George is not like any other kids in the class, or in fact like anyone Dan or his mates have ever met before. But George turns out to be clever and funny, and everyone soon forgets his oddness ... until a shocking truth comes to light. George is a robot! In fact he is part of an ambitious new experiment in robot-kind. But the experiment is in danger, and there are people out to destroy him. Can Dan, Maxie, Billy and Louise rescue their new pal from obliteration?
Bert and Betty Brown do, because Bert found one in his shirt pocket the other day while he was driving his bus. All of a sudden they had a little boy of their very own to care for - how heavenly!
Bert and Betty's friends think Angelino is lovely. So do Nancy and Jack and Alice from school. But the head teacher, Mrs. Mole, is not so sure. Neither is Professor Smellie. And who is the mysterious man in black who claims to be a school inspector? What could all these sneaky adults possibly have against such a perfect little angel?
Winner of the Guardian Children's Book Prize 2015
I'm the one who's left behind. I'm the one to tell the tale. I knew them both... knew how they lived and how they died.
Claire is Ella Grey's best friend. She's there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a North East landscape of gutted shipyards; of high arched bridges and ancient collapsed mines. She witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if her best friend has been captured and taken from her. But the loss of her friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world. This is her story - as she bears witness to a love so complete; so sure, that not even death can prove final.
(P) Hodder Children's Books 2016
Manege frei für Stanley Potts! Waisenjunge Stanley Potts lebt bei Tante und Onkel. Zum Geburtstag darf er auf den Jahrmarkt. An einem Stand entdeckt er Goldfische in Plastikbeuteln, die ihm furchtbar leid tun. Er macht abends die Bude des Standbesitzers sauber und darf dafür die Fische mit nach Hause nehmen. Doch da die Fischkonservenfabrik des Onkels schlecht läuft, stiehlt dieser Stanleys Goldfische und kreiert daraus ein neues Produkt: die Goldfischkonserve. Verstört läuft Stanley weg, heuert beim Jahrmarkt an und reist mit ihm in die nächste Stadt ...
May Malone is said to have a monster in her house, but what Norman finds there may be just the angel he needs. Joe Quinn's house is noisy with poltergeists, but could it be Davie's raging causing the disturbance? Fragile Annie learns the truth about herself in a photograph taken by a traveling man near the sea. Set in the northern English Tyneside country of the author's childhood, these eight short stories evoke gritty realities and ineffable longings, experiences from the everyday to the magical.
In brief autobiographical preludes, master storyteller David Almond speaks to his own inspiration and shows how all things can be turned into tales, reflecting on a time of wonder, tenderness, and joy.
International award-winner David Almond draws on memories of his early years in Tyneside, England, for a moving coming-of-age novel, masterfully told. A gentle visionary coming of age in the shadow of the shipyards of northern England, Dominic Hall is torn between extremes. On the one hand, he craves the freedom he feels when he steals away with the eccentric girl artist next door, Holly Stroud—his first and abiding love—to balance above the earth on a makeshift tightrope. With Holly, Dom dreams of a life different in every way from his shipbuilder dad's, a life fashioned of words and images and story. On the other hand, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the brutal charms of Vincent McAlinden, a complex bully who brings out Dom's darker desires, awakening something wild and reckless and killing in his nature. In a raw and beautifully crafted bildungsroman, David Almond reveals the rich inner world of a boy teetering on the edge of manhood, a boy so curious and alive and open to impulse that we fear for him and question his balance—and ultimately exult in his triumphs.
Billy Dean is a secret child. He has a beautiful young mother and a father who arrives at night carrying the scents of candles and incense and cigarettes. Birds fly to his window. Mice run out from his walls. His world is a carpet, a bed, pictures of the holy island, and a single locked door. His father fills his mind and his dreams with mysterious tales and memories and dreadful warnings. But then his father disappears, and Billy’s mother brings him out into the world at last. He learns the horrifying story of what was saved and what was destroyed on the day he was born, the day the bombers came to Blinkbonny. The kind butcher, Mr. McCaufrey, and the medium, Missus Malone, are waiting for him. He becomes the Angel Child, one who can heal the living, contact the dead, bring comfort to a troubled world. But there is one figure who is beyond healing, who comes looking for Billy himself — and is determined on a kind of reckoning. From master storyteller David Almond comes a gripping, brilliantly written novel about a hidden-away child who emerges into a broken world.
I wos a secrit shy and tungtied emptyheded thing.
I wos tort to read and rite and spell by my tenda littl muther & by Mr McCaufrey the butcha & by Missus Malone and her gosts.
So I am not cleva, so please forgiv my folts and my mistayks.
I am the won that glares into your harts & that prowls insyde yor deepist dremes.
Wonce I was The Anjel Childe. Now I am The Monster.
Just lissen and take note. Let the words enter yor blud & boans.
I am Billy Dean. This is the truth. This is my tale.
This is the downloadable audiobook edition of David Almond's striking and original work, The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean, complete and unabridged and read by the author himself.
There are some strange ideas floating around in Paul's apartment building. There's Mabel, who now calls herself Molly and whose brother hides under a paper bag. Then there's Clarence, the poodle who thinks he can fly. . . . But the strangest idea of all is Paul's. You see, Paul believes that the moon is not the moon but a great hole in the sky. How on earth (or not on earth) is he going to find out whether he's a crackpot or a genius? With a few equally crackpot (or genius) helpers and a very long ladder, that's how.
In a rainy town in the north of England, there are strange goings-on. Dad is building a pair of wings, eating flies, and feathering his nest. Auntie Doreen is getting cross and making dumplings. Mr. Poop is parading the streets, shouting LOUDER and LOUDER, and even Mr. Mint, the headmaster, is getting in a flap. And watching it all is Lizzie, missing her mam and looking after Dad and thinking how beautiful the birds are. What's behind it all? It's the Great Human Bird Competition, of course!
David Almond's Printz Honor-winning novel celebrates its 10th anniversary!Ten-year-old Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. But now his baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling garage. . . . What is this thing beneath the spiders' webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never before seen? The only person Michael can confide in is his new friend, Mina. Together, they carry the creature out into the light, and Michael's world changes forever. . . .From the Trade Paperback edition.
Bobby Burns knows he's a lucky lad. Growing up in sleepy Keely Bay, Bobby is exposed to all manner of wondrous things: stars reflecting off the icy sea, a friend that can heal injured fawns with her dreams, a man who can eat fire. But darkness seems to be approaching Bobby's life from all sides. Bobby's new school is a cold, cruel place. His father is suffering from a mysterious illness that threatens to tear his family apart. And the USA and USSR are testing nuclear missiles and creeping closer and closer to a world-engulfing war.
Together with his wonder-working friend, Ailsa Spink, and the fire-eating illusionist McNulty, Bobby will learn to believe in miracles that will save the people and place he loves.
