Madeline and Rufus Breeze come from a long line of fantabulous fanmakers they've been keeping people cool in style for centuries. And their eccentric inventor father has stubbornly continued the tradition ...even though their village has been covered in snow for several years. Now the Breeze family is so in debt, local tyrant Bartholomew Tullock is threatening to take their home. Then a smooth-tongued stranger and his blue-haired dog arrive in town with a solution to the Breezes' problem.Soon determined Madeline and her father are off on a death-defying journey to sell their breathtaking and breeze-making fans to the residents of the one nearby city that is (strangely) still hot. If only they didn't have to face a mini-cyclone, stolen fans, enemy spies, eclectic elements and desert dunes hotter than an oven to get there ...And in their absence it's up to Rufus to keep his mother and their house safe from greedy Tullock and his nightmarish skeletal sidekick, Scratskin. Hair-raising and harebrained, and with equally over-the-top illustrations by award-winning illustrator, David Roberts!