What Zola Did on Monday Read online

  About the Book

  Zola loves living on Boomerang Street with her mum and her nonna. Every day of the week is an adventure. But Zola has a problem. No matter how much she tries, she can’t keep out of trouble!

  Collect all seven stories in the series – one for every day of the week. From the bestselling author of Looking for Alibrandi.

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  Imprint

  Read more at Penguin Books Australia

  In memory of my father, Antonino – MM

  For my greatest creations, Willby, Georgie & Tom – DH

  Zola Angelica lives with her mum and her Nonna Rosa.

  They live in a little house, in a little street, in a little suburb, in the middle of a big city.

  You’ve probably seen her house. It’s number twelve Boomerang Street.

  It’s called Bella Rosa.

  During the summertime, the front garden is bursting with red, orange, yellow, white and blue flowers.

  Most days, kids on bikes, and dads with prams, and mums who jog, and the lady who delivers mail, stop to look and smell and touch and smile.

  Zola’s house has a little bedroom especially built for her upstairs. From there, she can see all the houses around them.

  Zola’s younger cousin Alessandro lives in the house behind her.

  Most afternoons, when Alessandro isn’t visiting his father’s house, they play in each other’s backyards.

  Their Nonno Nino once cut a little door into the fence between their homes.

  He wanted Zola and Alessandro to always feel as if they could be together.

  Zola and Alessandro miss their Nonno Nino.

  ‘I hope he can still see us,’ Alessandro says, whenever they do something that reminds them of their grandfather.

  At night, they signal to each other from their bedroom windows with their solar lanterns.

  Zola knows that the word solar has to do with the sun. Every day, she reminds Alessandro to put his lantern outside so the sun can give it power.

  They sway the lantern first to the left and once to the right and then to the left again. Just like Nonno Nino taught them.

  Outside, Zola’s dog, Monty, barks goodnight to Alessandro’s dog, Gigi, who howls at the moon.

  Zola is in class 2B.

  Every morning her mum drops her and Alessandro off at school. Mummy has to rush off to work most days.

  ‘Be kind and have fun,’ she says every time.

  Zola’s school is being rebuilt this year. For now, 2B is across the road.

  The sign there says St Odo’s Community Gardens.

  Zola thinks that’s strange. There are weeds and little else. In no way does it look like a garden.

  ‘Who knows anything about gardening?’ Ms Divis asks while they sit having their crunch and sip under the Moreton Bay fig tree.

  Zara puts up her hand.

  ‘We need seeds,’ she says.

  ‘And soil?’ Mia says.

  ‘Water,’ shouts out Charley.

  ‘Zola would know,’ Antonio says. ‘Her Nonna Rosa has a garden with beautiful roses.

  ‘My mum says it’s the best in the neighbourhood.’

  Everyone in 2B looks at Zola.

  She feels her face getting warm.

  ‘Zola, can you tell us something about this garden?’ Ms Divis says.

  Zola thinks for a moment.

  ‘When we have a shower, Nonna makes us collect the water in a bucket so she can use it on her capsicums.’

  Everyone laughs.

  ‘Yuck!’ says Giovanni.

  ‘Why doesn’t she use a hose?’ Zara asks.

  Zola shrugs.

  Zola doesn’t listen much when her Nonna Rosa talks about the garden.

  ‘Because Zola’s grandmother is trying not to waste water,’ Ms Divis says.

  ‘Can we have a garden?’ Arianna asks.

  ‘With sunflowers!’

  ‘Lavender!’

  ‘Strawberries!’

  Everyone calls out at once.

  But Ms Divis doesn’t mind.

  She just smiles and says, ‘Maybe.’

  Have you guessed that Zola doesn’t like gardening?

  It’s because Nonna Rosa has soooo many rules.

  ‘Don’t touch that hose, Zola!’

  ‘Keep Gigi out of my backyard, Alessandro! She’s a bad influence on Monty.’

  You’ve probably heard about Gigi and Monty. At night they bark at cars. In the morning they bark at the birds. During the day they bark at each other.

  Sometimes they bark because of the planes. Other times they bark because they don’t understand what the other is barking about.

  ‘Too much,’ Nonna Rosa says.

  Alessandro is sad that Nonna won’t let Gigi in their backyard.

  Zola thinks it’s because last spring, Gigi dug her way into Zola’s backyard and ran through the clothes stand.

  Nonna’s underpants were everywhere!

  Even on Monty’s head.

  Monty was Nonno’s dog, so he is always doing the right thing.

  ‘It’s because your nonno trained him,’ Nonna Rosa says.

  Unlike Gigi.

  Nonna is determined to keep Gigi out of her backyard and vegetable patch.

  ‘It’s very special,’ Nonna says.

  Zola doesn’t think so.

  It’s not as if they grow anything exciting in the garden.

  Not juicy strawberries.

  Or crunchy carrots.

  Instead Nonna grows peas (yuck), basil (what?), beans (why?) and eggplant (it looks nothing like an egg!).

  That afternoon, when Zola and Alessandro get home from school, Nonna Rosa asks them to help her in the garden.

  ‘Today we plant the special seeds,’ she says, brushing the dirt from her big flowery gloves.

  ‘Why are they special?’ Alessandro asks.

  ‘Nonno Nino bought them for me at the St Odo’s Sunday picnic years ago,’ she says. ‘He said I had to wait and plant them on the right day.’

  ‘Why is today the right day?’ Zola asks.

  ‘Because I say it is,’ Nonna says. ‘Come on. Then we will start on the tomato plants.’

  ‘Why don’t we just buy tomatoes at the supermarket?’ Zola asks.

  Nonna Rosa gives her a look that says, Stop asking silly questions, Zola.

  Nonna Rosa gives Zola that look often.

  ‘The seeds are in the little green shed, Zola,’ she says. ‘In the blue jar with the yellow lid.’

  Nonna gives Zola another bossy look.

  ‘What is the rule in the shed?’ Nonna asks.

  Another rule!

  Don’t climb the shelves, Zola.

  The blue plastic jar with the yellow lid is on the third shelf. It’s next to the bike pump and Zola’s old ping-pong bat.

  Zola picks up the jar and gives it a shake, watching as the seeds fly all over.

  She unscrews the lid, takes out a seed and rolls it between her fingers before popping it back in.

  Suddenly, Zola sees something on the top shelf. The kite Nonno got her for Christmas last year.

  She stretches out her hand but can’t reach. She’s about to give up when she sees the stepladder.

  Up Zola climbs, but still she needs to reach out, the tips of her fingers almost touching the kite.

  Nearly. Nearly.


  The blue jar slips out of her hand and hits the ground.

  The seeds fly everywhere!

  Zola had forgotten to screw it back on the proper way.

  She scrambles down the stepladder and searches for as many of the seeds as she can find.

  ‘Zola!’

  Zola knows that some of the seeds have scattered under the shelves, but she doesn’t have time to get them.

  Anyway, it’s not as if anyone has ever grown tomatoes under a shelf in an old shed before.

  When Nonna Rosa calls out to her again, Zola screws on the lid and runs outside.

  The next day in class, Ms Divis puts a word on the board.

  Or-gan-ic.

  ‘What does it mean?’ she asks.

  Sophia is always the quickest hand in the class.

  ‘It’s when a farmer grows our food without spraying for bugs.’

  Ms Divis smiles. She likes Sophia’s answer. ‘We can all be farmers,’ Ms Divis says.

  Zola’s Nonna Rosa knows about or-gan-ic growing.

  She says that there are other ways to keep snails and slugs and their silvery slime away. Sometimes Nonna puts eggshells in her garden to keep out the creepy-crawlies.

  ‘This is what St Odo’s garden looked like when I was a little girl,’ Ms Divis says, showing them photos on the big screen.

  It’s the most beautiful garden Zola has ever seen. She knows most of the flowers because secretly they’re her favourites.

  They smell better than any others.

  Lavender. Roses. Honeysuckle. Frangipanis. Lemon myrtle.

  There are also bushes and plants in square beds above the ground.

  Zola likes the wooden signs, painted in purples and yellows, pitched into the soil.

  One says, Herbs.

  Another says, Onions.

  ‘When I was a little girl, it took a lot of hard work to get the garden to look like the one in these photos,’ Ms Divis says.

  ‘Everyone helped. Mums. Dads. Families and friends. We were a community. During summer, we celebrated with a picnic every first Sunday of the month.’

  Zola can see the old community garden from where she sits.

  Would anyone picnic there today with their family?

  ‘How about all of you try to find a family photo of the St Odo Sunday picnics?’ Ms Divis says. ‘We can peg them across the room and try to imagine what it was like here before you were born.’

  By the time Zola gets home, she forgets about searching for photos.

  Nonna Rosa lets her play in Alessandro’s backyard where he has a trampoline. Every time they jump high, they have to call out what they see.

  ‘Two kids kicking a soccer ball!’ Zola shouts.

  A new family has recently moved into ten Boomerang Street. Today is the first glimpse Zola has had of the boy and girl who live there.

  Alessandro jumps high.

  ‘Leo washing his dog!’

  Leo is Zola’s other neighbour from number fourteen. He washes his dog Maggie with his mums every Monday. Maggie doesn’t want to be washed. She keeps on stepping out of the tub and shaking water out of her fur to splash Leo in the face.

  Zola leaps in the air again. This time she looks into her own backyard.

  ‘Oh no!’ she shouts.

  ‘What?’ Alessandro asks.

  It’s his turn to jump next.

  ‘Oh no,’ he says.

  Gigi is in Nonna Rosa’s garden!

  That can only mean one thing.

  Zola has left the gate open.

  In Zola’s backyard, Gigi is celebrating in the vegetable garden.

  She’s in the exact spot Nonna planted the special seeds earlier that week!

  Zola can see Gigi digging and digging and digging.

  Her little head bobs up and down as she digs even more.

  Eggshells are everywhere!

  Alessandro tries to catch Gigi, but stomps all over the tomato bed himself.

  Zola runs for the hose to wash away the soil that is now all over the trellis. Instead, the water washes away the seeds inside the garden bed.

  When Gigi sees Zola, she jumps onto her with excitement. The hose flies out of Zola’s hand. It looks like a snake, water flying everywhere.

  It splashes mud all over the clean clothes on the washing line.

  Monty watches on quietly. He’s a clever dog and doesn’t want to get into trouble.

  Monty also doesn’t want to get dirty because he’s just had a wash and blow-dry.

  He’s wearing a new bow tie around his collar.

  In a moment, Zola hears the sound of Nonna Rosa opening the screen door. Nonna has a tray of triangle pastries and frozen juice cups for Alessandro and Zola.

  Poor Nonna. She looks so shocked, she almost drops the tray. She can’t believe what she is seeing.

  Her vegetable garden is ruined.

  Her clean bedsheets are splattered with mud.

  But worst of all, the special seeds Nonno bought her are washed away.

  The sad look on Nonna’s face gives Zola a tummy ache.

  On Tuesday, Ms Divis decorates the classroom with photographs of the St Odo Sunday picnics.

  Zola can see cake stalls and a sausage sizzle and fairy floss. In the photos, everyone seems to be having fun.

  Suddenly, Zola sees something that surprises her. It’s a photo of her grandparents.

  Nonna looks different because she’s laughing at something Nonno Nino is saying.

  Zola hasn’t seen Nonna laugh for a long time. She wonders if this was the day that Nonno Nino bought the seeds.

  But at home, Nonna Rosa doesn’t want to talk about the seeds anymore.

  ‘No more garden,’ she says.

  ‘Maybe I can plant some other seeds for her?’ Zola says while Mummy is brushing the knots out of Zola’s hair.

  ‘I think Nonna is sad because the special seeds are lost forever.’

  Mummy kisses Zola.

  ‘There’s nothing you can do now, Zola. You just need to be a good girl and listen to others.’

  That night, while Zola holds up her lantern to the window for Alessandro, it shines light on the little green shed. Suddenly, Zola has the best idea!

  Zola doesn’t climb the stepladder the next day when she visits the little green shed. Nor does she look at the kite up high. Or touch any of her old toys.

  Instead, she lies down on the ground and gathers the special seeds with her ruler. The ones that had slipped under the shelves last week.

  That night in the shower, Zola makes sure she places the bucket in the right spot to collect water.

  The next morning, she plants most of the special seeds, patting them down the way she’s seen Nonna do so many times.

  She collects the eggshells from the bin and lays them around the soil, to keep the snails and slugs away.

  For weeks, Zola waits.

  Until finally, she sees the tiniest shoot.

  ‘Nonna Rosa!’ she calls out. ‘Come and see!’

  Today, Nonna Rosa walks Zola and Alessandro to school.

  Once they are in her classroom, Zola takes Nonna’s hand and shows her the St Odo’s picnic photo display.

  Ms Divis introduces herself and they talk.

  After they’ve talked some more, Zola can see that Nonna is laughing and nodding. Ms Divis has said something to make her happy.

  So guess what Zola and Alessandro do every Monday? They work alongside Nonna Rosa on the organic garden at St Odo’s.

  Every Monday someone new joins them, until they have what Ms Divis calls ‘a community’.

  Zola makes sure that the first seed she plants is one of Nonno Nino’s special ones. So that every day she can look out her classroom window and watch it grow.

  It reminds Zola of Nonno Nino, and always makes her feel happy inside.

  First, cut a tomato in half, then squeeze the pulp onto a paper towel and spread the seeds around so that they are spaced apart on the towel. Let them dry in a warm sunny place for a f
ew weeks. A window sill is perfect.

  Once they are dry, cut the paper towel into squares with a few seeds on each piece and store in a jar.

  When you’re ready to sow the seeds, sow each piece of paper towel in a pot and cover with soil.

  Keep the pots in a sheltered sunny place, watering every day until you see the shoots form. Window sills are great for this, too.

  When your seedling is looking sturdy and the weather is getting warmer outside, it’s time to plant your seedling in a larger pot or straight into the garden.

  Make sure you plant it in a spot with lots of compost added to the soil and plenty of sun each day. Before you know it, you will be harvesting your very own tomatoes, just like Zola.

  Melina Marchetta is the bestselling author of ten novels, which range from beloved young adult fiction and fantasy through to contemporary and crime fiction, and a book for younger readers. Her much-loved Australian classic Looking for Alibrandi was made into an award-winning film. She lives in Sydney with her daughter and her dog in a neighbourhood very much like Zola’s.

  Deb Hudson is passionate about drawing bright, happy and colourful images that evoke emotion and thought in the viewer – the dreamy, joy and wonder-filled moments of the everyday. She has been drawing and creating since she was a little girl and lives in the fabulous city of Melbourne with her husband, three kids, energetic border collie and a bright yellow canary.