Excerpt from Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Flea darted out from under the chair, bending around the door as I opened it. He surged ahead in the hallway and made it to the kitchen before I did. His full name was Mr. Mistoffelees, but "Flea" had been as close as I could get when I was small, and it had stuck. Mum was standing by the wall-mounted phone in the kitchen, the white handset to her ear, her back turned. I walked toward her in bare feet, and Flea pranced ahead, his head tilted back to look up at me.

Excerpted from Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor. Copyright © 2022 by Hayley Scrivenor. Excerpted by permission of Flatiron Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.