Author(s): Geraldine McCaughrean

Children Fiction

'The ice was slippery. Her paws kept splaying outwards until the cold of the ice on her belly made her tiptoe back up to her full height . . . Someone on the bridge threw a lump of coal at her. It skidded across the whiteness, leaving a black trail, then plopped into a fissure: the ice was breaking up.' Clay and his brother, Hal, rescue a struggling dog from the icy River Thames. But back on dry land their father refuses to take her in - the new Dog Tax means she's too expensive to keep. As skinners sharpen their knives, ready to make money from pelts just like hers, the boys determine to save her - at whatever cost . . .