'Ten years at sea, ten years on land ...' It's time for Thora - half-mermaid, half-human - to leave the sea and join the rest of us on dry land. She's ten now, and the Sea Shrew's prophecy says that her days on the deep are done. Leaving her mermaid mother and taking her pet peacock, Cosmo, Thora does her best to settle down in the seaside town of Grimli. But trouble is brewing - as it so often is, when Thora's around - and she comes face to face with Frooty de Mare, a fat-cat businessman who hates mermaids ...Thora's nothing if not determined, though. She'll stop Frooty's sinister plans, whether he likes it or not ...

Prizes

Shortlisted for Blue Peter Book Award (Book I Couldn't Put Down Prize) 2005.

Johnson's writing is witty and inventive ... This is a book full of fun Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week Thora is an irresistible new character ... storytelling at its best. Starred review, Publishing News An attractively illustrated and uplifting story TES Thora is a thoroughly modern heroine in a fantasy adventure story with a pleasantly old-fashioned feel to it ... Gillian Johnson's own illustrations add to the book's charm. Books for Keeps Thora is an endearing character ... the author's own line drawings add to the appeal of a lively story, which should appeal to KS2 children. The School Librarian A delightfully appealing character ... Johnson writes with wit and imagination ... A must for young mermaid enthusiasts who like funny stories! Write Away website Full of ingenious touches Magpies Wonderfully inventive and witty - the sort of book that gladdens the heart Children's Bookseller and Publisher, Austra

Gillian Johnson studied science and English at university. She's had lots of different jobs - working with Indian children in northern Canada, accompanying Inuit babies on small planes to their homes in remote communities, doing editorial cartoons for the university paper, teaching English to high school students. Eventually, she published a children's book and has been doing it ever since. She lives with her family and divides her time between Wiltshire and Tasmania.