Checkmate

Name: William Joseph
Price range: $

by Malorie Blackman

Interest age: 12+
Reading age: 10+

Published by Random House, 2006

Classics
Coming-of-age
Thriller

About this book

How does a sweet and innocent child grow up to be so bitter and twisted that she is prepared not only to kill those she considers to be enemies of ‘the cause’ but also to blow herself up in the process?

This final installment in the Noughts & Crosses trilogy, set in an alternative reality where dark-skinned Crosses are considered superior to fair-skinned Noughts, follows Callie Rose’s life from ages 7-16.

As she grows up and gradually uncovers the secrets about her father, her grandparents and her early childhood which have been kept hidden for so long, her evil Uncle Jude reappears and instigates an insidious plan to destroy Callie Rose and her family.

A dramatic conclusion to an award-winning series, which is both relevant and topical. Not suitable for younger readers.

About the author

Malorie Blackman is acknowledged as one of today's most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers.

The novels in her Noughts & Crosses sequence have won several awards, including the Children's Book Award, and she has won many other awards for her books for the Random House list. Both Hacker and Thief! won the Young Telegraph/Gimme 5 Award – Malorie is the only author to have won this award twice – while Hacker also won the WH Smith Mind-Boggling Books Award in 1994.

Her work has appeared on screen, with Pig-Heart Boy, which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, being adapted into a BAFTA-award-winning TV serial. Malorie has also written a number of titles for younger readers. In 2005, Malorie was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children's books.

In 2008, she was then honoured with an OBE for her services to Children's Literature. She was the Waterstones Children's Laureate for 2013-2015.