Award-winning Geraldine McCaughrean tells more heart-warming stories as she brings to life the charming but impish little character Montecello, an orphan who haunts the streets of his birthplace Naples, sometimes bringing joy and sometimes playing tricks, according to his mood and the colour of the hat he is wearing. Montecello’s world in the dark alleyways of Naples is made tangible in Jan Diemberger’s striking illustrations.
Geraldine McCaughrean is one of today's most successful and highly regarded children's authors. She has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book Award (three times), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award (four times) and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Geraldine lives in Berkshire with her husband, daughter and golden retriever, Daisy.Read more about the author here.
'I reckon Geraldine McCaughrean knocks the socks off every other children's writer today. Everything she does is different and everything works – look at her list of prizes. She must write in tremendous bursts. Some years, she's so prolific the rest of us start joking that the fairies come in at night to do her work for her. Then she'll go quiet, so unlike all those writers who are persuaded by their publishers to come up with something every year, no matter how tired or drab. If Geraldine has nothing fresh to write, she doesn't write it.' (The Guardian)
