What the judges said: It employs sumptuous colour, and layers of exquisite decorative detail to really draw you into the story. You can feel the presence of the ghost; there is a real sense of her movement. Though the illustrator has not stuck to a single colour palette, there is no jarring. There is plenty for children to look at in this book which repays revisiting.
Introducing Jinnie Ghost, thin as the wind, with hair as white as the feathers of owls and eyes like water. Jinnie whispers dreams to children as they sleep. She brings Charlotte's dolls to life, makes Amy's carpet bubble with frogs and toads and conjures up a giant to carry Joe away shoulder-high to his castle in the sky. But the break of dawn takes Jinnie away...and the children wake to a new day, brushing wonder from their eyes. This perfectly-pitched poem takes readers on a thrilling fantasy journey, raising a shiver or two on the way, but returning them safe and sound in the morning.
Berlie Doherty is the author of the best-selling novel, Street Child, and over 60 more books for children, teenagers and adults, and has written many plays for radio, theatre and television. She has been translated into over twenty languages and has won many awards, including the Carnegie Medal for both Granny Was a Buffer Girl and Dear Nobody, and the Writers’ Guild Award for both Daughter of the Sea and the theatre version of Dear Nobody.
She has three children and seven grandchildren, and lives in the Derbyshire Peak District.
