Also by Matt Haig
Shadow Forest
The Runaway Troll
To Be A Cat
Echo Boy
A Boy Called Christmas
The Girl Who Saved Christmas
Father Christmas and Me
The Truth Pixie
Evie and the Animals
First published in Great Britain, the USA and Canada in 2019
by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
Distributed in the USA by Publishers Group West
and in Canada by Publishers Group Canada
This digital edition first published in 2019 by Canongate Books
Copyright © Matt Haig, 2019
Illustrations copyright © Chris Mould, 2019
The moral rights of the author and the illustrator have been asserted
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 78689 826 5
eISBN 978 1 78689 827 2
To Pearl and Lucas
Contents
The Truth Pixie: Goes to School
There once was a girl
Who lived far away,
And who tried to be kind,
Whatever the day.
This girl was called Aada.
She lived with her dad.
She was sometimes happy,
But now she was sad.
She’d had a bad year,
She’d had to move town,
And start a new school,
And wear a new frown.
Her gran had died,
Her dad lost his job.
Aada spent the whole year
Trying not to sob.
But this isn’t a sad story –
Not really, no –
The pixie lived
In Aada’s house,
And in her hair
Was Maarta the mouse.
This pixie slept
Under Aada’s bed,
And Aada trusted
Whatever she said.
You see . . .
And Aada was pleased
That she had such a friend.
She hoped that these days
Would never end.
When the Truth Pixie and Aada
Went into town,
They’d laugh when they saw
Everyone frown.
‘Hello,’ said Aada.
‘We’d like a loaf of bread.’
‘No pixies allowed!’
The shopkeeper said.
‘Well!’ said the pixie.
‘That’s just rude!
Especially when you sell
Such disgusting food!’
Back at home
With Aada and her dad,
She watched the news
But it drove her mad.
‘Why do humans chop down trees
When forests are so fantastic?
And why do you clog your oceans
With all that horrible plastic?’
Aada’s dad sighed.
‘It’s not that simple.’
Aada agreed with the pixie
As she picked at a pimple.
Aada loved the pixie.
They had great times together,
Such as snowball fights
In wintry weather.
Aada told her stories,
Made up in her head,
And the pixie listened closely
To everything she said.
Aada played piano,
The pixie sang along,
And they both laughed happily
Whenever it went wrong.
When Aada was happy,
The pixie was there.
(The best kind of happy
Is the kind you can share.)
And when times were tough,
And when Aada felt bad,
The pixie was there
To make her less sad.