Playing Dead
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- Playing Dead
by Tim Bowler - Black Rabbit Summer
by Kevin Brooks - Before I Die
by Jenny Downham - A World Away
by Pauline Francis - Creature of the Night
by Kate Thompson - Broken Soup
by Jenny Valentine
Who wrote it?
Tim Bowler, multi-award winning author, who won the Carnegie Medal in 1997 for his novel River Boy. Other books Tim has written include Midget, Starseeker, Apocalypse and Bloodchild.
What's it about?
So what am I going to tell you? Not much so don't get excited. You probably want to know my name. Well, that's a bit of a problem. I got loads. But there is one name I like. Everybody called me it in the old days. No one does now cos no one in this city knows it. And that's fine. I don't like to remember. But I do like the name. You can use it if you want. BLADE.
Playing Dead is the first of a series of books with cliffhanger endings and mysteries which carry the reader from book to book.
Fact File
Tim lives in a sleepy Devon village. He writes in an old stone outhouse from where he can often see foxes, rabbits, birds and sometimes even wild deer.
Tim's website is at www.timbowler.co.uk.
The Blade series website is at www.oup.com/oxed/children/blade/.
Black Rabbit Summer
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Who wrote it?
Kevin Brooks, who is a winner of the Branford Boase Award and the author of seven critically acclaimed novels including Martyn Pig, Lucas, Kissing the Rain, Candy and The Road of the Dead.
What's it about?
Pete Bowland was busy doing nothing that summer. Then she called. "Listen, Pete, you know that funfair, up at the recreation ground, I thought we could all meet up, you know, for old times' sake." But as secrets, bitterness and jealousies resurface, five old friends are plunged into the worst night of their lives.
Fact File
Kevin lives in North Yorkshire. Before becoming a full time writer, he did a variety of jobs including working in a crematorium, a zoo, a garage and a post office.
Black Rabbit Summer is featured on the Spinebreakers website at www.spinebreakers.co.uk/books/blackrabbitsummer.
Before I Die
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Who wrote it?
Jenny Downham. Before I Die is her first novel.
What's it about?
Tessa has just a few months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, she compiles a list. It's her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is sеx. Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up.
Fact File
Jenny used to be an actress, working with a community theatre company. She gave up acting when she had her second son and this is when she started to concentrate on writing.
The Before I Die website is at www.beforeidiebook.co.uk.
A World Away
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Who wrote it?
Pauline Francis, author of Raven Queen, which was shortlisted for the Leeds Book Awards 2008.
What's it about?
Taken from her mother and shipped to England as an exhibit for Sir Walter Raleigh, Nadie, a Native American, is thrust into the boiling pot of brutish Tudor life. Her only protector is Tom, a young blacksmith who falls in love with her. Too soon, however, Nadie is forced back to her exotic lands to help the English colonize her people.
Fact File
Pauline has lived in Africa and has been a French teacher and a school librarian. She is fascinated by the sixteenth century, where several of her books (including A World Away) are set.
Pauline's website is at www.paulinefrancis.co.uk.
Creature of the Night
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Who wrote it?
Kate Thompson, a multi-award winning author who won both the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2005 for The New Policeman.
What's it about?
When Bobby's mother moves the family into a rented house in the country, a neighbour tells him that a child was once murdered there. Bobby doesn't care. All he wants is to get back to Dublin and to resume his wild life there, stealing from the crowded shopping streets and racing stolen cars at night. But getting his old life back doesn't turn out to be so easy, and the longer he spends in the old cottage, the more convinced he becomes that something very strange is going on there.Fact File
Kate was born in Halifax and lived there until she was eight. She loves horses and has worked with racehorses both in England and the USA. She now lives in County Galway on the west coast of Ireland.
Kate's website is at www.katethompson.info.
Broken Soup
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Who wrote it?
Jenny Valentine, who won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2007 for her first novel Finding Violet Park, which was also shortlisted for the Leeds Book Awards 2008.
What's it about?
When the good-looking boy with the American accent presses the dropped negative into Rowan's hand, she's sure it's all a big mistake. But next moment he's gone, lost in the crowd of bustling shoppers. And she can't afford to lose her place in the checkout queue - after all, if she doesn't take the groceries home, nobody else will. Rowan has more responsibilities than most girls her age. These days, she pretty much looks after her little sister single-handedly - which doesn't leave much time for friends or fun. So when she finds out that Bee from school saw the whole thing, it piques her curiosity. Who was the boy? Why was he so insistent that the negative belonged to Rowan?
Fact File
Jenny worked in a wholefood shop in Primrose Hill for fifteen years where she met many extraordinary people and sold more organic loaves than there are words in her first novel.
Jenny's publisher's website is at www.harpercollinschildrensbooks.co.uk.