A Girl called Admiral Fairweather — Mark Douglas Stafford

The fates of Harry Possum and the hundred soldier-sailors making up Port Isabel's fledgling navy hang in the balance, it's down to Flossy's next decision. Every scenario has been considered, every contingency planned out to the nth degree, but she knows no battle plan survives the first shot and can't escape the queasy feeling she's overlooked something obvious, something that could make all the difference. Months of captivity taught her just how nasty and tricky pirates can be, and that was before they had the perfect reason for revenge. What will they do next?

By the end of the next ice age, all that remains of the once great, world-spanning human civilisation are myths and ancient, inexplicable artefacts lying at the feet of melting glaciers. Thanks to the red-hot Heat Tree reefs that keep the ice at bay, the lands above the Gulf of Mexico are some of the few places still warm enough to support life. On the western shores of the Gulf is Port Isabel, a town conceived and built by owls who mysteriously vanished hundreds of years before without even bothering to say goodbye. The animals that live there are industrious, peaceful and vegetarian; except for those that aren't, which is where all the trouble starts.