Jeremy and his parents have moved to a new house which should be terrific but it has cost so much money his mother and father now say no to everything - no pets and no football boots. Living next door is Jeremy's cousin Kate. She has goats, dogs, cats and even a tortoise. She offers Jeremy a tortoise egg and he puts it in the warm compost bin. Clearly this egg is not going to hatch into a tortoise. It is so very different from the other eggs. Sure enough a huge and hungry creature emerges a few days later. Jeremy and Kate name him Ulp after the noise he makes. The friends do have to keep Ulp hidden but that is not their most pressing problem. Jeremy and Kate need money and they need it urgently so they decide to offer to complete odd jobs around their neighbourhood. Washing cars, clearing gutters, mowing lawns and washing dogs these children learn a lot about making money and they discover there are some traps. One of the best scenes is when they work long and hard to wash and dry two huge shaggy pedigree dogs only to see them both roll in the mud when they take them for a walk to the park.
Some jobs do go well but it all seems to be taking a long time to raise enough money for bike repairs and football boots. Both kids have over-looked the man next door who has offered $30 to anyone who will clear out his yard. As a reader we know about this offer but it takes until page 61 of 82 pages for the children to finally remember. Here is a quote from page 20:
"He must have years of accumulated rubbish around his house and yard. Even my dad reckons his place is a disgrace! He says Professor Fogey has offered thirty dollars to anyone who can clean it up, but nobody's game to take it on."
Ulp is an eating machine (rather like the Iron Man in the famous book by Ted Hughes) and so it is easy to clear up the mess in a day. Now they have their money and can pay for the things they need. But what about Ulp - it is now impossible to keep him in the compost bin. Luckily there is a tip or a dump in their town and that seems to be the perfect new home for Ulp. Is he a dinosaur? Is he a giant lizard? Readers are left to make their own guess.
I really like the line drawing illustrations in this book by Sharon Thompson. I looked her up on Trove and found she illustrated a few titles that I remember having in previous school libraries - The Farmyard cat; A glassful of Giggles; and The Judas Donkey by Errol Broome. The art in The Secret in the Compost Bin reminded me of the art in Thing by Robin Klein illustrated by Alison Lester.
The Secret in the Compost Bin is another little old out of print book I borrowed this week from a school library. It was purchased for this library in 2007 (helpfully they record date of purchase and price on all their books). In this library they continue to use date due slips which make it easy to see how often a book is borrowed. Sadly this sweet little story has only been borrowed three times - 2008, 2014 and 2018. The paper, as often happens with Puffin/Penguin titles has turned yellow and the print size is very small so sadly it seems this book will now be weeded.
There is an interesting link between this book - The Secret in the Compost Bin - and The Big Brass Key by Ruth Park which is the book I talked about yesterday. In both books the children have moved to a new house and in both books the children really want a pet but the parents say no - too expensive. There is nothing dated about this book from 1990 so I think it could easily be reprinted only the money or cost of things and pocket money might need updating. Actually I have made an amazing discovery. This book has been reprinted [9798215044674] with a new cover. Looks like someone (perhaps Margaret Pearce) might have paid to have the book reprinted. In any case I am not familiar with the publisher Writers Exchange.
The way Kate and Jeremy take on so many odd jobs to raise money reminded me of Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen.
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