AustLit

'Morrigan Crow and her friends have survived their first year as proud scholars of the elite Wundrous Society, helped bring down the nefarious Ghastly Market, and proven themselves loyal to Unit 919. Now Morrigan faces a new, exciting challenge: to master the mysterious Wretched Arts of the Accomplished Wundersmith, and control the power that threatens to consume her.

'Meanwhile, a strange and frightening illness has taken hold of Nevermoor, turning infected Wunimals into mindless, vicious Unnimals on the hunt. As victims of the Hollowpox multiply, panic spreads. There are whispers - growing louder every day - that this catastrophe can only be the work of the Wundersmith, Ezra Squall.

'But inside the walls of Wunsoc, everyone knows there is a new Wundersmith - one who's much closer to home. With Nevermoor in a state of fear and the truth about Morrigan threatening to get out, the city she loves becomes the most perilous place in the world. Morrigan must try to find a cure for the Hollowpox, but it will put her - and everyone in Nevermoor - in more danger than she could have imagined.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Two summers ago, Venice was dying and an 11-year-old girl made her first (so she thought) visit to the city where she instantly felt she belonged. Teodora, it transpired, was the undrowned child, destined to save Venice from its long-standing enemy, Bajamonte Tiepolo, the traitor. According to a long ago prophecy, Teo and Renzo (the studious son) were the only people equipped to defeat the baddened magic that the traitor brought to the stricken city. But they couldn't kill him - and so, subdued, but bitter, he returned to his shadowy existence.

'Now he's back. And in need of a new army, he sets his sights on London - who are weak with mourning the death of their Queen, Victoria.

'Teo and Renzo find themselves on board a ship for orphans whose course seems mysteriously set for London. Once again, destiny brings them face to face with their enemy, who will stop at nothing to destroy not only London and Venice but the children at the heart of the prophecy that binds him to his failure.

'A thrilling sequel to The Undrowned Child, full of mermaids, mourning and menace, in which Teo and Renzo must fight to save London and Venice from baddened magic.' (From the publisher's website.)

'It's the beginning of the 20th century; the age of scientific progress. But for Venice the future looks bleak. A conference of scientists assembles to address the problems, among whose delegates are the parents of eleven-year-old Teodora. Within days of her arrival, she is subsumed into the secret life of Venice: a world in which salty-tongued mermaids run subversive printing presses, ghosts good and bad patrol the streets and librarians turn fluidly into cats. A battle against forces determined to destroy the city once and for all quickly ensues. Only Teo, the undrowned child who survived a tragic accident as a baby, can go "between-the-linings" to subvert evil and restore order.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.