Best Selling Books by Marcus Sedgwick

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.

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.

''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.

First published in Great Britain in 2007.

Laureth Peak''s father has taught her to look for recurring events, patterns, and numbers--a skill at which she''s remarkably talented. Her secret: She is blind. But when her father goes missing, Laureth and her 7-year-old brother Benjamin are thrust into a mystery that takes them to New York City where surviving will take all her skill at spotting the amazing, shocking, and sometimes dangerous connections in a world full of darkness. Marcus Sedgwick''s She Is Not Invisible is an intricate puzzle of a novel that sheds a light on the delicate ties that bind people to each other. This title has Common Core connections.

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

This is a tense, psychological drama set in the snowy wilderness of the Arctic Circle, where a boy confronts a stranger come to take revenge on his dead father.

The Marcus Sedgwick Chapter Sampler includes chapter excerpts from Revolver, White Crow, Midwinterblood, and She Is Not Invisible—available for free—check out Marcus Sedgwick''s website for more information about these YA reads.

An interactive activity book for 9–12-year-olds on overcoming anxiety You can conquer your worries. The power is within you! We all experience anxiety from time to time. It can feel overwhelming and uncomfortable, and stops us from doing the things we enjoy – so what on earth can we do about it? Be the Change: Be Calm will show you how to shut down anxiety with fun and simple ways to calm your mind by listening to what your body is telling you. Ever tried the half-salamander exercise? You should! And have you ever performed a body scan? Thought not. These amazing activities along with many others will become your toolkit to a calmer and happier life. Award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick takes us on a fascinating journey to find out where anxiety comes from, looking at the power of storytelling in terms of training our brain to overcome worries. He also shows us what animals can teach us about dealing with stress AND introduces us to our second brain! Hello! It''s time to make CALM your superpower. ARE YOU READY TO BE KIND TO YOUR MIND?

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

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?

Seven stories of passion and love separated by centuries but mysteriously intertwined—this is a tale of horror and beauty, tenderness and sacrifice. An archaeologist who unearths a mysterious artifact, an airman who finds himself far from home, a painter, a ghost, a vampire, and a Viking: the seven stories in this compelling novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed where a curiously powerful plant that resembles a dragon grows. What binds these stories together? What secrets lurk beneath the surface of this idyllic countryside? And what might be powerful enough to break the cycle of midwinterblood? From award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick comes a book about passion and preservation and ultimately an exploration of the bounds of love. This title has Common Core connections. A Publishers Weekly Best Children''s Book of 2013 A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013

From Printz medalist Marcus Sedgwick, a gripping novel about health—our own and our planet’s—and the stigma of illness. Ash boards a Greyhound bus heading to the place where Bly was last seen: Snowflake, Arizona. Six thousand feet up in the wide red desert, Ash meets Mona, her dog, her goat, and her neighbors, and finds stepbrother Bly, too. In their ramshackle homes, the walls lined with tinfoil, almost all the residents of Snowflake are sick. But this isn’t any ordinary sickness: the chemicals and technologies of modern life are poisoning them. They call themselves canaries, living warning signs that humans have pushed the environment too far, except no one seems to be taking their warnings seriously. The healthy “normies” of Snowflake have written them off as a bunch of eccentrics, and when Ash too falls ill, the doctor’s response is “It’s all in your mind.” Snowflake, AZ contemplates illness and health—both our own and our planet’s. As Ash lives through a cycle of illness and recovery and loss, the world beyond is succumbing to its own affliction: 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 provocative novel by one of our most admired storytellers explores the resilience of love and community in the face of crisis.

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.

An eerie, modern gothic thriller about what awaits us after death - angels or the devil . . . A fast-paced, dark, sinister and powerful novel, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2011 and longlisted for the Guardian Children''s Fiction Prize 2010. It''s summer. Taken from the buzz of London, her friends and what she thinks is the start of a promising romance, Rebecca is an unwilling visitor to Winterfold. Ferelith already lives in Winterfold - it''s a place that doesn''t like to let you go, and she knows it inside out: the beach, the crumbling cliff paths, the village streets, the woods, the deserted churches and ruined graveyards, year by year being swallowed by the sea. Against their better judgement, Rebecca and Ferelith become friends, and during that long, hot, claustrophobic summer they discover more about each other - and about Winterfold - than either could have wanted. Frightening secrets are uncovered that would have been best long forgotten. Interwoven with Rebecca and Ferelith''s stories is that of the seventeenth century Rector and Dr Barrieux, master of Winterfold Hall, whose bizarre and bloody experiments into the after-life might make angels weep, and the devil crow . . .

After global warming causes the sea to rise until cities in England become islands, ten-year-old Zoe goes on a harrowing solitary boat journey to search for her parents.

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.

Eep . . . the adventure begins! Raven Boy has short black spiky hair, amazing night vision and can talk to animals. Elf Girl is light of foot, sharp of mind and . . . elfish all over. She hadn''t expected to meet Raven Boy; it''s not that often someone falls out of the trees and squashes your home flat like Raven Boy did. Before they know it they are plunged into some very strange, creepy, altogether spooky and hilarious adventures as they save their world from trolls, ogres, witches and things that slither and slide in the fiendish forest. From the creators of the Blue Peter award-winning Funniest Book with Pictures RAVEN MYSTERIES team, this is the first in a humourous and magical adventure series, RAVEN BOY AND ELF GIRL, perfect for readers of 8+.

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

Edgar the Raven, guardian of Otherhand Castle rules the roost in this six book series of quirky tales of mystery, with a touch of goth-froth, by Blue Peter award-winning team Marcus Sedgwick and Pete Williamson.

WHEN TOMAS AND HIS SON, Peter, settle in Chust as woodcutters, Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn''t understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know.But Tomas is a man with a past: a past that is tracking him with deadly intent, and when the dead of Chust begin to rise from their graves, both father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.

Marcus Sedgwick crafts a characteristically unsettling mystery exploring teen relationships and our connection to the world around us in his gripping Barrington Stoke debut.

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.

Download the chapter sampler of Midwinterblood, the Printz Award–winning novel by Marcus Sedgwick. An archaeologist who unearths a mysterious artifact, an airman who finds himself far from home, a painter, a ghost, a vampire, and a Viking: the seven stories in this compelling novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed where a curiously powerful plant that resembles a dragon grows. What binds these stories together? What secrets lurk beneath the surface of this idyllic countryside? And what might be powerful enough to break the cycle of midwinterblood? This is a book about passion and preservation and ultimately an exploration of the bounds of love.

Having risen to power as chief of his people, the Storn, sixteen-year-old Sigurd leads them as they try to resist the bloodthirsty invaders known as the Dark Horse and makes a shocking discovery about his foster sister Mouse.

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.

Saving the world isn''t going very well for Elf Girl and Raven Boy. They''ve left Fright Forest and crossed a huge plain to the worryingly named Monster Mountains, where they find a sign telling them to Turn Back. They really shouldn''t have ignored it! It''s not the strange wailing noises they hear in the dark, or the gigantic yeti who wants to eat them for breakfast that they find alarming, so much as the crazy wizard, Jeremy, who seems intent on adding Elf Girl and Raven Boy, not to mention Rat, to his collection of all too life-like stone statues.

From the author of The Jungle Book comes a magical fantasy story, rich in historical detail and filled with intrigue and excitement Una and Dan, reciting Shakespeare on a summer''s evening in rural Sussex, unwittingly summon the elf Puck. They are taken on a fantastic journey through Britain''s past, their magical companion plucking from history an array of fascinating characters for them to meet: Parnesius, a Roman centurion who manned Hadrian''s wall; Wayland, a Saxon warrior and blacksmith; Sir Richard, a Norman knight who made an extraordinary journey to Africa; and many others. Each offers a story from his own life, mixing war and politics with adventure and intrigue. Each is rich with historical detail. One of the great classics of children''s literature, Puck of Pook''s Hill is by turns a fantastical story of magical otherness and a compelling exploration of history. A runaway success on first publication, it still has the power to excite children and their parents alike.

Scarlett Hart is the orphaned daughter of two legendary monster hunters--and she''s determined to follow in their footsteps.

Harry Black is lost between the world of war and the land of myth in this illustrated novel that transports the tale of Orpheus to World War II–era London. Brothers Marcus and Julian Sedgwick team up to pen this haunting tale of another pair of brothers, caught between life and death in World War II. Harry Black, a conscientious objector, artist, and firefighter battling the blazes of German bombing in London in 1944, wakes in the hospital to news that his soldier brother, Ellis, has been killed. In the delirium of his wounded state, Harry’s mind begins to blur the distinctions between the reality of war-torn London, the fiction of his unpublished sci-fi novel, and the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Driven by visions of Ellis still alive and a sense of poetic inevitability, Harry sets off on a search for his brother that will lead him deep into the city’s Underworld. With otherworldly paintings by Alexis Deacon depicting Harry’s surreal descent further into the depths of hell, this eerily beautiful blend of prose, verse, and illustration delves into love, loyalty, and the unbreakable bonds of brotherhood as it builds to a fierce indictment of mechanized warfare.

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?

In the idyllic early summer of 1914, life is good for the de Witt family. Rudolf and Verena are planning the wedding of their daughter Emmeline, while their eldest son, Arthur, is studying in Paris, and Michael is just back from his first term at Cambridge. Celia, the youngest of the de Witt children, is on the brink of adulthood and secretly dreams of escaping her carefully mapped-out future and exploring the world.But the onslaught of war changes everything and soon the de Witts find themselves sidelined and in danger of losing everything they hold dear. As Celia struggles to make sense of the changing world around her, she lies about her age to join the war effort and finds herself embroiled in a complex plot that puts not only herself but those she loves in danger.With gripping detail and brilliant empathy, Kate Williams tells the story of Celia and her family as they are shunned by a society that previously embraced them, torn apart by sorrow, and buffeted and changed by the storms of war.

Years in from ''My Swordhand Is Singing'', Peter is still on the trail of the Shadow Queen. His search leads him to Venice, a citywhose beauty disguises many ugly secrets, Marko & Sorrel meet there for the first time.

Elf Girl and Raven Boy have survived Monster Mountains and arrived on the shores of Scream Sea. Kidnapped by Scrim, pirate captain of the Naughty Porpoise, they''re held prisoner below decks as the ship sets sail. But Captain Scrim and his crew are even more interested in mermaids than in bird boys and pointy-eared girls, and when they capture one they throw the pirate party of a lifetime. Our daring duo, plus Rat and mermaid Molo, escape and go their separate ways, but not before Molo has given Raven Boy a tiny shell on a silver chain and told him to call on her for help. They continue their search for the Goblin King with adventures on a desert island, an ''invisible'' spell, encounters with an even worse pirate called Blackblood on the stormy high seas, and then below the waves with the many scary beasts and monsters that roam the deep. No one said saving the world was easy!

In the sixth laugh-out-loud adventure from BLUE PETER BOOK AWARD-shortlisted Marcus Sedgwick and Pete Williamson, Elf Girl and Raven Boy make their way to Creepy Caves for a final showdown with the Goblin King.

Twelve bestselling authors, twelve Doctors, twelve brilliant adventures in time and space for all Doctor Who fans! This collection features all twelve original Doctor Who eshort stories, covering each of the twelve Doctors and written by a selection of wonderful children''s authors.