copyright © Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt, 2015
First Published in Great Britain by Corgi, 2015
The right of Kes Gray, Nick Sharratt and Garry Parsons to be identified as the author and illustrators respectively of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
To Garry, Duncan, Codie and Kyle
The trouble with piggy banks is they’re nearly always empty.
Plus whenever there is anything inside them, it’s never enough to buy the things you really want. If piggy banks were full when people gave them to you, you could just open them up, take the money out and buy all the important things you need to buy, like really squirty things.
Trouble is, piggy banks aren’t full of money when you get them. They are empty. They are full of a big fat nothingness that you can’t spend on squirty things or things that don’t even squirt. Or light up. Or make really cool noises. Which isn’t my fault!
My mum says I was about a year old when I got my piggy bank from my nanny and grampy for Christmas. I didn’t ask for a piggy bank – they just gave it to me. It’s been empty ever since.
There have been times when I put a little bit of money in.
But the trouble with putting money in a piggy bank is, as soon as you put it in, you want to get it out.
Because as soon as you hear your money land inside the piggy’s tummy, you realize you suddenly need it again.
The trouble with suddenly needing your money again is piggy banks are too easy to open.
Because all you have to do is turn them upside down, pull the little round stopper out of their tummy and shake the money out through the hole.
Which makes it really easy to spend and really difficult to save.
If you ask me, piggy banks shouldn’t have little round stoppers in their tummies. If they didn’t, they would be much better for saving actual money in. Trouble is, they do. So I don’t save. Because my piggy bank won’t let me save. Which isn’t my fault either.
Have you ever seen something that you really, really want but can’t have, because you haven’t got any money to buy it with? It happens to me all the time. Like when the ice-cream van drives down my street and the music makes me want a lolly. Or when my mum takes me to the post office and makes me stand by the sweets while we are waiting to buy some stamps. Or when I walk past a toy shop, or a gadget shop, or a toy shop that sells gadgets or a gadget shop that sells toys. Or it could be when my best friend totally gets given the best present in the absolute whole wide world and then brings it round to my house straight away because she absolutely totally can’t wait to show it to me.
That’s what happened to me two Saturday afternoons ago. I was sitting on the lawn in my front garden, training ants, when I suddenly heard the weirdest and coolest noise. It was a bit like an alien crossed with a chipmunk crossed with a gargling frog.
The trouble with aliens crossed with chipmunks crossed with gargling frogs is you’re not exactly sure what to do when you hear one.
But it was OK because when I looked up, I realized it wasn’t an alien or a chipmunk or a gargling frog, it was Gabby. She had come round to play with me . . . wait for it . . . on a brand-new micro-scooter . . . double wait for it . . . that didn’t just do alien-chipmunk-gargling-frog noises while it was scooting . . . triple wait for it . . . it flashed all over like a Christmas tree . . . and . . . fourpoople wait for it . . . squirted actual water just like a water pistol as well!!!!!
I didn’t know about the squirting water bit until I ran over to my front gate for a closer look. That’s when Gabby got me – all down my front!
“SURRENDER OR DROWN!” she laughed, pointing her handlebars at me, pushing the squirter button and then chasing me down my garden path.
Her brand-new micro-scooter was awesome! In fact, it was better than awesome. It was immense! (Immense is everyone’s new word at school. You should use it as well.)
“My dad bought it for me!” said Gabby. “Isn’t it immense?” (Gabby goes to the same school as me.) “He got a promotion at work and he bought it for me as a present because now he earns more money! And he gets a new car!”
I’d seen micro-scooters before. In fact, micro-scooters have been around for ages where I live. But I’d never seen one like this!
Gabby said it was the future of micro-scooters, which meant it was the very latest type of micro-scooter money could buy.
It had three buttons you could push. The first one did the lights. The second one did the sounds. And the third one did the squirts!
The trouble with seeing your best friend on an immense squirting micro-scooter is it makes you absolutely desperate to have an immense squirting micro-scooter of your very own.
So as soon as Gabby had to go home for her dinner, I ran straight into my back garden to ask my mum.
“MUM, MUM!” I shouted, opening the kitchen door and leaping out into my back garden.
“WILL YOU BUY ME A SQUIRTING MICRO-SCOOTER JUST LIKE GABBY’S?”
The trouble with waking my mum up when she’s sunbathing is it’s better to do it quietly rather than shout.
“YOU SHOULD SEE HOW FAR A SQUIRTING MICRO-SCOOTER CAN SQUIRT!” I said. “YOU SHOULD SEE HOW MUCH A SQUIRTING MICRO-SCOOTER LIGHTS UP! PLEASE WILL YOU BUY ME ONE! PLEASE, PLEASE!!!”
At first I thought my mum was going to say yes straight away, but when she took off her sunglasses and pulled a funny face, I began to have my doubts.
