Izzy's River by Holly Webb Read Free Book Online Page B

bad.”
    Izzy braked, and slid up beside him. “I know, it’s a mess, isn’t it?”
    “It looks like a junk yard.” Her dad sighed, staring around at the rubbish scattered all over the path, and in the water. “It used to be so beautiful here, Iz. It’s probably hard to believe, but it really did…” He got off his bike, and leaned it up against one of the benches, and went wandering through the mess, kicking at things here and there. “Who dumps a whole load of old newspapers by the side of a river? Why not just put them in the recycling? I don’t understand some people.” He stopped, looking down at an old piece of wood. “I thought so. Look at this, Iz.” He swept the grass away from the board with one hand,and Izzy came to see over his shoulder.
    “Illroy Riverside Nature Reserve,” she read out. “Please keep dogs on the lead.” She laughed sadly. “We did, but it didn’t help much. That’s really sad. What can have happened to let it get like this?”
    “I should think people just forgot about it, and it was too expensive to keep it properly looked after.” Her dad shook his head.
    “Could your Rescue group help sort it out, Dad?” Izzy asked suddenly.
    Her dad looked round with a sigh. “I’d really like to suggest it to them, but we’re a bit short of money right now. Buying all those trees for that little green patch behind the old people’s home cost us a lot. We’d need to do some fundraising first to get this all sorted, and we’ve already promised to do some clean-up over in the woods close to your school too.”
    Izzy nodded. Her dad had been asked to join a local environmental group a few months before. It was organised by somebody he’d done some garden landscaping for. They planted trees and bulbs around the area, and every so often organised a big Rescue Weekend, where they hired a skip and cleared up litter and junk. This neglected bit of river sounded just right for them.
    “I’ll definitely mention it at our next meeting, though,” her dad agreed. “It’s just the sort of thing we’d want to do. Actually, I’m surprised no one’s mentioned it already. I suppose it’s a bit out of the way.”
    “I should think people only come here when they want to dump rubbish,” Izzy agreed sadly. “I don’t think I want to eat the picnic here, Dad.”
    “No, definitely not. We’ll go further on, round to the main bit of the river – it’s a lot nicer to look at there.”
    They got back on their bikes and, ten minutes later, they were sitting on the grass, watching two swans gliding along with their beaks in the air, looking extremely grand.
    “I bet they wouldn’t go down that bit of river,” Izzy said, between bites of ham sandwich.
    “Certainly not. Not nearly clean enough for those posh swans.”
    Izzy chewed thoughtfully as she watched the swans disappearing round the curve of the water. If it was only money that was stopping Dad’s Rescue group cleaning up the river, maybe there was something she and Poppy and Emily and Maya could do to help? Could they raise some money somehow? Mr Finlayhad said they needed a new project. It would be nice to do something that was really close to home, too.
    She bit into an apple, smiling to herself. A new project. Something they could really help with. It sounded excellent!

    On Monday she hurried to find Poppy in the playground, and smiled to herself at the difference from Friday morning.
    Emily and Maya were already there, as the school bus had been on time for once, and they waved to her.
    “Was your dad really OK about your dress?” Poppy asked anxiously. “I told Emily and Maya what happened,” she added.
    “That dog!” Emily shook her head. “He’s a menace.”
    “He’s a very nice menace,” Izzy said, smiling.
    “He’s still sulking about us giving him a bath,” Poppy sighed. “He’s hardly talking to me.”
    Emily snickered, and Poppy elbowed her. “You know what I mean.”
    “My dad didn’t mind that