Remembering a 90's childrens book about disease, female protagonist with a mutant sheep?

Question

During the year 2001 I read a children's horror novel, whose title I have forgotten. I would really like to read it again as an adult, I think about this book all the time! Unfortunately it has been difficult to track down, as I can remember 6 things about this book:

• It was most likely set in Australia, though I could be wrong.

• It had a greenish cover, possibly with a slightly horrific picture of a zombie sheep. Again, I could be wrong.

• The female main character's father gets remarried, and her male friend (her step brother?) gets infected with an illness.

• Later on they find her late mother's crashed school bus, and get chased by a sheep which is infected with the illness, and it shies away from her dead mum's trainer, because the mould growing on it is the cure.

• The boy and girl are attacked later on by plants infected with the disease, which stop their car and drink the fuel from their tank

• They later take shelter in a sewer and find the boy's father, who also has the disease but has controlled it somehow with this mould stuff.

If anyone recognises any of this please reply- even if it is only to say that you read it too!

Answer 1

This is the series "Wicked" by Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman, two wonderful Australian authors.

1. The Slobberers
2. Battering rams
3. Croaked
4. Dead ringer
5. Creeper
6. Till death us do part

They are published as one book, but I first met them written as one story, spread across 6 short books. It's been a while since I read them, but from the titles, Battering Rams has the carnivorous sheep, and Creeper has the infected plants.

Here's a link to the book on Paul Jenning's website.