AustLit

'Fil always suspected that her cat Harry could talk if he really tried. Sometimes she even dreamed about it. But it was still a shock when he did start talking, on the worst afternoon of her life – or one of them. She seemed to be having a lot of them lately.

'Her friend Kirsten had ignored her all day at school, again, after spending the weekend at her place. Harry told her that her friend Kirsten was “selfishness personified”, and maybe he was right.

'Things got worse after that. Grandma painted Fil’s older brother’s bedroom walls black, escalating tensions with Fil and Stephen’s stepmother Elspeth, who tried far too hard. And Kirsten soon showed her true colours, making Fil’s life even more difficult…

'Harry was the only one in the family who knew the way out of the tangle.

'Fresh, lively junior fiction by acclaimed author, Jenny Blackford, winner of the 2020 Davitt Award for Best Children’s Crime Novel, with fabulous pictures by emerging illustrator Kristin Devine, winner of the 2019 New England Illustration prize. (Publication summary)