Blake Quentin - Quick, Lets Get Out of Here

PUFFIN BOOKS Quick, Lets Get Out of Here Michael Rosen was brought up in London. He originally tried to study medicine before starting to write poems and stories. His poems are about all kinds of things but always important things from chocolate cake to bathtime. michaelrosen.co.uk Quentin Blake is one of Britains most renowned illustrators. Born in the suburbs of London in 1932, he read English at Cambridge before becoming a full-time freelance illustrator. He began his career working for magazines such as The Spectator and Punch. For many years he taught at the Royal College of Art, where he was head of the Illustration Department from 1978 to 1986.

He became the very first Childrens Laureate in 1999 and was made a CBE in 2005. Books by Michael Rosen CENTRALLY HEATED KNICKERS MICHAEL ROSENS BOOK OF VERY SILLY POEMS (Ed) QUICK, LETS GET OUT OF HERE YOU WAIT TILL IM OLDER THAN YOU NO BREATHING IN CLASS (with Korky Paul) Michael ROSEN

Illustrated by Quentin BLAKE PUFFIN For Brian, Harold and remembering ConnieFor Susanna, Joe and Eddie PUFFIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England penguin.com First published by Andre Deutsch Ltd 1983 Published in Puffin Books 1985 Text copyright Michael Rosen, 1983 Illustrations copyright Quentin Blake, 1983 All rights reserved The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-14-195706-7 Once I was round a friends place and just as we were going out he went over to the table and picked a hard lump of chewed-up chewing gum with teeth marks in it off the table top and stuffed it in his mouth. His gran was there and she said, Youre not taking that filthy thing with you, are you? And he said to me, Quick lets get out of here. Nearly every morning my brother would lie in bed, lift his hands up in the air full stretch then close his hands around an invisible bar. Ah, my magic bar, hed say. Then hed heave on the bar, pull himself up, until he was sitting up in bed.

Then hed get up. I said, You havent got a magic bar above your bed. I have, he said. You havent, I said. Dont believe me then, he said. I wont dont worry, I said.

It doesnt make any difference to me if you do or you dont, he said, and went out of the room. Magic bar! I said. Mad. He hasnt got a magic bar. I made sure hed gone downstairs, then I walked over to his bed and waved my hand about in the air above his pillow. I knew it, I said to myself.

Didnt fool me for a moment.

On Sundays, my mum and dad said, Right, weve cooked the dinner, you two can wash it up, and then they went off to the front room. So then we began. First there was the row about who was to wash and who was to dry. My brother said, Youre too slow at washing, I have to hang about waiting for you, so I said, You always wash, its not fair. Hard cheese, he says, Im doing it.

So that was that. Whoever dries has to stack the dishes, he says, so thats me stacking the dishes while hes getting the water ready. Now, quite often we used to have mustard with our Sunday dinner and we didnt have it out of a tube, one of us used to make it with the powder in an eggcup and there was nearly always some left over. Anyway, my brother hed be washing up by now and hes standing there at the sink his hands in the water, Im drying up, and suddenly he goes, Quick, quick quick come over here quick, youll miss it quick, youll miss it. What? I say, What? Quick, quick. In here, in the water.

I say, What? What? Give us your hand, he says and he grabs my hand then my finger, What? I say, That, he says, and he pulls my finger under the water and stuffs it into the eggcup with left-over blobs of old mustard stuck to the bottom. Its all slimey. Oh Horrible. I was an idiot to have believed him. So I go on drying up. Suddenly I feel a little speck of water on my neck.

I look up at the ceiling. Whered that come from? I look at my brother hes grinning all over his big face. Oy, cut that out, He grins again sticks his finger under the water in the bowl and flicks. Plip. Oy, that got me right on my face. So now its my turn Ive got the drying up cloth, havent I? And Ive been practising for ages on the kitchen door handle.

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