Pepper Masalah and the Giant Bird
By (Author) Rosanne Hawke
Illustrated by Jasmine Berry
Wombat Books
Wombat Books
1st November 2023
Australia
Children
Fiction
Childrens / Teenage fiction: Action and adventure stories
Childrens / Teenage fiction: Family and home stories
Paperback
88
Width 129mm, Height 198mm
Pepper Masalah and the Flying Carpet by Rosanne Hawke is a series of five or more chapter story books featuring an adventurous black cat called Pepper Masalah, and her nine-year-old friend, Zamir. Pepper Masalah lives with Zamir and his family on an olive farm in Australia. Zams grandmother is from the old country (Kashmir) and she brought with her an ancient carpet. She believes the carpet can fly, and that it will try to find its previous master in Kashmir. It hasnt flown for hundreds of years so it is shaky at first, and cant find its bearings. It lands in many countries on the way to Kashmir, where Pepper Masalah and Zamir have dangerous but exciting adventures. In the 3rd book in this series, Pepper Masalah and the Giant Bird, the ancient carpet is closer to finding Kashmir and flies over Afghanistan. A huge bird (the Simurgh from Persian folklore) whisks Pepper off the carpet and up to her nest of eggs, high on a mountain. The carpet is disorientated without Pepper and disappears after Zam falls off. Zam makes the long climb to save Pepper before she becomes food for the birds huge chicks. Pepper makes a friend in the nest, a girl called Dana. A cobra comes to eat the eggs. Pepper manages to save the eggs by telling the cobra riddles and winning the riddle game. But Pepper and Zam still need to find the carpet in order to get home to Australia.
Rosanne Hawke is an award-winning Australian author of over 30 books for children and YA. She has been a teacher, an aid worker in Pakistan & the UAE for 10 years, and a lecturer in Creative Writing. Her novels have been set in Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Australia and Cornwall. She loves cats. Jasmine Berry grew up in beautiful Albany, Western Australia. She has been drawing to impress the other kids, since she was old enough to hold a colouring pencil. But lately, she crafts these exciting and magical worlds with her computer, iPad and many coffees. She lives in Perth with her husband and with two adorable cats, and a rather large collection of succulents.