At school on Monday, Freya and Megan got a big surprise.

‘We’re going to the library,’ Miss Roberts said, as the children chattered with excitement. ‘You’ll be able to join, if you haven’t already, and you can borrow a book if you like.’

‘Megan,’ Freya said, ‘we could borrow a book each and do swapsies.’

‘Oh yes!’ said Megan.

What with the move to Buttercup House, it had been a while since Megan had visited a library and she hadn’t been to the one in the village yet.

It was a good twenty-minute walk from their school to the library and all the children were partnered up. Megan was with Freya, of course. They both wore the friendship bracelets they had made together.

‘I’m never taking mine off,’ Freya said.

‘Me neither,’ said Megan.

Megan was amazed when she saw the library. It was nothing like the one she’d been to in the city she used to live in. That one was all straight lines and glass. This library was perfectly round with two layers, like a wedding cake, and it sat on a big roundabout in the middle of a crossroads. It was made out of red bricks and had long thin windows. Megan had never seen such an unusual building.

‘They call it the Victoria Sponge,’ said Freya. ‘Because it’s like a big, round sponge cake!’

‘Wow!’ said Megan, once they were inside. The building looked even bigger from the inside and, if she looked straight up, she could see right up to the roof. The second floor went around the edges in a circle, like a big wide balcony.

‘I’d like an animal book,’ said Freya. ‘Not a story book but a factual one, all about different animals.’

But there were two floors full of books and shelves and they didn’t know where to start looking.

‘We could ask that lady,’ suggested Megan, pointing to a tall lady behind a desk. So they went up to the lady at her desk.

‘We’re looking for a book, but we don’t know where to look,’ Freya said to the lady, suddenly realising how silly this sounded.

‘What sort of book?’ the lady asked.

‘Sort of factual,’ said Freya.

‘Sort of about animals,’ Megan added.

The tall lady raised her eyebrows at them. ‘Do you have a title?’ she asked, thinking what a long day it was going to be.

‘No,’ whispered Freya, wondering why she was whispering.

But the lady hadn’t heard her. ‘Pardon?’ she said.

‘No!’ Freya shouted, at the same time as Megan, so that it sounded really loud and everyone looked around. The girls tried especially hard not to start laughing!

The tall lady pointed to the next floor. ‘Factual books are up there,’ she said, looking a little bit annoyed.

‘Thank you,’ the girls said, and quickly retreated up the wooden staircase to the next floor.

‘You do realise you’re in the top layer of the cake now, don’t you?’ said Freya, trying not to laugh.

‘That must mean I’m walking on the jammy bit,’ whispered Megan, smiling and pretending her feet were sticking to the blue carpet.

‘Blue jam!’ said Freya, a little too loudly, so that both girls had to stifle their giggles.

The factual books took up a whole bookcase against the far wall. They didn’t know where to start.

‘I’ll start down here,’ said Freya. ‘You look up there.’

Megan stood on a small stool and searched the higher shelves, while Freya searched the lower ones. There certainly were lots of books, but Megan couldn’t see any animal ones. Then she saw something.

‘Look at this,’ she said to Freya, pulling out a thick book.

‘What is it?’ asked Freya. ‘It looks really old.’

It did look very old. Its burgundy cover was crumpled and worn, and the gold writing on the front had started to fade.

‘The Book of Strange Tales,’ said Freya. ‘What’s that?’

‘I have no idea,’ said Megan. ‘Shall we have a look?’

The girls sat down at a small table to look through the book. It was full of tales, all beautifully written, with little illustrations on every page.

‘Let’s borrow it,’ Megan said. ‘Then we can read it in secret at the treehouse.’

‘Brilliant idea,’ said Freya.

The girls spent a few more minutes looking for an animal book for Freya, and found one that was exactly what she’d wanted, then Megan joined the library. She got a brand new library card, and took out her first library book from the Victoria Sponge Library – The Book of Strange Tales!