Best Selling Books by Marcus Sedgwick

Originally published in Great Britain by Orion Children''s Books.

Seven linked vignettes unfold on a Scandinavian island inhabitedNthroughout various time periodsNby Vikings, vampires, ghosts, and a curiously powerful plant.

''Do monsters always stay in the book where they were born? Are they content to live out their lives on paper, and never step foot into the real world?'' The Villa Diodati, on the shore of Lake Geneva, 1816: the Year without Summer. As Byron, Polidori, and Mr and Mrs Shelley shelter from the unexpected weather, old ghost stories are read and new ghost stories imagined. Born by the twin brains of the Shelleys is Frankenstein, one of the most influential tales of horror of all time. In a remote mountain house, high in the French Alps, an author broods on Shelley''s creation. Reality and perception merge, fuelled by poisoned thoughts. Humankind makes monsters; but who really creates who? This is a book about reason, the imagination, and the creative act of reading and writing. Marcus Sedgwick''s ghostly, menacing novel celebrates the legacy of Mary Shelley''s literary debut in its bicentenary year.

THE DAYS BETWEEN Christmas and New Year’s Eve are dead days, when spirits roam and magic shifts restlessly just beneath the surface of our lives. A magician called Valerian must save his own life within those few days or pay the price for the pact he made with evil so many years ago. But alchemy and sorcery are no match against the demonic power pursuing him. Helping him is his servant, Boy, a child with no name and no past. The quick-witted orphan girl, Willow, is with them as they dig in death fields at midnight, and as they are swept into the sprawling blackness of a subterranean city on a journey from which there is no escape. Praise for The Book of Dead Days: “Beautifully paced and sometimes blood-soaked. . . . A very tangible sense of evil.”—The Guardian “Subtle menace and power.”—The Independent “Packed with drama, mystery, and intrigue.”—The Bookseller

A present-day boy, a seventeenth-century girl, an ancient crone: for a single moment, their lives are fused by fire. A tense, brilliant and eerie novel, nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. The fire was a family tragedy that Jamie can''t forget, even in his dreams. And now there is something terrifying happening to him in Crownhill, the village where he''s been sent to get over his problems. Something to do with an evil old witch who gets into his nightmares, and a frightened girl, the victim of a long-ago witch hunt, whose presence lingers on . . . As the dark secrets of Crownhill are revealed, Jamie has to confront his worst fears in order to free himself from the horrors of the past.

A loaded gun, stolen gold, and a menacing stranger make for a thrilling frontier tale in this Printz Award–winning novel set in the Alaskan Gold Rush. In an isolated cabin, fourteen-year-old Sig is alone with a corpse: his father, who has fallen through the ice and frozen to death only hours earlier. Then comes a stranger claiming that Sig''s father owes him a share of a horde of stolen gold. Sig''s only protection is a loaded Colt revolver hidden in the cabin''s storeroom. The question is, will Sig use the gun, and why? This title has Common Core connections. A 2011 Bank Street Best Children''s Book of the Year

-First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by Orion Children''s Books, London.-

First published in Great Britain in 2007.

“A timely, sobering message about how humankind’s treatment of the environment impacts the environment’s treatment of humankind.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review Ash arrives in Snowflake, Arizona, and finds a small community of people who are sick, including Ash’s stepbrother, Bly. But it isn’t any ordinary sickness: modern life is poisoning them, and when Ash too falls ill, the doctor’s response is, “It’s all in your mind.” Meanwhile, the world beyond is succumbing to a breakdown of civilization only distantly perceived by Ash and the isolated residents of Snowflake, from which there may or may not be a chance for recovery. This humane and thoughtful novel explores the resilience of love and community in the face of crisis.

Marcus Sedgwick''s award-winning debut novel about surviving in a sinking world. Winner of the Branford Boase Award, FLOODLAND is an unstoppable force in young adult fiction. Imagine that a few years from now England is covered by water, and Norwich is an island. Zoe, left behind in the confusion when her parents escaped, survives there as best she can. Alone and desperate among marauding gangs, she manages to dig a derelict boat out of the mud and gets away to Eels Island. But Eels Island, whose raggle-taggle inhabitants are dominated by the strange boy Dooby, is full of danger too. The belief that she will one day find her parents spurs Zoe on to a dramatic escape in a story of courage and determination that leads to an unexpected and touching conclusion. FLOODLAND has a powerful and emotive theme, handled with warmth and humanity.

A potent, powerful and timely thriller about migrants, drug lords and gang warfare set on the US/Mexican border by PRINTZ MEDAL winning and CARNEGIE MEDAL, COSTA BOOK AWARD and GUARDIAN CHILDREN''S FICTION PRIZE shortlisted novelist, Marcus Sedgwick. Anapra is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the Mexican city of Juarez - twenty metres outside town lies a fence, and beyond it, America - the dangerous goal of many a migrant. Faustino is one such trying to escape from the gang he''s been working for. He''s dipped into a pile of dollars he was supposed to be hiding and now he''s on the run. He and his friend, Arturo, have only 36 hours to replace the missing money, or they''re as good as dead. Watching over them is Saint Death. Saint Death (or Santissima Muerte) - she of pure bone and charcoal-black eye, she of absolute loyalty and neutral morality, holy patron to rich and poor, to prostitute and narco-lord, criminal and police-chief. A folk saint, a rebel angel, a sinister guardian.

An interactive activity title for 9-12-year-olds on the power of kindness You can choose to make the world a better place. The power is within you! Every one of us experiences the world differently – we have different worries and problems, and we all have unique hopes and dreams – but there’s one thing that can unite us and make the world a better place, and that’s KINDNESS! Kindness is cool! No, really! Kindness can create positive change in all our lives. Whether it’s being a friend to someone who seems lonely, or simply smiling or giving somebody a thumbs up. When we support each other, we can be our best selves. Be the Change: Be Kind is your handbook on how to use your own voice to empower yourself and others to spread kindness. Award-winning children’s author Marcus Sedgwick tells the story of kindness – where it comes from, what it feels like and perhaps most importantly why it matters – and asks YOU what you would do in different everyday scenarios. ARE YOU READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Originally published: Great Britain: Orion Children''s Books, 2006.

Download the first 15 chapters of THE GHOSTS OF HEAVEN by award winning author, Marcus Sedgwick for FREE! Timeless, beautiful, and haunting, spirals connect the four episodes of this mesmerizing novel from Printz Award winner Marcus Sedgwick. They are there in prehistory, when a girl picks up a charred stick and makes the first written signs; there tens of centuries later, hiding in the treacherous waters of Golden Beck that take Anna, who people call a witch; there in the halls of a Long Island hospital at the beginning of the 20th century, where a mad poet watches the oceans and knows the horrors it hides; and there in the far future, as an astronaut faces his destiny on the first spaceship sent from earth to colonize another world. Each of the characters in these mysterious linked stories embarks on a journey of discovery and survival; carried forward through the spiral of time, none will return to the same place.

Early Readers are stepping stones from picture books to reading books. A blue Early Reader is perfect for sharing and reading together. A red Early Reader is the next step on your reading journey. Cudweed''s birthday is coming up, and, like all small boys, he has big ideas and many lists about the presents he''d really like. Preparations for the party are in full swing at Otherhand Castle and the excitement is mounting. Sadly though for Cudweed, his parents, Lord and Lady Otherhand are definitely not keen on him adding to his collection of pets. Will he be disappointed, or will he get his heart''s desire: a small but noisy monkey? And if he does get what he wants, will it be by fair means or foul?

A grim discovery brings disturbing revelations in this chilling ghost story from the phenomenal late Marcus Sedgwick.

It is 1915 and the First World War has only just begun. 17 year old Sasha is a well-to-do, sheltered-English girl. Just as her brother Thomas longs to be a doctor, she wants to nurse, yet girls of her class don''t do that kind of work. But as the war begins and the hospitals fill with young soldiers, she gets a chance to help. But working in the hospital confirms what Sasha has suspected--she can see when someone is going to die. Her premonitions show her the brutal horrors on the battlefields of the Somme, and the faces of the soldiers who will die. And one of them is her brother Thomas. Pretending to be a real nurse, Sasha goes behind the front lines searching for Thomas, risking her own life as she races to find him, and somehow prevent his death.

In the morning you should think You might not last unto the night In the evening you should think You might not last unto the morn Boy has survived the terrors of life with the magician Valerian, dark magic, and deadly chases, but he is still on the run. Now, as the City lies frozen, he is captured and incarcerated in the Emperor Frederick’s palace. Boy is transported to a world of splendor, and wealth beyond his wildest imagining. But beneath its golden veneer, this world is full of madness and cruelty, closely guarded secrets, and terrifying revelations. In a mesmerizing conclusion to the enthralling story begun in The Book of Dead Days, Boy and Willow are plunged into the heart of it–the furies of the Emperor; the tricks of necromancers; a trail of blood that will lead to the grisly Phantom. Holding all their lives between its pages, The Book of Dead Days waits to deceive its next reader.

If life has taught me one thing, it is this: that the worst monsters are entirely human. It began in a hole in the ground, in Paris, in the days after the liberation. What I saw there I saw only for the time it takes a match to burn down, and yet it decided the rest of my life. I tried to forget it at first, to ignore it, but I could not. It came back to me; he came back to me. He hurt people I loved... And so I took the first step on a journey from which there would be no return; a path that led me to fear, to hatred and to revenge - but, above all else, to blood.