The Indian in the Cupboard (Essential Modern Classics, Book 1)

by Lynne Reid Banks

  The basket game ‘Monshimunh’

  ˜ for four or more players ˜

  You will need:

  One shallow basket

  Five flat stones

  Paint (two colours)

  Forty straws

  Here’s what to do:

  Paint a cross on one side of two stones

  Paint a round circle on one side of the remaining three stones

  Here’s how to score:

  Five unmarked sides...............................................................take one straw

  Two circles............................................................................take two straws

  Two circles and two crosses................................................take three straws

  Three circles and two blank sides.........................................take four straws

  Two crosses, one circle and two blank sides.......................take eight straws

  Here’s how to play:

  Place the five stones in the basket

  Player one gently tosses the stones, catching them in the basket

  Place the basket on the floor and see which way up the stones have landed

  If the stones match any of the combinations above, take the number of straws indicated

  The first to get eight straws is the winner

  * * *

  FACT

  The Native Americans invented the game lacrosse.

  * * *

  Dream-catchers

  Dream-catchers are a circle or teardrop of bent wood, measuring a few inches from side to side, with sinew string tied across the shape and a feather hung from the middle. Made originally by the Native American Ojibway tribe, dream-catchers are still used today to protect children from nightmares.

  Make your own shield

  Cut the centre out of a paper plate; you will be left with an ‘O’ shape

  Punch holes at regular intervals around the rim of the ‘O’

  Get a length of string and, securing it with a knot through the first hole, weave it from side to side, through the holes

  You can thread beads on to the string as you go, then secure the end of the string with a knot when you have finished

  Glue or tape feathers to the bottom of the dream-catcher

  Make a loop of string and attach it to the top of the dream-catcher, so that you can hang it up

  Sweet dreams!

  * * *

  FACT

  Native Americans believe that good dreams slide down the feathers and into the person sleeping below.

  * * *

  What If…

  If you could bring any plastic figure to life, what would it be and why?

  Would you share your secret with anyone? Who?

  Where would you take your miniature friend: the park, to school, to the shops?

  If you became a minuscule figure, like Little Bull, where in the world would you like to go: America, China, Australia?

  Which part of history would you like to visit: the Wild West, Victorian London or maybe one hundred years in the future?

  What would you take with you: food, a camera?

  Would you want to go back home after your adventure…?

  Find Out More

  For Native American collections big and small, visit these museums, or log on to these websites:

  The British Museum, London:

  www.britishmuseum.org

  The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford:

  www.prm.ox.ac.uk

  The Ulster Museum, Ulster:

  www.ulstermuseum.org.uk

  Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, Hastings:

  www.hmag.org.uk

  Native Languages of the Americas: www.native-languages.org/kids.htm

  If you like books about North American Indians, why not read more by Lynne Reid Banks?

  The Return of the Indian

  The Mystery of the Cupboard

  Secret of the Indian

  The Key to the Indian

  Or find these books at your local library

  Dog People: Native Dog Stories Joseph Bruchac

  North American Indian (DK eyewitness books) David Hamilton Murdoch

  If you liked the size difference between Little Bull and Omri, why not read…

  Power of Three Diana Wynne Jones

  The Borrowers Mary Norton

  Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift

  Mistress Masham’s Repose T.H. White

  About the Author

  LYNNE REID BANKS was born in London in 1929. Her father was a GP and her mother had been a well-known actress. Aged ten when the Second World War began, she was evacuated to Canada with her mother and cousin, where she spent the war in Saskatoon, a small prairie town. When the family was reunited in 1945 Lynne had to learn secretarial skills before she was allowed to study for the stage. After acting for five years, her father died, and she went over to journalism, eventually becoming one of the first women reporters on British TV in 1955. Seven years later, shortly after the publication of her first novel, she emigrated to Israel where she married and lived throughout the 1960s, teaching, writing and having three sons.

  She returned to the UK with her family in 1971 and has lived ever since in London and, more recently, Dorset, writing full-time, travelling and giving talks. She particularly likes going into schools abroad as a volunteer teacher, and has done so in India, Israel, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Navajoland in Arizona, Bulgaria and Hungary.

  Also by the Author

  Other titles in Lynne Reid Banks’

  famous adventures of Omri and Little Bull

  Return of the Indian

  The Secret of the Indian

  The Mystery of the Cupboard

  The Key to the Indian

  Also by Lynne Reid Banks

  The Dungeon

  Stealing Stacey

  Angela and Diabola

  Tiger Tiger

  Harry the Poisonous Centipede

  Harry the Poisonous Centipede’s Big Adventure

  Harry the Poisonous Centipede Goes to Sea

  Bad Cat, Good Cat

  Copyright

  First published in Great Britain by J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd 1981

  First published by HarperCollins 1988

  This Essential Modern Classic edition published by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2009

  HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

  77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

  The HarperCollins website address is

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  Text copyright © Lynne Reid Banks 1981

  Illustrations copyright © Piers Sanford 1999

  Cover photographs © Toys/shutterstock

  © Background Gary S Chapman/Getty Images

  Note from the author copyright © 2000 Lynne Reid Banks

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Source ISBN: 9780007309955

  Ebook Edition © APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780007379798

  Version 1

  HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this e-book has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

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