A Burt Award for African Literature winning title.

Everyone knows stepmothers are bad, wicked and just plain evil. Buerki Puplampu cannot believe that her widowed father is getting remarried when her mother has not even been dead for long! She just knows that Naadu Nartey is wrong for her father.

It isn't even because Naadu is bigger than a hippo or because she laughs like a cow or has hair on her face and chest like a cavewoman. She just knows. Some people call that feeling intuition, some call it superstition, soem even say it's a gift. Call it what you want but Buerki's gut feelings have never failed her.

She vows to do everything in her power to save her younger brother and herself from the fate she knows is awaiting them. They will not be maltreated or abused by this new woman. She will make sure of it.