Nell was sitting in the library with her friends. It was lunchtime. Nell was reading. She was always reading! She had found a book about cats and was happy.

But she was the only one with a book. Her friends had gadgets in their hands. Sunita had a phone; Saffron had a tablet.

‘Why don’t you look at books?’ she said. ‘We are in a library!’

‘Books are old-fashioned,’ said Sunita. ‘I don’t know why you like them!’

‘I love everything about them,’ said Nell. ‘I love the feel of the paper... the shiny cover... the pictures. I love the smell of a new book! I like turning the pages to see what comes next. Look at this - it’s gorgeous.’ She held up the cat book to show them. ‘The photos are lovely.’

But they never change,’ said Saffron. ‘If you open that book tomorrow, all the photos will be the same as today. That’s boring! I like things to be different.’

Sunita nodded. ‘Me too.’

‘Look at this,’ said Saffron. She moved closer to Nell to show something on her tablet. ‘You like cats, right?’

Nell nodded. ‘And I love kittens.’

‘OK, kittens.’ Saffron tapped at her screen. ‘So look - kittens. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them! More than you could ever look at.’

‘I know,’ said Nell, ‘and they are very pretty. But I still like my book more!’

She laughed, and hugged it to her like a teddy bear.

‘That book is just cats,’ said Saffron. ‘Look, I can change this. You like dogs? Here are dogs! You want rabbits? Here they are! What pet do you want? Ponies, guinea pigs, parrots, unicorns...’

‘Unicorns? Real unicorns?’

‘Yes, real unicorns. Look! You can buy them online. They sing and dance too.’

Nell grinned. ‘Can they make ice cream?’

‘Sure!’ said Saffron. ‘They can do anything. They only cost a million dollars.’

‘Then buy me one.’

‘I will - for your 20th birthday!’ said Saffron, and the girls all laughed.

Later that night, Nell was alone in her bedroom.                 She thought about what her friends had said.

‘I know books stay the same,’ she said. ‘That is why I like them!’

She opened her favourite book. It was about pets. Nell had no pets of her own, though she dearly wanted one. The photos in the book were beautiful. She especially liked one of a cat with golden eyes and very long fur. The fur was smoky grey.