book cover

Thicker Than Water

by Anne Cassidy

Interest age: 13 to 16
Reading age: 8+

Published by Barrington Stoke, 2016

  • Chapter books
  • Classics

About this book

George dreams of settling in a seaside town and opening a record shop one day, but it's hard to stay anywhere for long when he has his cousin, Lennie, to look after.

Lennie is a gentle giant but has a habit of attracting trouble and doesn't know his own strength. George would get on better without him, but Lennie couldn't manage on his own.

For the moment, trying to stay under the radar and get some money saved means working for a dodgy pub landlord - but when trouble finds Lennie yet again, George has some hard decisions to make. 

If the story sounds familiar, that would be because it was inspired by the Steinbeck classic Of Mice and Men. Presented in a dyslexia-friendly format, this contemporary retelling captures much of the tension and pathos of the original but has been made accessible to a wider group of readers.

About the author

Anne Cassidy lives in Essex. She was a teacher for twenty years. Her first book was published in 1991 and she has since published over twenty teen novels. She is the author of Looking for JJ, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award 2004 and the Carnegie Medal 2005 and won the 2004 Booktrust Teenage Book Award.

As a crime writer, inspiration for Anne's books often comes from news stories of teen crime. Anne is also interested in the philosophical aspect of murder. She says, 'People take great delight in reading Crime Fiction. Why is this? We live in a modern liberal society which abhors the death penalty yet we soak up murder stories in print and on television. So I asked myself the question is it ever right to murder? Are there any circumstances that make murder the preferable option?'

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