Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award 2022 Finalist

"I'm too busy to babysit, so I hope you and that mongrel are up for the job."

Phil, and his father's beloved heading dog, Blue, have to spend the Christmas break working on a sheep station while Phil's dad undergoes out-of-town cancer treatment. The station manager, Chopper, isn't happy having a teenager in his care and certainly not a sheepdog that doesn't understand his signals. Things start to improve for Phil when Chopper's step-daughter, Emara arrives back from holiday, but a wayward ram and a poor decision plummets both boy and dog into danger.

Phil will need all the strength he's got to get out alive.

Mary-anne Scott lives in Havelock North. Many of her previous titles have been shortlisted for the YA section of the Children's Book Awards: Snakes and Ladders (Scholastic); Coming Home to Roost (Penguin) and Sticking with Pigs (One Tree House).