Pookha Moon - Doreen Fiol

"Hello." The voice came from behind her, startling her. She looked up - and up - and up into the whiskery face of the most gigantic squirrel she could ever have imagined. "I," said the creature, "am Peregrine Oliver George, commonly known as Pog." 10-year-old Ebren feels lonely and abandoned. Her parents are geologists, and, until now, she has travelled with them to far and exotic places. But this year she has been left behind and is staying with her grandmother in a small flat in a quiet London Square, prior to being sent to live with her uncle and aunt, and cousins Tristan and Tamzyn, in the West Country. She is miserable and resentful until, one day, in the Square's gardens, she meets the Pookha The outrageous antics of a two-metres-and-a-bit invisible squirrel cause her great amusement. He is her friend and she loves him. But he also creates many problems, .- although, as he tells her constantly, he doesn't mean to! Ebren doesn't quite know how to deal with him - especially as she always gets the blame for the outcomes of his 'shamoozles.' What can she tell people? Will they believe her? No use explaining. They wouldn't understand. They never did. With Ebren and Pog the story moves to Cornwall where Pog's mischief leads to all sorts of difficulties and ultimately to near - disaster, when, one dark, misty night, desperately unhappy, Ebren runs away. Lost, alone and terrified on a wild moor dotted with mine-shafts she wanders farther and farther.away from her family and friends, the people she loves but feels she has let down. How could they possibly still care about her, want her with them, after all the trouble she has brought them? Suddenly the ground beneath her feet gives way and swallows her up.She falls down, down, down, the patch of pale moonlight becoming a faint, distant disc far above her. Will they ever find her? How will they rescue her? And what will become of her? And Pog?