The Fintastic Diary of Darcy Dolphin

First published in paperback in Great Britain 2017

by Egmont UK Limited

The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

Text copyright © 2017 Sam Watkins

Illustrations copyright © 2017 Vicky Barker

The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

First e-book edition 2017

ISBN 978 1 4052 8422 6

Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1756 4

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Week 1

My Perfect Pet

Week 2

My Dream Role

Week 3

The Rumbling Reef Mystery

DIVE INTO DARCY’S UNDERWATER WORLD!

MEET THE CHARACTERS

HOW TO DRAW A DOLPHIN

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Back series promotional page

(That means ‘hello’ in Dolphinese, in case whoever is reading this is not a dolphin.) Yesterday was my birthday and my aunt Ditzy gave me this book. She said it is a diary.

I’ve never had a diary so I didn’t really know what to write in it. Aunt Ditzy wrote a recipe book called Super Seaweed Smoothies, so she is a proper real-life author. I don’t think anyone has actually bought it yet, but anyway she knows loads about writing and books and stuff. I asked her what you should write in a diary and she said, ‘Oh, you know, feelings, that sort of thing.’ I said I would try to write down at least one feeling a day.

So here goes – my first diary! Does that make me a proper author too, I wonder? I hope some interesting things happen this week. I can’t write ‘Went to school, had fish fingers for tea’ every day, can I? That would make pretty boring reading. But I’m sure I’ll have loads of exciting stuff to write about – I can just feel it in the water . . .

WEEK 1:

My Perfect Pet

MONKFISHDAY

So this morning I was feeling excited!

This is because in assembly Mr Snapper, the head teacher, announced that there is going to be a pet show on Salmonsday! There will be loads of different competitions for different skills, so if your pet is super-good at something you can enter them into that competition and maybe win a prize!

Our teacher, Miss Carp, stuck a big poster up on the classroom wall. Everyone crowded round to have a look. It was covered in stars and in big sparkly letters it said ‘PETS FACTOR’. Underneath that was a list of all the competitions. My friend Ozzie Octopus said that he will enter Cuke, his pet sea cucumber, in the ‘Animal or Vegetable?’ game. And Myrtle Turtle said she’d put Squishy, her vampire squid, in for the Talent Show. Squishy can turn herself completely inside out, which I think is quite talented.

I looked at the poster. ‘Pet Fancy Dress – that sounds fun! I’m going to sign up for that one,’ I said.

‘But Darcy, you haven’t got a pet,’ Myrtle said.

‘I’ll ask Mum tonight if I can get one. She’s bound to say yes.’

So earlier this evening I told Mum all about the pet show and how I really wanted a pet.

Mum gave me her ☹ face and said, ‘Darcy we’ve talked about this before and you know how I feel. Pets are too much trouble and blah blah blah blah blah . . . anyway, the answer is NO.’

I think she might be thinking about it.

Hmmph. Everyone has a pet except me. It’s not fair.

Flippering fishsticks, I didn’t realise you could have so many feelings in one day!

TUNASDAY

Last night I couldn’t sleep thinking about how I could persuade Mum to let me have a pet. Then – click! I had a brainwave. Mum’s always moaning she’s got too much to do. If I was really, really helpful she might let me have a pet as a reward!

I got up really early so I could get as much helping done as possible. I even made a chart in case I needed proof of my helpfulness to show Mum (she can be very forgetful sometimes).

HELPFULNESS CHART

Morning:

5 am: Took Mum and Dad prawnflakes in bed. Dad groaned and Mum rolled over but I know they were secretly pleased.

5.30 am: Vacuumed the floor. Not a huge success. The vacfish got too full up and, well . . . it exploded!

6.30 am: Tidied the toy cave and got rid of loads of old toys. My little brother, Diddy, screamed his lungs out until I explained that it’s for a good cause. Then he sulked in a corner all day refusing to eat.

7 am: Weeded the vegetable patch. I might have accidentally weeded some of Dad’s prize sea lettuces, but I don’t think he’ll notice.

Afternoon:

4 pm: Helped Mum do the shopping. Mum never buys enough Jiggling Jellies, so I helped her by putting every bag on the shelf into the basket. Weirdly, Mum didn’t seem to find that very helpful.

5 pm: Made dinner. I did fish fingers and mushy seaweed with Jiggling Jellies on top. Dad said he wasn’t hungry, but I think he was impressed with my creative cookery skills.

6 pm: Washed up. Broke one or maybe several things. Well, we didn’t need all those dishes, anyway. Dad’s always moaning that there’s too much washing up.

After dinner I said I would make Mum a nice cup of sea. She squeaked.

‘NO! I mean, no thank you, Darcy.’

I was a bit hurt. ‘But Mum . . . I thought if I was really helpful you might let me . . . um . . . have a pet?’

‘A pet? I said yesterday –’

‘Please? I’ll be really good! I’ll help all week! I’ll make dinner every day and I’ll do the washing . . . and the ironing . . . and . . .’

Mum’s fins started twitching. ‘OKAY! Okay – you can get a pet. A small one. Just, please, that’s enough helping for today, Darcy!’

Dad looked as if he wanted to say something, but he had a mouthful of prawnflakes (weird – I thought he said he wasn’t hungry?). But it didn’t matter, because Mum said yes! Now I can’t sleep again – thinking about all the adventures I’m going to have with my new pet!

Feeling of the Day: ECSTATIC.

WHALESDAY

Mum said she would take me to the pet shop after school, so I spent all day trying to decide what pet to get.

In Science, Miss Carp showed us a video about human fry (you humans call them ‘children’ I think). They’re soooo cute! Afterwards we had to fill in a factsheet about what we’d learned. Here’s mine . . .

HUMAN FRY – FACTSHEET

Diet:

Mainly ice cream and sand.

Appearance:

Have loads of very thin tentacles on their heads. Some have coloured rings of blubber around their bellies to help them float:

Habitat:

Beaches or boats.

Communication:

Make a lot of noise, but do not click or whistle like dolphins do. If a human fry drops an ice cream it makes a high-pitched squealing sound.

Then I had another brainwave – I could get a human for a pet! I put my fin up. Miss Carp looked at me. She likes us to ask good questions.

‘Yes, Darcy?’

‘Would a human make a good pet?’ I asked.

Everyone laughed. Miss Carp gave me her ‘I Am Not Amused’ look and said that looking after a pet was a ‘Serious Matter’, and not to be ‘Taken Lightly’.

Hmmph – I am not taking it lightly! To prove this, I went to the school library at lunchtime and got a book called THE PERFECT PET. It’s all about pets and how to look after them. There’s nothing about humans in it though.

After school, Mum took me to Pollock’s Pet Shop. Mr Pollock was there, feeding the sea horses. He smiled at me. ‘So you’re after a pet, eh? What sort were we thinking?’

‘Something easy to look after, please,’ Mum said, before I could speak.

‘Easy, eh? Well, we’ve got some nice sea urchins.’

Mum was quite keen on the sea urchins until one spiked her on the nose.

‘No, thank you,’ she said.

‘Do you have any humans?’ I asked. For some reason Mr Pollock and Mum roared with laughter.

‘How about a sea cucumber?’ Mr Pollock said, fishing one out of a tank.

‘Ooh – it could be friends with Cuke!’ I said. As Mr Pollock handed it to Mum, it squirted a cloud of disgusting white goo all over her.

‘Eurrrgh!’ she said. ‘Definitely not!’

When I picked up a starfish one of its legs fell off. Mr Pollock said that was normal. But I don’t want a pet whose legs keep dropping off !

I can’t believe it is this difficult to find a pet – and Pets Factor is only three days away! Where oh where can my perfect pet be?!

Feeling of the Day: FRUSTRATED.

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