LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
Interest Age 9+ Reader Age 8
Based on real-life events that saw Victorian heroine Grace Darling’s bravery at sea celebrated and rewarded (as the author shares in her Afterword, “Grace’s bravery astonished the country. Even Queen Victoria heard about her”), Hilary McKay’s Becoming Grace is an immensely inspirational story.
At the age of eight, Grace, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, almost drowned. As a result, she grows up terrified of the sea, though it plays such a big part in her family’s life. As her older siblings leave home, Grace feels the shifting tides of time — family, growing up, and change are also at the fore of this story.
Then, one night it falls to Grace and her father to rescue the survivors of a terrible crash at sea, with Grace spurring the rescue, and forced to confront her biggest fear head on: “The sea was like a woken wild animal. And Grace’s oar was alive and trying to escape. Her breath came in gasps amidst the wind and spray, the twisting oar, the wrestling sea.”
Retold with energy and atmosphere, and with the needs of dyslexic readers in mind, Becoming Grace does beautiful justice to the real Grace, and provides modern-day readers with a thrilling tale of bravery.
Joanne Owen
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About
Becoming Grace Synopsis
Award-winning Hilary McKay brings the childhood of Victorian heroine Grace Darling to life in this heartfelt reimagining of her life up to and including the Forfarshire shipwreck.
Grace Darling nearly drowned when she was eight years old, leaving her with a fear of boats and the sea. But it's a fear she has to overcome as the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, living on the Longstone Rock with her parents, four brothers, three sisters and her beloved dog, Happy.
Losses at sea bring shadows to an otherwise idyllic childhood, but everything Grace learns growing up on the coast is put to the test in 1838, when The Forfarshire is wrecked on the Harcar Rock, and she has to row out through the storm to the rescue.
Particularly suitable for readers aged 9+ with a reading age of 8.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780008700522 |
| Publication date: |
10th April 2025 |
| Author: |
Hilary McKay |
| Illustrator: |
Keith Robinson |
| Publisher: |
Barrington Stoke an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
120 pages |
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Press Reviews
Hilary McKay Press Reviews
Praise for Jodie:
“Packing so much in, this compassionate, dyslexia-friendly novella is an atmospheric, suspenseful adventure.” The Sunday Times
“Superbly chilling, brilliantly satisfying. A masterpiece of a modern-day ghost story.” Emma Carroll
“A hugely satisfying story about real loneliness, real friendship and a real ghost ... Beautifully unpredictable.” Lissa Evans
“A wonderfully spooky, deeply satisfying read. The eerie atmosphere of the saltmarsh is captured so perfectly ... and I loved Jodie’s emotional journey too.” Lucy Strange
“I love a good ghost story & Jodie is a beauty. Salt marshes, incom- ing tide, a loner, & a dog who barks mournfully in the distance. Eerie, glittering, atmospheric perfection from Hilary McKay.” Eloise Williams
Author
About Hilary McKay
Hilary McKay won the Costa Children's Book Award for The Skylarks' War, the Guardian Fiction Prize for The Exiles, and the Smarties and the Whitbread Award for The Exiles in Love and Saffy's Angel respectively. Hilary McKay's Fairy Tales was her first book with Macmillan Children's Books and is a critically acclaimed collection of clever retellings.
You can read her character Rose Casson's blog by clicking here - and Rose's tweets on the right hand side of this page.
Q & A with Hilary McKay
What is your earliest childhood memory?
Watching steam trains with my grandfather. He died before I was two years
old, so that is a very early memory.
If you could be any animal, what would it be and why?
Well, who could turn down the gift of flight? Or travel without luggage? Or a
life spent following the sun? Without doubt, I would be a swallow. I realise this
means a lifetime of eating flies, but I think it would be worth it.
What is your dream holiday destination?
I would start at the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico and travel South
through Central America, along the coast to Peru, then down through Chile
across to the Falklands and on to Antarctica, which I would circumnavigate.
Then I would travel North to New Zealand where I would spend a long time
warming up and then across to Australia. I would spend quite a long time in
Sydney and go up into the Blue Mountains (I might go sapphire hunting there)
and then to the Great Barrier Reef (of course).
That would be far enough for me.
What is your morning routine?
Alas, I do not have a morning routine.
If you could have one special talent, what would it be?
Singing, undoubtedly. That would make me the happiest. But I have a friend
whose talent is languages and I envy that one very much.
Likes: Millions of things! Books, cats, honey, letters from readers (hint, hint), real music, apples, swimming in cold water, chocolate coated ginger biscuits, trees.
Dislikes: Putting things away, litter, loud TV, hot rooms, being told what to think.
3 words that best descibe me: Untidy, happy, hopeful!
A Secret that not many people know: I am a VERY slow reader!
More About Hilary McKay
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