North of Nowhere

by Liz Kessler

Anticipating a half-term week's holiday chilling out with her friends, Mia's plans are upset when she finds out that her grandfather has mysteriously disappeared, and she and her mother must go to support her grandmother.

In the sleepy seaside village of Porthaven there are few other young people, and Mia misses the lively company of her absent grandfather. But she soon meets Philip, who is also on holiday in the village, and together they discover a boat with a diary hidden on board. Through the diary, Mia also begins to correspond with Dee, a local girl living on a mysterious offshore island. Mia soon realises that there are many mysteries in Porthaven - and eventually she is able to unravel the intriguing secrets of her own family history.

This engrossing time-slip adventure with an atmospheric seaside setting will please fans of Kessler's popular Emily Windsnap series. Yet although it has magical elements, this is first and foremost a story about friendship and families, in particular the relationships between children and grandparents.

Publisher: Orion Children's Books

Liz Kessler

Liz Kessler is the author of two popular children’s series: Emily Windsnap and Philippa Fisher. A Year Without Autumn was her first standalone title and was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Awards 2012. Born in 1966, Liz grew up in the seaside town of Southport in the north west of England. She attended Farnborough Road Junior School, Merchant Taylors, and Abbotsholme School in Staffordshire, before going on to study English at Loughborough University, after which she gained a teaching qualification at Keele University. More recently, she gained a distinction in a Masters degree in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Before becoming an author, Liz taught English and Media Studies and ran Creative Writing courses. She also worked as a journalist at a few local and regional newspapers in Manchester and York.

After school and university, Liz lived on a narrowboat on the canal for about ten years, after which she settled briefly in Manchester before travelling round Europe in a campervan for a year. She now lives in St Ives, Cornwall.

http://www.lizkessler.co.uk/

Liz Kessler