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Read the passage and answer the questions

While looking out of her bedroom window, Meggie spots a figure standing in the
shadows outside her house. She immediately goes to find her father, Mo. There was
still a light on in Mo’s room. He often stayed up reading late into the night. Meggie had
inherited her love of books from her father. When she took refuge from a bad dream
with him, nothing could lull her back to sleep better than Mo’s calm breathing beside
her and the sound of the pages turning. Nothing chased away nightmares faster than
the rustle of printed paper.

But the figure outside the house was no dream.

The book Mo was reading was bound in pale blue linen. Later, Meggie remembered
that too. What unimportant little details stick in the memory.

‘Mo, there’s someone out in the yard!’

Her father raised his head and looked at her with the usual absent expression he wore
when she interrupted his reading. It always took him a few moments to find his way out
of that other world, the labyrinth of printed letters

‘Someone out in the yard? Are you sure?’

‘Yes. He’s staring at our house.’

Mo put down his book. ‘So what were you reading before you went to sleep? Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde1?’

Meggie frowned. ‘Please, Mo! Come and look.’

He didn’t believe her, but he went anyway. Meggie tugged him along the corridor so
impatiently that he stubbed his toe on a pile of books, which was hardly surprising.
Stacks of books were piled high all over the house – not just arranged on bookshelves,
the way other people kept them, oh no! The books in Mo and Meggie’s house were
stacked under tables, on chairs, in the corners of rooms. There were books in the
kitchen and books in the lavatory2. Books on the TV set and in the wardrobe, small
piles of books, tall piles of books, books thick and thin, books old and new. They

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welcomed Meggie down to breakfast with invitingly open pages, they kept boredom at
bay when the weather was bad. And sometimes you fell over them.

‘He’s just standing there!’ whispered Meggie, leading Mo into her room.

‘Has he got a hairy face? If so, he could be a werewolf.’

‘Oh, stop it!’ Meggie looked at him sternly, although his jokes made her feel less
scared. Already, she hardly believed any more in the figure standing in the rain – until
she knelt down again at the window. ‘There! Do you see him?’ she whispered.

Mo looked out through the raindrops running down the pane, and said nothing.

‘Didn’t you promise burglars would never break into our house because there’s nothing
here to steal?’ whispered Meggie.

‘He’s not a burglar,’ replied Mo, but as he stepped back from the window his face was
so grave that Meggie’s heart thudded faster than ever. ‘Go back to bed, Meggie,’ he
said. ‘This visitor has come to see me.’

He left the room before Meggie could ask what kind of visitor, for goodness’ sake,
turned up in the middle of the night. She followed him anxiously. As she crept down the
corridor, she heard her father taking the chain off the front door, and when she reached
the hall she saw him standing in the open doorway. The night came in, dark and damp,
and the rushing of the rain sounded loud and threatening.

‘Dustfinger!’ called Mo into the darkness. ‘Is that you?’

Dustfinger? What kind of a name was that? Meggie couldn’t remember hearing it
before, yet it sounded familiar, like a distant memory that wouldn’t take shape properly.

At first, all seemed still outside except for the rain falling, murmuring as if the night had
found its voice. But then footsteps approached the house, and the man emerged from
the darkness of the yard, his long coat so wet with rain that it clung to his legs. For a
split second, as the stranger stepped into the light spilling out of the house, Meggie
thought she saw a small furry head over his shoulder, snuffling as it looked out of his
rucksack and then quickly disappearing back into it.

Dustfinger wiped his wet face with his sleeve and offered his hand.

‘How are you, Silvertongue?’ he asked. ‘It’s been a long time.’

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Hesitantly, Mo took the outstretched hand. ‘A very long time,’ he said, looking past his
visitor as if he expected to see another figure emerge from the night. ‘Come in, you’ll
catch your death. Meggie says you’ve been standing out there for some time.’

‘Meggie? Ah yes, of course.’ Dustfinger let Mo lead him into the house. He scrutinised
Meggie so thoroughly that she felt embarrassed and didn’t know where to look. In the
end, she just stared back.

‘She’s grown.’

‘You remember her?’

‘Of course

Meggie noticed that Mo double locked the door.

Read the Text in the Insert and then answer questions

1. What helps Meggie get to sleep after a bad dream?

2. ‘But the figure outside the house was no dream.’ (line 6). What effect does the
writer create by using this single-sentence paragraph?
3. Explain in your own words how Meggie’s father looks when his reading is
interrupted.
4. A) Books on the TV set and in the wardrobe, small piles of books, tall piles of
books, books thick and thin, books old and new.’ (lines 22–24). Give one way
these lines emphasise how many books Mo and Meggie have.
b) Look at the phrase ‘Stacks of books were piled high all over the house’ (lines
19–20).
i) Write one quotation from the text that shows a problem caused by the books.
ii) Write one quotation from the text that shows a benefit of the books.
5. ‘Has he got a hairy face? If so, he could be a werewolf.’ (line 27). What does this
quotation suggest about Mo’s character?
6. How does the mood change when Mo sees the figure standing in the rain (line
31)?
7. ‘. . . except for the rain falling, murmuring as if the night had found its voice.’
(lines 45–46) What is the underlined phrase an example of?
Tick (9) one box.
 alliteration
 hyperbole
 metaphor
 personification

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8. Explain in your own words how the writer uses the night and the rain to create
atmosphere (lines 40–50).
Support your answer with examples from the text.
9. Which two features from this text suggest that it is from a mystery story?
Tick examples
 a first person narrator
 a night-time setting
 the use of dialogue
 the use of flashbacks
 the withholding of information
10. Explain in your own words Meggie’s reactions to Dustfinger (lines 34–62).
Support your answer with examples from the text.
11. What two things do we learn about the past relationship between Mo and
Dustfinger?
12. Write one quotation from the text which could explain why Mo double
locked the door.
13. Explain in your own words how you can tell that Meggie and Mo have a
close relationship. Support your answer with examples from the whole text.

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