Nathalia Buttface and the Totally Embarrassing Bridesmaid Disaster. Nigel Smith

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Название Nathalia Buttface and the Totally Embarrassing Bridesmaid Disaster
Автор произведения Nigel Smith
Жанр Детская проза
Серия
Издательство Детская проза
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780008167103



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cover

       Copyright

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2016

      HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. HarperCollinsPublishers, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

      The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is

      www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Nathalia Buttface and the Totally Embarrassing Bridesmaid Disaster Text copyright © Nigel Smith, 2016 Illustrations © Sarah Horne, 2016

      Nigel Smith and Sarah Horne assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage 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: 9780008167097

       Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780008167103

       Version: 2016-02-15

       To Michèle, for pretending I’m not as embarrassing as Dad.

       And thank you to Ruth, for the awesome idea, the amazing editing and the annoying nagging about finishing the flipping book.

       NS

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      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

       Dedication

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

       Chapter Nineteen

       Chapter Twenty

       Chapter Twenty-One

       Chapter Twenty-Two

       Chapter Twenty-Three

       Chapter Twenty-Four

       Chapter Twenty-Five

       Chapter Twenty-Six

       Chapter Twenty-Seven

       Chapter Twenty-Eight

       Chapter Twenty-Nine

       Read more from Nathalia Buttface

       About the Author

       Rave Reviews for Nathalia Buttface

       About the Publisher

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      “Dad, I’m not coming out of the changing rooms and I’m not even joking and this wedding is utter pants and I hardly even know my lame cousin and bridesmaids are all rank and I LOOK TOTALLY STUPID and anyway I’m not doing it,” said Nat.

      Ever so loudly.

      Dad looked at the sour-faced lady who ran DREAM BRIDES LTD – a hot and cramped little dress shop above a newsagents on the high street. He gave her what he hoped was a charming smile. She wasn’t charmed one little bit. Her face, which was stony to begin with, hardened to granite.

      “She doesn’t have to shout,” said the lady, who was called Dolly Crumble and who was almost lost among the sickly pink and curdled cream and violently violet fluffy, frilly frocks that filled her little boutique.

      “That’s not shouting,” said Dad, whose voice was muffled by some kind of purple velvet thing that was apparently a really important bit of a bridesmaid outfit and seemed to be attacking him. “When she was a baby and was hungry or had wet herself, THEN she shouted. You should have heard it.”

      “Shuddup, Dad,” shouted Nat from the changing room. Billowing pink material surrounded her. It looked like she was being consumed by a possessed blancmange.

      Dad didn’t shuddup.

      “When baby Nathalia started yelling in the car, people thought a fire engine was going past. It was great – everyone else on the road got out of the way. I lost count of how many cars drove into lamp posts.”

      “Nobody cares, Dad,” shouted Nat.

      “Are you ready to come out yet?” asked Dolly Crumble. “Only you’ve been in there twenty minutes and this is the SIXTH Perfect Fairy Princess dress you have tried on.”

      “That’s because they’re all horrible,” wailed Nat. “They all look like vomit.”

      “Such language,” said the dressmaker, glaring at Dad as if he was to blame. “I hope she’s going to be a better behaved young lady on the big day.” She sniffed in a superior way and hoisted up her enormous bosom.

      “A wedding is the most precious day in any woman’s life. It is, you might say, the best moment of her entire life.”

      “Rubbish,” said Nat. “There’s tons of things better than a soppy wedding. There’s getting to number one in the charts or winning Celebrity All-Star Cook-Off or climbing Mount Everest or getting an Oscar or a Nobel Prize or an Olympic medal or going into space or—”

      “Yes, well, not many girls will do those things,” interrupted Dolly Crumble, “but all girls can get married.”

      “If everyone can do it, that doesn’t make it very special then, does it?” argued Nat. There was a stony silence, like a big, gaping dark hole. Dad jumped into it. With both feet.

      “Tell us about YOUR wedding day,” he said. “If I’ve learned one thing in the last few weeks it’s how much women like to talk about