Notes

256 pages. Summary: Meet the Outhwaites. There's Dad (Dave) and Mum (Olly). There's 16-year-old Else, the violinist who hates the violin. There's nature-loving Clancy, who likes animals more than people - particularly the girls who tease him now he's at highschool. There's the twins, Oscar and Finn, Finn and Oscar, who are never far apart. And then there is four-year-old Sibbi, the baby of the family. They live in a cottage on Aunty May's property, among the trees and the possums and as much space as you could ask for. But when Aunty May gets sick, they begin to worry that they will lose everything ... until an unlikely solution appears in the form of a letter to say that Dave has inherited the old family home in London. Only London turns out not to be the grand solution everyone was hoping for. Dave is never around, constantly tied up in legal and financial drama. Olly is alone and cut off from her work and study and friends. Else is even more miserable in London than she was in Melbourne, missing her violin and not sure how to make herself feel better. And Sibbi is misbehaving, feeling left out and unwanted, and she won't stop talking about the people in their house, the people no one else can see. Meanwhile, Hardly Alice and Almost Annie watch as this new family moves into their house ... and hope and pray that they can keep them away from the locked door upstairs