Two hours ago, when I walked into this school for the first time, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and, apart from a knot in my guts the size of Tasmania, life was great. Now here I am, locked in a stationery cupboard. Rowena wants to be friends but the other kids don't. Is it because she's just stuffed a frog into Darryn Peck's mouth? Or is it because of her dad? How can she tell him that his shirts, and his habit of singing in public, are wrecking her life? It's not easy - especially when you can't speak.

Anticipating the birth of a new sibling, Rowena Batts, a mute girl, struggles with conflicting feelings and adopts an abused cockatoo named Sticky Beak who promptly destroys the newly decorated nursery.

I scribbled angrily in my notebook, ripped the page out and held it in front of his face. 'You killed my mother,' it said, 'and I've got the sausages to prove it.' It starts off as a normal week for Rowena. A car full of stewed apples. A police cell. A desperate struggle to keep Dad off national TV. Then her world turns upside-down. And suddenly Ro's battling French policemen, high explosives and very unusual sausages to discover painful and joyous secrets that change her life forever.