Product Description

Kate and Phil Reynolds think they belong to an ordinary family. That is until a larger-than-life old lady turns up on a Harley Davidson with her golden retreiver Fearless in the sidecar, and introduces herself as their Great Aunt Elizabeth. And that is until they discover that their own cat, Barking, can talk, and that their legacy is ownership of some unique stones that have very special properties but come with a whole heap of reponsibility. And finally they find out that they are pitted against Lorabeth Lampton, an evil villainess of Cruella De Vil proportions, who is causing natural disasters on a worldwide scale in her quest for eternal youth. Kate and Phil Reynolds' lives are about to be irreversibly turned upside down...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #394350 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

About the Author
Val Rutt divides her time between teaching in a North London primary school and writing. She and her musician husband live with their two children in Tufnall Park. Val's most treasured possession is her English Springer Spaniel called Dave.

Customer Reviews

magical
The Reyond family are an ordinary family: Michael Reyond and his wife Charlotte (although having other names through the book like Gina, Lottie and more) with their two normal children Kate and Phil. Kate was a smart, tidy, clever goody two shoes who, if attacked could fight like a terrier. They all seemed normal to everyone else although one of knew differently and two were very suspicious about being unusual. They have some strange relatives (in strange forms) and a very strange past. Follow the kids as they are on holiday with their aunt in America and what a holiday it turns out to be - kidnapping, bad guys, a notorious celebrity and a peculiar motorbike driving Great-Aunt Elizabeth!

Wahey! Its great!
This book contained such wonderful and scary inventions from harmless yet genius 'Clueless' style clothes selectors (which almost moved me to tears with my wish to select ballgowns) to the evil Humanitron. It made me for once appreciate my little brother and I laughed several times at the way Kate and Phil talked to each other. I can't wait for the next one to come out and until then I will try and be content with making sure all of my friends and family read it as soon as possible. Very rarely does a book come along that I would like both my boyfriend and my gran to read.

Can't Wait For The Movie To Come Out!
Fabulous caper involving goodies, baddies, animals, children and enough strange goings-on to set the imagination racing into that curious land where reality meets make-believe in just the right dose.

The central character, wrongly described in the above synopsis as a "Labrador", is in fact Fearless, the quite remarkable Golden Retriever whose task it is to lead readers through one of the most mind-racing and imaginitive journeys ever conceived. The fact that the characters and their extraordinary personalities are all taken from real life makes the story all the more remarkable and one wonders by what wizardry such an inspired bunch of misfits ever survived to tell the author their tale.

In the homely tradition of CS Lewis this fast-paced story evokes every emotion. Never has there been such a need for a book to have a happy ending, but as this one closes it leaves the gate wide open for a whole series of sequels and the inevitable blockbuster movie threatening to challenge special effects technology teams to the limit.

Quite remarkably entertaining, stylishly written, adventurous, mind boggling and inspirational this novel is not for those who expect to be able to limit themselves to one page a day!