LoveReading4Kids Says
This is a gripping, fast-paced and at times heart-stopping read about a 13 year old boy's search for identity by the winner of the 2006 Costa Children's Book Award. Hal's exclusion from school leads him to a period of discovery and reflection down on the coast with a great aunt. Here his anger subsides and his thoughts are for his father he's never met. Down on the beach he hears voices and is sure he sees someone - he's certain it's his father, but is it? Newbery is an incredibly accomplished children's novelist and this one, written with sparing prose brilliantly captures the highs and lows of a boy leading into adolescence. That said, girls will devour it too.
Be sure to check out Nevermore by the same author and for younger readers (7+)her terrific Cat Tales titles.
LoveReading4Kids
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The Sandfather Synopsis
Hal's life is in upheaval. Trouble at school; problems at home; a quarrel with friends. Then Hal is sent to his grandfather's seaside home.
Soon, his anger is absorbed by the pull of the crashing waves, buffeted by the tides, smoothed by the endless sands. Yet thoughts of the father he has never known, and from whom his only legacy is a bag of marbles, won't go away. In fact, soon, his dad seems to be everywhere: in the sand figures Hal makes on the beach; in his dreams; in the shape of Wesley Prince, his mother's old boyfriend.
Since no one will tell him the truth, Hal is determined to find out for himself. Will his elusive father ever come into his life? Is he any more substantial than the sandfather, blurred and dissolved by the incoming tide?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781842555484 |
| Publication date: |
5th February 2009 |
| Author: |
Linda Newbery |
| Publisher: |
Orion Publishing Co |
| Format: |
Paperback |
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About Linda Newbery
Linda Newbery always wanted to be a writer, filling exercise books with stories which she hid in her wardrobe, but only began submitting her work once she became a secondary school teacher. She had her first novel published in 1988 and is now a full-time writer. Linda writes for various age groups and has twice been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, for The Shell House and Sisterland and in 2006 won the Costa Children’s Book Award for Set in Stone.
Linda lives in a Northamptonshire village with her husband and three cats. She is an active member of the SAS and on the committee of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group of the Society of Authors.
Linda on Linda
When I was a child, dreaming that one day I might be an author, I used to gaze longingly at the N shelves in bookshops and libraries, and imagine my own books parked next to E. Nesbit’s. She’s still there, with her classic stories The Railway Children, Five Children and It, and others. Philip Pullman, nearby, takes up an awful lot of space, but sometimes there’s room for me between them.
As a child I used to do a lot of secret writing in my bedroom. I rarely showed anyone, and certainly not my teachers. At that time I was rather unwisely trying to write complete novels. Later, when exams got in the way, I began writing poetry - because poems could be short!
When I was a teenager, there was no such thing as teenage fiction – you went straight from children’s books to adult books. It wasn’t until much later, when I was training to be an English teacher, that I came across teenage fiction, and excellent writers such as K. M. Peyton, Aidan Chambers and Jill Paton Walsh. Before long I wanted to have a go.
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