Anne Smith is miserable and exhausted (and starving!) with the mumps, thought she's so miserable and exhausted that her parents say she also has the grumps. They have to go to work, so she's stuck at home alone. Lying in bed she imagines that the multi-coloured duvet is a magical world - her knees are mountains and the gap between her legs is a deep valley. She imagines a bolder, more daring version of herself, Emma Hittims (Anne Smith backwards, kind of) who, along with her two friends Spike and Marlene, is on a quest to kill a dragon.
Anne draws their adventures in the magic land that changes shape every time she moves, and until her markers run out is truly happy for the first time since she got sick. But then she has nothing left to draw with, and things get far worse when Enna and her friends really come to life.
This absorbing short story, aimed at young readers, is as strong as Jones' fantasy for older readers, albeit necessarily less complicated. Illustrated by Peter Utton, it's the perfect gift for primary school children who are mildly ill and out of sorts. - Alex
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