I'm too busy to babysit, so I hope you and that mongrel are up for the job.

Phil, and his father's beloved heading dog, Blue, have to spend the Christmas break working on a sheep station while Phil's dad undergoes out-of-town, cancer treatment. The station manager, Chopper, isn't happy having a teenager in his care and certainly not a sheepdog that doesn't understand his signals. Things start to improve for Phil when Chopper's step-daughter, Emara arrives back from holiday, but a wayward ram and a poor decision plummets both boy and dog into danger.

Phil will need all the strength he's got to get out alive.

Mary-anne Scott lives in Napier, New Zealand. Many of her previous titles have been shortlisted for the YA section of the Children's Book Awards: Snakes and Ladders (Scholastic); Coming Home to Roost (Penguin) and Sticking with Pigs (One Tree House).

Sticking with Pigs published in 2018 and was Shortlisted for the Children's Book Award Trust Copyright Licensing NZ YA Award in 2018 was Shortlisted for the 2018 NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival and was named a 2019 Storylines Notable Book. Spearo and Fantastic Mr Bean were published in 2020.