Heather McQuillan

Avis's life is complicated. Humbert, the chocolate-eating dragon, is getting bigger and more demanding and wants to test his wings, but he's distracting Avis from her schoolwork. Then, on one flight, they see a disturbance in the ocean near an oil-drilling rig, and the dragon's tear Avis and Humbert communicate through starts receiving strange signals. The words follow: Stop them....

Avis and the Promise of Dragons follows the story of Avis, a young girl with a dream to work with animals. When a scientist with a witchy-looking house offers her a job as a pet-sitter, she eagerly accepts the opportunity. However, Avis soon discovers she's not looking after ordinary pets. The animals in Dr Malinda Childes' backyard are as eccentric...

Life is already unfair for 15-year-old Mariana. Her father's missing and her activist mother is dead. Marooned with her grandparents in the cyclone-wrecked South Island, life is dominated by Carapace, a corrupt corporation. When Mariana wears a red dress to her new school, she breaks an obscure rule and puts her family at risk. Mariana yearns to stand up for...