Dax Jones will not be tamed. The Children of Limitless Ability can do all sorts of amazing things.

Terrifying things too. Some can move things with their minds. Some can make themselves vanish. Dax Jones can change his form; can hurtle through the sky at 200km an hour, or swim underwater for minutes on end. But all is not well. Fenton Lodge, the school and home the COLA kids had grown to love over the past few years, is being turned into a prison.

The new prime minister has set up a crack force of experts to manage, contain and use the COLA resource in the best interests of decent hardworking British people. And . . . if necessary . . . to shut it all down. Permanently. With all communication scrutinized, Dax's only option is to write to his spoilt little sister, Alice.

Even she might notice something is amiss, if she reads his letters properly. And Alice, for all her annoying shallowness, does notice. And what she does about it is extraordinary. But then, she is the half-sister of Dax Jones.