Showing results by author "Sally Gardner" in All Categories

France 1789: a time of terror; a charismatic boy, Yann, who must find out who he is; the daring rescue of Sido, an aristocrat's daughter: these are the elements in this tremendous adventure by a consummate storyteller, a marvellous tale of the first days of the French Revolution.

Timmy Twinkle is chubby. That means he gets bullied at school and hasn't any friends. He longs to play football, but he's hopeless at games. He's miserable. And it doesn't help when Gramps tells him about Great Uncle Vernon, a chubby boy who grew up to be a famous footballer.

Neva Friezland is born into a world of trickery and illusion, where fortunes can be won and lost on the turn of a card. She is also born with an extraordinary gift. She can predict the weather. In Regency England, where the proper goal for a gentlewoman is marriage and only God knows the weather this is dangerous. It is also potentially very lucrative.

The story is told by Coriander, daughter of a silk merchant in 1650s London. Her idyllic childhood ends when her mother dies and her father goes away, leaving Coriander with her stepmother, a widow who is in cahoots with a fundamentalist Puritan preacher. She is shut away in a chest and left to die, but emerges into the fairy world from which her mother came, and where time has no meaning. When she returns, charged with a task that will transform her life, she is seventeen.

Women imprisoned by superstition, chained by guilt. Perched on a mountain in a land of ancient forests is a village, rife with secrets. Cut off from the outside world, it is run by the elders, men to whom tradition is all. Edith lives alone with her alcoholic father, who is forcing her to marry the village butcher. But she is in love with a shepherd who promised to return to her. As the village becomes isolated in a sea of snow, Edith loses her power of speech. And it is this enchantment that will have far-reaching consequences, not only for Edith, but for the whole village.

France 1789: a time of terror; a charismatic boy, Yann, who must find out who he is; the daring rescue of Sido, an aristocrat's daughter - these are the elements in this tremendous adventure by a consummate storyteller, a marvellous tale of the first days of the French Revolution.

Spot on the Fishcake! The famous fairy detective agency, Wings & Co, has a problem. Really quite a big problem. Well, a few of them actually. There's the missing giant, Billy Buckle, who has vanished without a trace, and left his giant daughter with the detectives. There's a surprise visit to the seaside, which uncovers a murder and a stolen diamond. And then there's that tricky business of the TV talent show. Squat on a squid, this is Emily, Buster and Fidget's most complicated case yet. Read by Simon Russell Beale.

Emily Vole makes headline news in the first weeks of her life, when she is found in an abandoned hatbox in Stansted Airport. Then, only a few years later, her neighbour Mrs String dies, leaving Emily a mysterious inheritance: an old shop, a small bunch of golden keys, and a cat called Fidget. In the shop Emily discovers drawers full of fairy wings and the beginning of an adventure of a lifetime as the old Fairy Detective Agency comes back to life. It is up to Emily to reopen the shop, and recall the fairies to duty.

When his parents are lost in space, Sam is left, heartbroken, in the care of the horrible Hilda Hardbottom. Then he finds a tiny spaceship in the cabbage patch and meets a little alien called Splodge. How Splodge makes him invisible, and how Sam uses his new talent in his darkest hour makes a touching and extremely funny story with lovely memorable characters.

Crumble cakes! When Betsy joins Myrtle the mermaid in her underwater world, she discovers there may be monsters...shipwrecks, lost treasure and secret cities. A seapig's prize seahorse, Pudding Pie, has been stolen by a cantankerous giant octopus and Betsy and Mr Tiger must go to the rescue in their new submarine. But what happens when a tiger's whiskers and tail are simply too long to squeeze into forgotten dark caverns where even the moon cannot shine, and Betsy has to take the final steps of the adventure on her own?

What is rubbish today is treasure tomorrow. Join Captain Spoons, Mug, Jug, Brew, Skittle and friends on Rubbish Island: wander through its warren of underwater rooms, including a toothbrush library and a hospital for sick fish, climb its terraces overlooking the sea and scale Rubbish Mountain. Prize-winning author Sally Gardner takes the Tindims on their first ocean adventure to show keen young ecologists how to help protect our planet for the future. A new series that empowers young listeners to get creative with their rubbish and save the planet.

Crumble cakes! A red rogue wind is blowing, and a wicked pirate captain and his crew are marauding the Seven Seas near the island left off the map of the world. A rare egg has gone missing and a very unhappy sea dragon wants it back. A pirate ship, The Kettle Black, is anchored in a secret cove off the island left off the map of the world. Betsy and her mum, Myrtle the mermaid, must dive deep beneath the waves, while Alfonso Glory and Mr Tiger fly high above the clouds in a hot air balloon. It's time for Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Gongalongs to set off on their second adventure....

When Betsy K. Glory, the daughter of a mermaid and an ice cream maker, meets the mysterious Mr Tiger they have a giant challenge: a moon to turn blue, berries to collect and wishable-delicious ice cream to create. The sort that makes wishes come true. With Mr Tiger and his troupe of Gongalong circus acrobats, a toad under a spell, a lonely giant and Mum and Dad, Betsy sets off on her quest.

1870. It is opening night at the Royal Opera House in a freezing city by the sea, where a huge crystal chandelier in the shape of a galleon sparkles magically with the light of 750 candles. Celeste, a theatre rat, wakes up in a costume basket from what she hopes is a bad dream, to find out that everyone at the theatre where she works thinks she is someone else. When the chandelier falls, she is haunted by a strange girl who claims to know Celeste's past and why she must play a game called the Reckoning to try to save the people she loves.

I would like to make myself the heroine of this story and my character to be noble - an innocent victim led astray. But alas, sir, I would be lying.... Tully Truegood: orphan. Magician's apprentice. Whore. In prison, accused of murder, Tully begins to write her life story. A story that takes her from a young daughter-skivvy in the back streets of 18th-century London to her stepmother Queenie's fairy house - a place where decadent excess is a must....

Narrated against the backdrop of a ruthless regime determined to beat its enemies in the race to the moon, Maggot Moon is the stunning new novel from award-winning author Sally Gardner. When his best friend, Hector, is suddenly taken away, Standish Treadwell realises that it is up to him, his grandfather and a small band of rebels to confront and defeat the ever-present oppressive forces of the Motherland. Utterly original and stunning, it is impossible not to be moved by Maggot Moon's powerful story and the unforgettable heroism of Standish.

At the Wings & Co. Fairy Detective Agency, Emily Vole and her friends are beginning to worry. It's five months since their official opening and they still haven't had one case. Then local landowner Sir Walter Cross dies suddenly and mysteriously. The detectives suspect fairy meddling. And when Mr Rollo the tailor mysteriously loses everything and Pan Smith's wedding plans are ruined the night before her big day, they're convinced there must be magic at play.

A mysterious boy is the focus of a novel that takes us from the September Massacres of 1792 to the death of Robespierre four years later. After rescuing Sido, the young daughter of an aristocrat, he flees to England, making secret journeys back to France to smuggle out refugees. He and Sido fall in love - but then she is kidnapped, and he needs all his courage and skill to rescue her a second time. Even then the young lovers are not safe, for our hero learns who he really is, and how can Sido marry him?

Podgy Bottom is in trouble. All over town cars are being shrunk to the size of a matchbox in the blink of an eye; a giant purple bunny rabbit is running riot and a strange-looking broomstick is causing chaos and calamity.... Sounds like a case for Wings & Co, the famous fairy detective agency! Can Emily, Budget, and Fidget put a stop to this magical mischief before it's too late?

It is 1796. Duval Harlington, recently released from a French prison, is on his way home. He must reach his late father’s estate Muchmore House before the following evening if he is to inherit it. But the inheritance rests on another condition: he must also be married. He is at a market, hoping to buy a fast horse, when he hears about a wife sale. He takes his chance and makes an extravagant bid for young widow, Edmée Hyde. To his delight and dismay, the bid is accepted and they marry, only to find that he and Edmée are both hiding life-threatening secrets.