When Carlo and his mother, Jessica, accept a free bus ticket from a strange old woman in the supermarket, they are really only being polite. Secretly they think she must be slightly batty, with her talk about hundred free bus rides to the supermarket at the end of the world. How absurd! And yet, right outside their supermarket, which is of the most ordinary, everyday kind, a Number 13 bus pulls up . . . dark blue and with gold stars, just like the ticket.

Feeling suddenly adventurous, Jessica and Carlo take their seats . . . and nothing turns out the way you would expect. Because the wonderful supermarket is real - but so are the horrible Dowlers, who are plotting and scheming to destroy it. What begins with fun and laughter becomes violent and dangerous, and the courage of a pair of resourceful children will be needed if the horrible, howling Dowlers are to be defeated.

About the Author:

Margaret Mahy is one of the world’s best-loved authors, writing wonderfully funny and imaginative children’s poems, stories and picture books as well as ground-breaking novels for young adults, thrilling readers for more than forty years. A member of the Order of New Zealand, an Honorary Doctor of Letters and twice winner of Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Children’s Literature, she has also been honoured by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand as a Living Icon, received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction, and been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her outstanding contribution to children’s literature.