All the Way from China

 Chapter One

One morning Shelley's teacher Ms Garland came into the classroom and handed each of the children a plain white envelope. Inside each envelope was a piece of paper. On Shelley's was written:

My name is Tomi Wong. I'm from Ningbo in China. I'm your new pen-pal.

'Today,' said Ms Garland, when everyone had had time to read their piece of paper, 'we're going to learn how to write letters to our new pen-pals.'

A cheer went up in the classroom.

'Now, how many of you have written a letter before?'

One or two of the children waved their hands in the air.
As Ms Garland began to describe what a letter should look like, Shelley, who always sat on her own, took her books and slipped quietly down to the back of the classroom, hoping no one had noticed her.