On Copper Beech's 10th birthday her aunt suddenly sends her away to the Snowy Mountains to stay with family she had never known she had. In a bleak landscape of ice and snow, wood and stone, Copper finds herself battling against strange forces trying to destroy her. The fearsome Granite, king of the rock mountain, holds the key to all the mysteries, but he would rather lock her up in his dank prison than explain. Even the rest of the family living in the Beech house are not telling her all they know. She finds that for her own safety she must attempt to establish what has happened to her parents, who have both disappeared, and may not have died as she had previously supposed.

Rebecca Lisle grew up in Leeds, and started writing as an au pair in France to entertain herself and children. She subsequently taught in various schools, writing part-time, until she married whereupon she had babies instead! She now has three sons.

It's Copper's 10th birthday and suddenly her whole world collapses. Why must she flee to the Marble Mountains? And who is following her?

Against the bleak backdrop of ice and snow, Copper battles against the forces that try to destroy her.

Can Copper defeat the evil Granite who holds the key to all the mysteries? Can she ever uncover the extraordinary secrets of her past?

Nothing is as it seems. Anyone might betray her . . .

COPPER is Rebecca Lisle's 10th book for children. Her work has been highly acclaimed and three of her previous novels have been chosen by the Federation of Children's Book Groups for their Pick of the Year.