ITS A MAGICAL world if you know where to look. . . .For 10-year-old Morag, that magical world is no farther than the cellar of her cruel foster parents home.

Thats where shes shocked to meet Aldiss, a talking rat, and his resourceful companion, Bertie the dodo bird.Morag jumps at the chance to escape a life of drudgery and join them on their quest to save their homeland from an evil warlock named Devlish, who is intent on destroying it.

But first, Bertie and Aldiss will need to stop bickering long enough to free the only guide who knows where to find Devlish: Shona, a dragon whos been turned to stone.

Together, these four friends begin their journey to a mysterious island beyond the horizon, where danger and glory awaitalong with clues to the disappearance of Morags parents, whose destiny seems somehow linked to her own.From the Hardcover edition.