There’s one thing you really need to know about me: I’m an explorer! 

My name is Madge. I love to go on adventures, discovering curious, unexplainable and exciting things about nature and new places. (Except the dentist. I NEVER want to go to the dentist. When I have to go, I imagine I’m exploring the beach instead.)

I love going on adventures by reading too. My favourite stories are really DRAMATIC or have plots about young explorers like me, who like to collect and save trinkets and souvenirs like I do. 

Although I love collecting all sorts of things, those I find after fossicking the beach are my favourite treasures. 

I put the things I find on adventures in one of my many handbags, finding space for the object next to the book I always carry around with me – The All New Must Have Orange 430. I carry it around to remind me that even though I like to collect items, I don’t have to collect every thingy or whatsit, just the items that remind me of a special day shared with a friend. 

That’s the other thing to know about me: even though I’m a nearly-famous explorer, nothing and no one is more important to me than my three best friends Edna, Boris and Ernie. 

They don’t always like to do the same things that I do, but there are pros and cons to being so different and we find ways to enjoy time together. 

For example, I like to celebrate birthdays with a big ‘hip hip hooray!’ and hand-made dress-up costumes for parties like one of my favourite book characters Jack. While my friends don’t love parties as much as I do, Ernie loves to perform his own dances, Boris loves to sing jazz tunes and Edna loves reading more than anything. We’ve found a way to celebrate our differences for my birthday this year by having a dancing karaoke party in the library! My local librarian, Trish, knows us all and is even helping us to make glittery microphones for the day.

If we become friends, you should come to my birthday party too.