AustLit

'When John moves to the city with his family, he has no idea quite how much his life is about to change. He befriends the boy next door, Gino, whose Italian family seem enormously exotic. One evening, John, while riding his bike home, is mysteriously attacked by a swarm of bats. The incident raises the suspicions of Gino's grandmother who begins muttering darkly about the evil eye and vampires, which John and Gino find hilarious - at first. Then, they meet Elizabeth, Lavinia and their friends who are cute but something about them seems strange. And when the boys are trapped in an old house by a savage storm suddenly the girls appear and the boys begin to see the reasons for the Grandmother's suspicions.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.