Russell Conwell Hoban was an American expatriate writer. His works span many genres, including fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magical realism, poetry, and children's books. He lived in London from 1969 until his death.
Flambards in Summer is a novel for children or young adults by K. M. Peyton, first published by Oxford in 1969 with illustrations by Victor Ambrus. It completed the Flambards trilogy (1967–1969) although Peyton continued the story a dozen years later, and controversially reversed the ending in Flambards Divided. Set in England just after World War I, Flambards in Summer features Christina Parsons as a young widow, returning to the decrepit Flambards estate to recover a life there.
Sonya Louise Hartnett is an Australian author of fiction for adults, young adults, and children. She has been called "the finest Australian writer of her generation". For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" Hartnett won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council in 2008, the biggest prize in children's literature.
David Almond is a British author who has written many novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim.
The Runaways is a children's novel by the English author Ruth Thomas, published by Hutchinson in 1987. It features eleven-year-old Julia and Nathan who find "an enormous sum of money", do not report it, and flee the city when they are threatened with punishment. Opening in the East End of London where Thomas was a primary school teacher, the story moves to places including Brighton and Exmoor.
The Seeing Stone, or Arthur: The Seeing Stone, is a historical novel for children or young adults, written by Kevin Crossley-Holland and published by Orion in 2000, the first book of the Arthur trilogy. Set primarily in the March of Wales during A.D. 1199 and 1200, it features a young boy named Arthur de Caldicot who observes a secondary story in the "Seeing Stone", the early life of legendary King Arthur. Crossley-Holland and The Seeing Stone won the annual Guardian Prize and Tir na n-Og Award.
Malcolm Charles Peet was an English writer and illustrator best known for young adult fiction. He has won several honours including the Brandford Boase, the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Prize, British children's literature awards that recognise "year's best" books. Three of his novels feature football and the fictional South American sports journalist Paul Faustino. The Murdstone Trilogy (2014) and "Mr Godley's Phantom" were his first works aimed at adult readers.
Keeper is a sports novel for young adults by Mal Peet, published by Walker Books in 2003. It was Peet's first novel and the first of three football stories featuring South American sports journalist Paul Faustino. Cast as an interview with Faustino, the world's best goalkeeper, El Gato, tells his life story. Peet won the Branford Boase Award, recognising the year's best debut novel for children.
Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal is a young-adult novel by Mal Peet, published by Walker Books in 2005. Within a 1995 frame story, where a 15-year-old girl inherits papers and other mementos from her deceased grandfather, it is set in the occupied Netherlands near the end of the Second World War; there it features two British-trained Dutch agents and the resistance to German occupation of the Netherlands. The novel interweaves past and present to show the lasting effects of war and the passions it arouses.
Fire, Bed, and Bone by Henrietta Branford is a historical novel for older children set at the time of the Peasants' Revolt. It was published by Walker Books in 1997. Branford won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.
Meg Rosoff is an American writer based in London, United Kingdom. She is best known for the novel How I Live Now, which won the Guardian Prize, Printz Award, and Branford Boase Award and made the Whitbread Awards shortlist. Her second novel, Just in Case, won the annual Carnegie Medal from the British librarians recognising the year's best children's book published in the UK.
Martin Waddell is a writer of children's books from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He may be known best for his picture book texts featuring anthropomorphic animals, especially the Little Bear series illustrated by Barbara Firth.
Janet Ahlberg and Allan Ahlberg were a British married couple who created many children's books, including picture books that regularly appear at the top of "most popular" lists for public libraries. They worked together for 20 years until Janet's death from cancer in 1994. He wrote the books and she illustrated them. Allan Ahlberg has also written dozens of books with other illustrators.
The Sterkarm Handshake is a young-adult science fiction novel by Susan Price, published by Scholastic UK in 1998. It features time travel between 21st-century and 16th-century Britain and conflict between FUP and the Sterkarms, a modern corporation and a Scottish clan. Price won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers. The novel was also one of five finalists for the Carnegie Medal from the British Library Association.
Pirate Diary: The Journal of Jake Carpenter is an account of the pirate life cast as the journal of a young cabin boy, written by Richard Platt and illustrated by Chris Riddell. It was published by Walker in 2001, two years after Castle Diary, also by Platt and Riddell. Platt continued the "Diary" series with illustrator David Parkins.
The New Policeman is a children's fantasy novel by Kate Thompson, published by Bodley Head in 2005. Set in Kinvara, Ireland, it features a teenage boy, J. J. Liddy, who learns that "time is leaking from his world into Tir na nOg, the land of the fairies". It inaugurated a series that is sometimes called Liddy.
Exposure is a sports novel for young adults by English writer Mal Peet, published by Walker Books in 2008. Inspired by William Shakespeare's Othello, the story follows Otello, a black association football player and his high-profile relationship with Desmerelda, a white celebrity. It also has a parallel plot about three street kids trying to live life in abject poverty.
A Pack of Lies: twelve stories in one is a children's novel with metafictional elements, written by Geraldine McCaughrean and published by Oxford in 1988. It features a family antique shop whose new salesman tells historical tales to sell antiques. The stories vary widely in type.
Goggle-Eyes, or My War with Goggle-Eyes in the US, is a children's novel by Anne Fine, published by Hamilton in 1989. It features a girl who thinks she hates her mother's boyfriend. In the frame story, set in a Scottish day school, that girl Kitty tells her friend Helen about hating her mother's boyfriend.
Soonchild is a fantasy novel for young adults written by Russell Hoban, first published by Walker in March 2012 with illustrations by Alexis Deacon. Set somewhere north of the Arctic Circle, it is based partly on Inuit mythology.
