Powers and his son Boothe, alias MapHead, are visitors from the the Dawn of Power, MapHead has come to meet his human mother for the first time, making his home on a farm, in a tomato house. Big on Ancient Rome and its chariot races, the young traveller finds modern society bewildering. He can flash up a map of any place across his head, but the rhythms and idioms of human speech are quite alien to him. It is the language of the heart, though, about which he has most to learn. Lesley Howarth has also written "The Flower King", which was shortlisted for the 1993 Whitbread Children's Novel Award.