We are delighted to welcome award-winning children's author Geraldine McCaughrean (pronounced Muh-cork-run) to our judging pane. Geraldine has written more than 170 books, published in 61 countries and her work has been translated into over 45 languages.
Geraldine will be judging the children's book entries to find the best page-turning children's eBook. Geraldine said:
I’m particularly looking forward to reading stylish prose projecting adventure, mystery fiction in interesting – possibly historical settings, and not simply involving children in isolation, but adult characters, too.
Best known for her official sequel to Peter Pan ~ Peter Pan in Scarlet, Geraldine is also a three-time recipient of the Whitbread/Costa Children's Book Award, the Michael L. Printz Award and a double Carnegie Medal winner.
Geraldine McCaughrean is one of the greatest living children's authors ~ The Bookseller
Read more about Geraldine and her books.
Geraldine McCaughrean's Books
A Little Lower Than Angels
Gabriel takes refuge from his master's cruelty with a band of travelling mystery players. His name and appearance suggest to the play-master a hoax miracle scam, which makes them rich. But miracles have to be handled with care, and in a time of plague, miracle-workers face dangers, which are just not worth the risk...
THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
After Comity’s mother dies, her father loses himself in his work – transmitting telegrams across the vast emptiness of 19th century Australia. Comity relies for company on the aboriginal yard-boy Fred who introduces her to the dangerous but beautiful landscape surrounding her home. They share stories and confidences; myth, beliefs and imaginings swirl together. But when a second telegrapher arrives, life takes a darker turn. Quartz Hogg is a brute, but if they run, will the wilderness prove any kinder?
A Pack of Lies
When MCC Berkshire moves into the antiques shop, he turns life upside down for Ailsa and her mother. He sleeps on the old bed in the shop, and buttonholes every potential customer with a special story, told just for them. But just who is MCC? And why does he tell such awful lies? Ailsa has never met anyone like this, but MCC cannot afford to become too involved, because MCC has a story all of his own. The idea of this book was to provide a 'taster' of all the different story genres - romance, mystery, horror, adventure, comedy... all within a story about friendship and pretending.
Gold Dust
Inez and her brother Maro are amazed to see a big hole being dug outside their father's shop. Their amazement grows as other holes appear in the main street. Then the rumours begin to spread: there is gold under the little town of Sierra Vazia. But as gold-hunters descend on the town to try their luck, life in the little town becomes increasingly unbearable. Inez and Maro, with the help of their samba-singing schoolteacher, set out to save their home from the terrible symptoms of gold fever.
Plundering Paradise (U.S. - The Pirate's Son)
Nathan must leave school. Tamo White is leaving of his own accord. He suggests that Nathan go with him - back to Madagascar where Tamo's father ruled as a pirate king.
But what will the island hold for a British boy from a staunchly Christian background, and is it any place to take his sister, the mousy Maud? The Malagasy wildlife, religious beliefs, climate and lifestyle seem, by turns, both marvellous and terrible. But the Malagassies share their island with pirates, and Tamo's father had a secret the pirates would very much like to know. Suddenly just staying alive is going to take all the ingenuity and courage three children can muster.
Forever X
When the Shepherds' car breaks down on the way to their summer holiday, the only place they can find to stay is Forever Xmas, the hotel where every day is Christmas Day. Mr and Mrs Shepherd would like to give the festivities a miss; four-year-old Mel wants to enter into them heart and soul. Joy is not sure how she should react, but when she makes friends with Holly, the resident elf, she can't help being drawn in to the strange Partridge household.Then the mysterious Mr Angel arrives, who has the power to ruin everything and seems bent on using it. Can old F.C. and the children foil him and keep the police at bay?
The Stones Are Hatching
Phelim knows he is nothing out of the ordinary. His sister is always telling him so. Why, then, is he suddenly beset by strangers calling him by the wrong name and telling him he must attempt the impossible – that everything depends on him? The countryside is overrun with monsters so old that the world has forgotten their names. The washerwoman at the river predicts he will soon be dead. But the girl with no shadow, the leaping madman and the Obby Oss will not let him give up. Phelim Green must keep his rendezvous with the Stoor Worm whose warmth, in waking, is causing the very stones under her to hatch.
The Kite Rider
Haoyou sees his father killed ‘testing the wind’ for a ship about to set sail – hauled aloft on a hatch-cover, just as if he were a kite. Horrific a place as the sky now seems, Haoyou is obsessed by its vastness, its dangers, its population of spirits. Somehow, it has become his fate to fly on the wind like his father, to man a kite. And when the circus of the Great Miao comes to town, it seems it is Haoyou’s fate to travel with them into the very presence of Khubilai Khan, Mogul conqueror, the unimaginable enemy of every Chinese patriot.
Stop the Train
The people who make the ‘Land Run’ to Florence, Oklahoma, foresee a marvellous future in a new state, a future full of prosperity and possibilities. Then the railway bypasses the town. Without the railway, the settlers do not stand a chance; their town will wither and die, their dreams will come to nothing. This story tells of their efforts to stop the train, while contending with the hardships of a strange new life in the middle of nowhere.
Showstopper!
The Bright Lights Theatre Company, known to readers of Stop the Train, are on tour, performing the works of The Bard in Darkville, a company town featuring the magnificent "Shakespeare Theatre". Sissy and Kookie have even come to visit them for a taste of the theatrical life. Unfortunately, Darkville is not quite what it seems. And arriving by the same train as the Bright Lights are four visitors with less cultural pursuits in mind. They have come to rob the bank.
Not The End of The World
We all know of Noah and his three sons, who built an ark and rode out the Flood. But what would it really have been like aboard that floating zoo, surrounded by a dying world? And just what happened during those forty days and nights of rain that the stories never mention….?
The White Darkness
Captain Oates, hero of the Antarctic, has been dead for nearly a century. But not in Sym’s head. There, he is her constant companion, her soul mate, her advisor, her resort. It is as if he walked out of the Polar blizzard and into her mind. In fact, if it were not for Titus, life might be as bleak a place as the Antarctic wilderness. Then a short family outing makes her ask the question she has long been avoiding: Who but the mad trust for happiness to someone or something that isn’t there?
Tamburlaine’s Elephants
Rusty is old enough for his first battle – old enough to be accounted a warrior in the vast roaming army of the mighty Mongol Emir, Lord of the Fortunate Conjunction, Tamburlaine. To him falls the honour of taking prisoner one of the battle elephants of Delhi – no mean feat if you have never met an elephant before. But in meeting the elephant’s driver, Kava, Rusti’s plans for the warrior life begin to fall apart. Friendship does so complicate the straightforward business of killing people. Added to which, Rusty discovers a secret about himself – a secret so big that it bars his way forward as surely as an elephant in an alleyway.
Peter Pan in Scarlet
Dreams are leaking out of Neverland. Something is wrong. But if Mrs Wendy and the Lost Boys are going to investigate, first they must recover their childhood and the power of flight. Sure enough, the Neverwood has turned scarlet with autumn, the lagoon black with pollution. But somehow the call to adventure distracts the visitors from their rescue mission. Besides, Peter has found a certain treasure map and is intent on finding it. A quest begins – beyond the bounds of Neverland as far as Never-been-there-Land.
The Death Defying Pepper Roux
Pepper is due to die before he is 14. No one disputes it. But when his 14th birthday dawns, he cannot quite face the prospect. So he runs. Hiding in a succession of other people’s lives, he hopes the angels will lose sight of him. Perhaps he should be worrying more about the various low-lifes he is encountering. But Pepper (being a truant sinner) tends to think the best of people and tries to spread happiness and good news before it’s too late and fate catches up with him. His instincts are quite right: he is being hunted – it’s just a matter of who will catch up with him first.
Pull Out All The Stops (U.S. Glorious Adventures of The Sunshine Queen)
With diphtheria in town, school a thing of the past, and her house in ruins, any safe haven looks welcoming to Cissy Sissney - even a derelict paddle steamer stranded in a muddy field. Better still when the boat is home to old friends But soon Cissy, Kookie and Tibs and their disapproving school teacher find themselves mere flotsam on the flooded Missouri, members – like it or not – of the Bright Lights, Last Ditch & Final Curtain Company en route for mayhem, drama, narrow escapes, huge gambles, triumphs, disasters and a hanging. All aboard for the voyage of a lifetime – there’s no going back!
The Positively Last Performance
The Royal Theatre has seen better days. But so have the ghosts who live there.
The nightly shows at the Royal Theatre must be seen to be believed. The problem is that nobody can see them. Except Gracie, that is. Newly arrived in her favourite seaside town and its beautiful theatre, Gracie is quickly making friends. There’s Mikey the Mod who drives a scooter, Miss Melluish whose skirt is missing, and Frank Stuart, the maker of mechanical elephants. But the old theatre is under threat. Will Gracie and her friends be able to save their home, or is the curtain set to fall on their very last performance?
Where The World Ends
In the summer of 1727, a group of men and boys are put ashore on a remote sea stac to harvest birds for food. No one returns to collect them. Why? Surely nothing but the end of the world can explain why family and friends would abandon them to endure storms, starvation and terror without end. And how are they to survive, housed in stone and imprisoned on every side by the ocean?
