The Collection Jar
A Free Sample Chapter from Proud Books
Remi Adeyemi has sixty-three pounds and forty-two pence.
Seven months of saving. Birthday money. Tooth fairy money. Every coin he could find.
On Saturday, he is going to buy the best art set in the world. Seventy-two colours.
Then he sees a photo of a boy his age, on the other side of the world, holding one broken pencil...
Remi Adeyemi had a jar.
It lived on his windowsill, between a cactus called Brian and a rubber duck he'd had since he was two.
Every Sunday, Remi counted it.
Sixty-three pounds and forty-two pence.
The art set in Barker's Art Shop was the most beautiful thing Remi had ever seen.
Seventy-two colours. Professional pencils. A real leather sketchbook.
It cost sixty pounds. Remi had sixty-three pounds and forty-two pence.
He was READY.
He was going to buy it on Saturday.
On Monday, Mr. Karim put a photo on the whiteboard.
A school. Or what used to be a school. The roof was gone. The walls were cracked. Books lay in puddles on the floor.
"This is our partner school," said Mr. Karim. "A cyclone hit last month. They've lost everything."
The class went quiet.
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