Rachel and her brother Eric are extraordinary. She is a spell-maker, able to fly, take any shape, see far and wide with her many-coloured eyes.

He is a destroyer of spells. On the planet Ool, home of the Witches, the high Witch Heebra wants Rachel and Eric crushed, and her old adversaries the Wizards slayed.

A party of Witches is dispatched to Earth to locate the thousands of children who have powers like Rachel's, and turn them into a ferocious army. Rachel, in search of the children, finds their magic at work across the world.

In Africa she encounters the infant Yemi, whose gifts transcend all others.

In Chile she meets the menacing Heiki, a girl who will perform any evil to win the approval of the Witches. And in the frozen wastes of the Arctic she and Eric engage in a desperate struggle for the hearts and minds of all children.

Cliff McNish has written numerous novels for teenagers and children.

His debut fantasy series - The Doomspell Trilogy - hailed him as a 'great new voice in writing for children' (The Bookseller), and has been published in twenty-six languages worldwide.

His multiple-award winning Breathe: A Ghost Story was voted in May 2013 as one of the top 100 adult and children's novels of all time by The Schools Network of British Librarians.