The third illustrated young fiction offering from Polly Ho-Yen & Sojung Kim-McCarthy.
When Ziggy goes to sleep in their new bed at their dad’s house, they wake up in the middle of the dark and scary night forest. When even sleeping at their mum’s house doesn’t help, Ziggy is forced to face their fears... but maybe that scary forest isn’t as scary as it sounds?
Deals with themes of divorce/separation & night terrors through Polly’s poetic and gently magical lens, accompanied by black-and-white artwork by Sojung Kim-McCarthy.
Polly Ho-Yen used to be a primary school teacher in London and while she was teaching there she would get up very early in the morning to write stories. The first of those stories became her critically acclaimed debut novel Boy in the Tower, which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and FCBG Children’s Book Award. All four of her middle-grade novels – including Fly Me Home, Where Monster’s Lie and How I Saved the World in a Week – have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Polly’s previous younger fiction novel, The Boy Who Grew a Tree was shortlisted for the Teach Primary 2022 book awards, and featured in the 2023 Read for Empathy collection (primary). The book is also currently shortlisted for the inaugural The Week Junior Book Awards, in the Younger Fiction category.
She lives in Bristol with her husband and daughter.