Ruth and the blue horse

Where Ruth used to live there were lots of different animals - ducks and hens and geese and goats.

But in the new house there are only the family's seven cats, even the kittens have gone.

It is very quiet and Ruth feels lonely. Then, out of the mist, comes the mysterious blue horse, with its amber eyes and glowing hooves; it seems to understand every word that Ruth says.

But where does it come from and what does it want of her?"Jet Smoke and Dragon Fire", Charles Ashton's first published novel, was shortlisted for both the 1992 Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the 1993 W H Smith Mindboggling Books Award.

The first book in a trilogy, it was followed by "Into the Spiral" and "The Shining Bridge".

A fourth novel, "Billy's Drift", was published in 1994.Emma Chichester Clark won the Mother Goose Award for her first book, "Listen to This".

She has since illustrated a number of children's books, including the Walker titles "The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup"; "Ragged Robin"; "I Never Saw a Purple Cow"; "Good Night, Stella" and "The Haunting of Pip Parker".