Storm-Wake

by Lucy Christopher

Interest age: 12 to 18
Reading age: 10+

Published by Chicken House, 2018

  • Adventure
  • Love and romance

About this book

Moss lives with Pa on the island. They came there to escape flooding, which has swallowed the rest of the world. They can never leave, but it hardly seems to matter to Moss, because Pa is a sorcerer. He creates magic with the mysterious stormflowers. The stormflowers keep his dark moods away, and with their help, he summons spirits – like Cal, the fish-boy, and Aster, the sea-horse – to the shores of the island.

But then unexpected spirits arrive, and Cal finds something that should not exist… Is the island everything that it seems to be? And is Pa who he says he is?

Inspired by The Tempest, Storm-Wake would make an excellent companion novel for anyone studying that play. The love that develops between Moss and Cal is satisfying and realistic. Lyrical and dreamlike, this is a unique and beautiful novel. Especially intriguing and refreshing is the way in which Christopher never commits to fantasy or realism, but instead keeps her characters hovering, like a dream, on the threshold between magic and reality.

About the author

Lucy Christopher was only 25 years old when she came to prominence with her debut novel Stolen. It garnered international critical acclaim, won the 2010 Branford Boase Award and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in the UK. Overseas it was awarded a Golden Inky and shortlisted for the prestigious Prime Minister’s Literary Award in Australia, and received a Printz Honor in the USA. It has now sold a quarter of a million copies worldwide and has been translated into 16 languages. Her second novel, Flyaway, was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award.

Lucy Christopher was born in Wales but grew up in Australia and currently lives by some woods in Monmouthshire. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and lectures in writing for children and young adults at Bath Spa University.

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