The Petpost Secret by Radhika R. Dhariwal

Though he is just thirteen, Squirrel is a slave. He never talks back to his ridiculous mongoose boss. He turns the color of a baby beet when pretty kittens speak to him and he really wishes his head were not shaped like a squashed acorn. Little does he know that this funny-shaped head of his contains a long-lost secret that will plunge his life into chaos. The trouble for Squirrel begins when he swigs some forbidden walnut wine at a wedding. Suddenly, his ears ring with his dead mothers voice. She tells him that the only surviving clues to the legendary Map of Brittle-a map that can give Squirrel his freedom-are zipped into the gooey folds of his brain. But to unzip these clues, Squirrel must find and sip three mysterious drinks. And the trail to these drinks is full of traps that could leave him as dead as last weeks road kill. Throwing his fear, along with his better judgement, in the trash, Squirrel sets off to find these drinks. He gains a dear friend, loses a dearer one and finally begins to wonder if freedom is really worth all this. About the Author Radhika Dhariwal grew up in India, Australia, South Africa, Hungary, the Philippines and the United States. She currently lives in Delhi, where she runs a bar called PCO. She loves puzzles (both doing them and creating them) and bread in all its golden, glorious forms. She has an undeniable soft spot for very badly behaved beagles. Radhika has a B.Sc in Psychology from Brown University and a MA in Psychology, with a focus on child development, from New York University. This is her first novel.