Book description
It's Christmas, and the inhabitants of Porridge Hall are suffering from
the winter blues. The weather is horrible, Mrs Robinson's ill, and, to
top it all off, the Brogan's dog, Old Blanket, dies. So when the
children hear the tale of a dolphin sword which brings good fortune,
they're determined to track it down . . .
Unfortunately, however, Mrs Robinson is in decline, so Ant and Perry
are shipped off to stay with Aunt Mabel, while Beany and Sun Dance are
left with Mrs Brogan. Aunt Mabel, it transpires, is a silver-haired
eccentric living in a menagerie - and not at all what the children
expect. Then Sun Dance discovers a burglar, and the mystery of Aunt
Mabel is revealed . . . Hilary McKay won the Guardian Children's
Fiction Prize with her first novel, The Exiles
. Her subsequent work has achieved recognition: The Exiles at Home
won the Smarties Prize, whilst Saffy's Angel
, the first in the Casson Family series, won the Whitbread Award, for
which the third book, Permanent Rose
, was also shortlisted.
