THE HOUNDED

On his fifteenth birthday, Monty is at rock bottom. Ignored by his parents, bullied at school, and with a brain that's prone to going walkabout, he's all by himself. Until he meets the black dog for the first time. It's just like any other dog, except that only Monty can see it. And it talks. And Monty's not sure whether it's a friend - or a foe. But the black dog gets him talking to pretty, popular Eliza Robertson for the first time. It takes him to places he's never been. And eventually it will take him, and the people around him, to the very edge.

THE HOUNDED is a book about depression and working out who you really are, from one of Australia's most prolific children's television writers.

Simon Butters is a screenwriter in film and television. Simon was the inaugural winner of the Australian Writers' Guild John Hinde Science Fiction Award for his film Min Min. The Hounded is Simon's first novel and was shortlisted for the 2014 Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award.