David Almond

Coming of age in the shadow of northern England's shipyards, young Dominic is torn between the extremes of his shipbuilder family's lifestyle, a complex bully to whom he finds himself irresistibly drawn, and the tightrope-walking girl he loves.

"From the boundless imagination of David Almond comes a thought-provoking question, packaged in a lively illustrated chapter book: what if a robot went to school? When a new boy joins their class, everyone thinks he's . . . odd. George doesn't behave like other kids. He doesn't think like other kids. But he's great at football and snacking, and that's what matters to Dan and Maxie and friends, who resolve to make George feel welcome. Over time, they...

"Joe is starstruck, determined to find his way up, up, up to the magical lights in the night sky. "In your dreams!" his pals say. But when Joe and his dad put their heads and hearts together, there's no stopping them. Together they climb ladders, construct towers, and launch rockets in a tireless quest to reach the unreachable. Airy and playful, Gill Smith's dynamic illustrations perfectly complement David Almond's ebullient tale of sky-high courage--and...

Thirteen-year-old Kit goes to live with his grandfather in the decaying coal mining town of Stoneygate, England, and finds both the old man and the town haunted by ghosts of the past.

John, an English boy whose father is a World War I soldier while his mother works in a munitions factory, and who has been taught that he, too, is at war with the Germans, has a strange encounter with a German boy called Jan who is just like him.

"Stanley Potts's uncle Ernie has developed an over-the-top fascination with canning fish in the house, and life at 69 Fish Quay Lane has turned balmy. But there's darkness in the madness, and when Uncle Ernie's obsession takes an unexpectedly cruel turn, Stan has no choice but to leave. As he journeys away from the life he's always known, he mingles with a carnival full of eccentric characters and meets the legendary Pancho Pirelli, the man who swims...

Nanty Solo is new in town and claims she can turn children into birds. Terrified parents forbid the idea, but the children want to fly-- they want it very much-- and they do. One by one, they approach Nanty Solo. One by one, they are transformed until the sky over town teems with rooks and goldfinches, parakeets and sparrows. The adults take one look and cry, 'Get out of that sky this very minute!' But the sight of their offspring-- set free to soar,...

Having escaped from their orphanage on a raft, Erin, January, and Mouse float down into another world of abandoned warehouses and factories, meeting a strange old man and an even stranger girl with webbed fingers and little memory of her past.

Living with his mother in a small village on the edge of the suburbs, shy, often inarticulate, Joe Maloney frequently dreams of a beautiful, elusive tiger whose significance begins to be clear after he befriends a young trapeze artist who comes to town with a shabby traveling circus.

Using sticks, leaves, and clay, Little Ben makes a mouse, Sue, a bird, and Harry, a snake, but when they create a terrifying wolf that turns on them, Little Ben must summon the courage to save them.