New Releases by Siobhan Dowd

A stunning new edition of Dowd''s moving story of lives lived on the edge of society, and love in its many forms with powerful black and white illustrations from Emma Shoard. Bullying, name-calling, and a new school face Jim when his family halt at Dundray. The town aren''t happy that his community are there and it seems such an unfriendly place until he meets a girl named Kit. But acts of prejudice are constant, the threat to Jims family is building, and Kit''s friendship isn''t enough to stop the violence they face.A stunning new edition of this poignant novella of the reality of life in a traveller community and the simple power of kindness.

My name is Ted Spark. I am 12 years and 281 days old. I have seven friends. Three months ago, I solved the mystery of how my cousin Salim disappeared from a pod on the London Eye. This is the story of my second mystery. This summer, I went on holiday to New York, to visit Aunt Gloria and Salim. While I was there, a painting was stolen from the Guggenheim Museum, where Aunt Gloria works. Everyone was very worried and upset. I did not see what the problem was. I do not see the point of paintings, even if they are worth 9.8 million pounds. Perhaps that''s because of my very unusual brain, which works on a different operating system to everyone else''s.

Darra is an omen of unluck: a thirteenth child. To appease the dark god, Dond, and bring good fortune to her small island community, Darra must be sacrificed at the age of thirteen - by drowning. On the eve of her final birthday, Darra begins to dream of the twin brother she has watched from afar but never met, and dares to hope that she might escape her fate . . . The scouring wind and remorseless waves which beat against Darra''s island world are matched in Pam Smy''s powerful, wild and emotive illustrations. The Ransom of Dond is our final story from Siobhan, and a book to be treasured.

NOW A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor. At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting-- he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

While running away from a London foster home just before her fifteenth birthday, Holly has ample time to consider her years of residential care and her early life with her Irish mother, whom she is now trying to reach.

Holly n''en peut plus des éducateurs sociaux, des familles d''acceuil, de leur gentillesse et de leurs bonnes intentions. Chez les Aldridge, elle déniche dans le tiroir d''une commode une perruque blonde très glamour et c''est le déclic. Elle devient Sunshine, jeune fille sensuelle et rayonnante, et prend la route vers l''Irlande, à la recherche de sa mère.

DIGGING FOR PEAT in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him—his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what—a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls. Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.

Ireland 1984.After Shell''s mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, who is charming, eloquent, and persuasive. But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the center of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.This is a story of love and loss, religious belief and spirituality—it will move the hearts of any who read it.

Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye. But after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off–except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery. This is an unput-downable spine-tingling thriller–a race against time.