Becca Rogers

A second underwater adventure from the author of Branford Boase longlisted The Girl with Gills. Join Scamp Saltbrace on a high-stakes fantasy adventure, with vicious mermaids, evil smugglers and a tidal clock that controls the oceans. Scamp Saltbrace feels like a misfit. In a family full of sailors, she’s scared of the sea. But when an ancient truce between mermaids and sailors is broken, it’s up to Scamp to fix it. Braving raging oceans full of unknown dangers, guided by a strange tidal clock given to her by her beloved granny, Scamp must find the mermaid queen. Scamp’s loyal little sister, True, and companions Quinlan and Tails, join her as they discover the sea queen’s daughter is missing, taken by the wicked smuggler, Victor Marrow. Worse, the tidal clock’s powers, if misused, could threaten the entire world. To save everyone and everything she cares about, Scamp must do what she has avoided all her life, and answer the call of the sea.

An original, middle grade fantasy debut awash with adventure. A determined heroine and a sinister villain clash to reveal river lore in a watery world of fantastical creatures and colossal challenges. In a time and place which might be now, people with gills, outcast larkers, live in secret communities. They have houseboats along the river. Concealing their gills from land lubbers, they scour the mudbanks, trade their finds and live off their wits. Thirteen-year-old Effra has been supporting her brother, Fleet, alone since their beloved grandfather died six months ago. When merciless Rivermun, a larker gone bad, threatens Fleet, Effra's quests begins. Rivermun asks for the impossible - he wants to overpower Mother River, to possess the river serpent's pearl and for age-old debts to be settled. Effra must bargain with the imposing Mother River, dive into the underwater parts of the city, venture deep into the Rat Queen's lair and confront the terrible river serpent to save not only Fleet, but everything the larkers stand for. Luckily, she is not alone. She befriends a sentient sewer rat and a landlubber girl called Bow, who will help her in her quest.