Emmie’s hand shot into the air. ‘For growing spells you need the burp of a toad, the scales of a snake, the breath of a dragon, and the leaf of a ding dong flower,’ said Emmie.

‘My Emmy claws, you are a natural!’ exclaimed Mrs. Spindlewick.

Emmy grinned. She looked over at me and sneered.

Back home I dumped my bag onto my bed and belly flopped onto the warm, soft, comforting blankets. I thought about today how Emmy had sneered at me, and how embarrassed I had felt not knowing the ingredients of a growing spell.

I had a long, restful sleep, and in the morning, I found that it was spiders on toast, my favourite food ever!

'Tick tock tick tock, round goes the cuckoo clock,' I sang for I had nothing else to do. It was Saturday morning, and my brain was completely out of ideas. I decided to practice spells.

I walked over to dad's study and sat down. I picked a clean cauldron and my wand, then brought down a very old and dusty book of spells. 'Growing spells. Growing spells.' I murmured as I flicked through the book. Ha! Finally, I found it.

Step one, empty the frog burps into the cauldron. I opened the bottle and poured in the whole lot. Step two, empty the snake scales. Step 3, Empty the dragon breath into the pot. Finally, I took the leaf of the ding dong flour and shook it in.

Just then a dong dong boom startled me out of my chair. A cloud of smoke rose from the cauldron, and everything turned black.