Jon for Short

Name: William Joseph
Price range: $

by Malorie Blackman

Interest age: 14+
Reading age: 7+

Published by Barrington Stoke, 2013

Horror
Dyslexia

About this book

Jon (or is it Joe?) lies alone and amnesiac in his hospital bed, plagued by a disturbing dream of a torch, a knife, and a murder in the dark. Why is he being kept alone, and how did he get here? Why do the nurses seem to hate him so much? And why do they keep taking his limbs away?

This is a slim but well-realised book: Vladimir Stankovic’s dark illustrations are a perfect partner to Malorie Blackman’s tight prose, and, like all the best horror stories, the reader’s sympathies are elicited only to be betrayed by a growing sense that things are not quite as they seemed at first. This book has been written specifically with dyslexic young people in mind, and is both short and simply told. This makes it no less effective, however, and it would be enjoyed (if that’s the right word) by any younger teenager with a taste for the macabre. A chilling tale with a nasty twist.

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.

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