SOPHIE KIRTLEY ELLAN RANKIN
In memory of Granny & Poppa, with love. S.K.
Sophie Kirtley grew up in Northern Ireland, where she spent her childhood climbing on hay bales, rolling down sand dunes and leaping the raw Atlantic waves. She now lives in Wiltshire with her husband, three children and their mini-menagerie of pets and wild things. A former teacher, Sophie has also worked in theatre, in a bookshop and in a tiny pub where folk tell fairytales by candlelight. A prize-winning poet, she is also a children’s fiction writer. Her popular novels for young readers, The Wild Way Home, The Way to Impossible Island and The Haunting of Fortune Farm are published by Bloomsbury.
To Mum and Dad, thank you for everything. E.R.
Ellan Rankin has received many accolades for her illustration work, including being shortlisted for Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2024, winning the Sebastian Walker Prize for Picture Books 2020, the Carmelite Prize 2020, and Picture This 2020. Her first book as authorillustrator is The Secret Elephant, a heartfelt, beautifully illustrated story of a special friendship between a baby elephant and her keeper, based on the incredible true story of Denise Weston Austin at Belfast Zoo.
This edition first published 2025 by The O’Brien Press Ltd, 12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, D06 HD27, Ireland. Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777
E-mail: books@obrien.ie
Website: obrien.ie
First published in hardback 2021 The O’Brien Press is a member of Publishing Ireland.
ISBN: 978-1-78849-514-1
Text © Sophie Kirtley 2021
Illustrations © Ellan Rankin 2021
The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted. Typesetting, layout, design © The O’Brien Press 2025
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including for text and data mining, training artificial intelligence systems, photocopying, recording or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Printed and bound by Hussar Books. The paper in this book is produced using pulp from managed forests.
Published in
Our Place Wee
SOPHIE KIRTLEY ELLAN RANKIN
Emily loves going to Granda’s house.
Every Saturday afternoon, they sit in their wee place under the apple tree at the bottom of the garden.
Emily pours Granda a nice cup of tea and he shows her a photo from his old red book.
‘Who’s that wee fella?’ Emily always asks. ‘That’s me,’ Granda says, ‘planting this here tree with my granda!’
But one particular Saturday was NOT a happy one. Emily had been at the park with her best friend Zak. He wanted to play Wild Wolves. Emily wanted to play Deadly Dinos.
‘Wolves are best!’ said Zak.
‘HOOWWWWLLL! ’
‘No, dinosaurs are better!’ said Emily.
‘ROOAARRRRR!’
And that’s when Emily and Zak fell out.
Emily was so cross she decided not to speak to Zak. Ever again.
When Emily got to Granda’s house, she was still raging. Even when he gave her one of his fifteens, it didn’t sweeten her day.
‘What’s the matter, Emily?’ asked Granda.
Emily sniffed. ‘Zak is NOT my best friend anymore,’ she said.
Granda gave Emily a big tight hug.
‘I was forever falling out with my sister, Rosie, back when we were wee,’ he said. ‘But we’d soon make up and go on adventures.’
‘What kind of adventures?’ asked Emily.
‘Big ones!’ said Granda, grabbing hold of his book.
Granda turned the pages and Emily peered at the pictures.
She pointed to a picture of Granda and Rosie playing acrobats on the beach.
‘I bet you can’t still do handstands like that!’ Emily teased.
‘You cheeky article!’ said Granda, tickling her.
‘Here, I know what’ll cheer you up.
Let’s go on an adventure!
Just like I used to do with Rosie.’
‘Where are we going to, Granda?’ asked Emily.
‘Just for a wee dander . . .’ Granda winked. Emily skipped along the busy city streets, gazing up at the buildings, old and new, painted and plain.
They said hello to the swirly girl with the hoop and stopped to ride on the huge blue fish.
Granda stared to the top of the two yellow cranes.
‘When I was wee I’m sure those cranes were taller,’ he said, pointing to a picture of him and Rosie at the docks.
‘They’re ENORMOUS!’ said Emily.
‘But I can think of somewhere even bigger we could go!’ said Granda, with a smile.
Emily watched the city shrink away as Granda drove them out towards the glens.
There, they wandered through a whispering forest until they reached a roaring waterfall.
‘Rosie and I used to splash here when we were wee,’ he said, pointing to a picture. ‘Sometimes I wish I could be wee again,’ he sighed.
‘Maybe you can!’ said Emily. ‘Show me somewhere else you used to go. Somewhere even bigger!’
Granda drove them along the wiggly coast to an old crumbling castle on a cliff.
‘We used to play chasies here,’ said Granda.
‘I love playing chasies . . . with Zak,’ said Emily. Suddenly, she missed her best friend so much.
‘I know that feeling,’ said Granda, putting his arm around her. ‘I miss Rosie. Every day.’ Emily cuddled Granda extra tight.
‘Where did you and Rosie go to for your biggest adventure of all?’ she asked. Granda’s eyes shone. ‘I’ll show you!’ he said.
They whizzed right around the bay to where the wind and the waves were wildest. Emily and Granda hopped and clambered, up and down, from stone to stone to stone.
