Ali Sparkes
Ali is an author of more than 40 children's adventures - most of them published with Oxford Children's Books. Her first stand alone novel - Frozen In Time - was Blue Peter Book of the Year in 2010 and her more recent novel Car-Jacked has won five regional awards and been shortlisted for the UK's national Childen's Book Award. Starting out as a newspaper reporter and then a BBC broadcast journalist, Ali had a spell writing comedy for BBC Radio 4 before getting her first book deal and publishing her debut Shapeshifter series novel - Finding the Fox - in 2006.
Books
Car-Jacked
Author: Ali Sparkes
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Ross McAllister has just robbed a bank, is on the run and must get to London with £100,000 by Wednesday or his brother will die. But when he steals a car, the last thing he expects is to find 12-year-old genius Jack in the back seat. Jack is shocked too, and even though he knows it's a bad idea, he decides to stay and help Ross. London is hundreds of miles a…
Frozen in Time
Author: Ali Sparkes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 8+
Sparkes justifiably won the Blue Peter Children's Book Award 2010 with this novel, almost a twenty-first century update of a Blyton Famous Five adventure.
Night Speakers
Author: Ali Sparkes
Publisher: Scholastic
Interest age: 11-14
Reading age: 9+
An atmospheric supernatural thriller, in which three unlikely allies must solve an eerie mystery to put a stop to an escalating wave of killing that threatens their town.
Out of This World
Author: Ali Sparkes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Tyrone Lewis was just an ordinary thirteen year old, until the day he discovered something extraordinary in the woods . . . a glowing lump of rock or metal or something. Whatever it is, it gives him an awesome power. And a lot of trouble . . . because someone wants it back, and they'll stop at nothing to get it.
S.W.I.T.C.H Spider Stampede
Author: Ali Sparkes
Illustrator: Ross Collins
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Interest age: 7+
Reading age: 7+
Follow Josh and Danny on their terrifying trail down the plughole...
Wishful Thinking
Author: Ali Sparkes
Publisher: OUP
Interest age: 10+
Reading age: 10+
This funny and engaging book from a Blue Peter Book Award-winning author holds plenty of appeal for boys and girls alike