New Releases by Sylvia Waugh

««Quando arrivi alla fine non hai dubbi di aver appena letto un classico». Sunday Telegraph» Sunday Telegraph La famiglia di bambole, i Mennym – che una sarta magica inventò un tempo nella sua casa buia - finge di appartenere alla razza umana: di aver bisogno di mangiare, di lavorare, di dormire, perfino di venire in visita da una villetta suburbana, quando invece si esce da un armadio. La finzione continuerebbe per sempre, se una lettera che annuncia l'arrivo del nuovo padrone di casa non gettasse tutti nel panico di venire scoperti. Basteranno gli occhiali neri a nascondere gli occhi di bottone, le sciarpe a nascondere le guance di stoffa, i berretti a celare i capelli di lana?

From the outside, 5 Brocklehurst Grove looks like an ordinary house - the windows are always clean, and the garden well tended. And from the inside, to hear the voices of the inhabitants, the Mennym family, you would think they were a perfectly ordinary family, too. But you'd be wrong, for the Mennyms are far from ordinary. The whole family shares an astonishing secret behind which it's hidden for forty years; a secret to which nobody has ever come close - until perhaps, now. When a letter arrives from Australia, the whole family is plunged into fear that now, for the first time, their secret is about to be exposed . . . Sylvia Waugh's extraordinary debut novel about the Mennyms, a family of life-sized rag dolls, won the 1994 Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

The follow-up to Sylvia Waugh's award-winning debut, The Mennyms. The Mennyms are faced with a crisis when plans to build a motorway straight through their home are announced. They've successfully survived living on Brocklehurst Road for forty years, carefully keeping the secret of their rag doll identity under wraps. But news of the motorway forces them to confront a cruel ultimatum: they can be destroyed with the house, or they can move out into the countryside. Either way the consequences will be devastating . . . Includes extra content detailing the story behind how the Mennyms came to be. Previously unpublished and exclusive to the ebook editions, the author hopes her readers, new and old, will enjoy discovering the back story to this mysterious family of life-sized rag dolls.

The third story in Sylvia Waugh's award-winning Mennyms sequence. Pilbeam, the Mennyms' eternal teenager, is in a rebellious mood. Staying inside all the time is driving her crazy and she's fed up with leading the sheltered life vital for the survival of the Mennyms. One fateful night, Pilbeam throws caution to the wind and goes out to the theatre - and in doing so threatens her own safety and the very existence of her whole, rag doll family. . . . Includes extra content detailing the story behind how the Mennyms came to be. Previously unpublished and exclusive to the ebook editions, the author hopes her readers, new and old, will enjoy discovering the back story to this mysterious family of life-sized rag dolls.

For almost as long as he can remember, Tom has lived happily in Belthorp. When his father breaks the unbelievable news that their family come from the planet Ormingat and must go back there, Tom is devastated. Apart from the wrench of leaving home, insuperable difficulties stand in their way as they try to reach their return ship.

The Gwynns, a pleasant American couple, have lived outside York for the past fourteen years. Nesta, their only child, was born there and attends the local school. They seem ordinary enough and comfortable in their leafy suburb. But they have an astonishing secret unknown even to Nesta. One evening when she sees her father diminish and disappear into a stone lily pad in the garden pond, Nesta has to be told what she really is. Her parents are visitors from the planet Ormingat, sent to Earth to investigate life there. Now they have been ordered to return home. Nesta can`t take it all in, refuses to accept that she is not earthborn and finally runs away with the help of her best school mate, Amy.

Like Patrick in Space Race and Matthew and Alison in Earthborn, Steven is a visitor from Ormingat, living on Earth with his family for a designated number of years. But Steven is not merely an observer, he is an arranger, a facilitator with the power to direct attention away from any Ormingatriga who needs protection. When his earthly son Jacob is born with a fatal immune deficiency, Steven requests help from Ormingat in order to save his life and as a result the boy survives, but grows up surrounded by a protective shield without friends. When Steven is forced to tell Jacob of his identity and involve him in his work, Jacob resents his father's imposition. Then comes the debacle of the Derwents' accident and Nesta's flight from home, which both bring undesired publicity and the danger of detection to the Ormingat aliens. Steven, summoned to return early to the mother planet, does not want to go. If he returns he must abandon his earth wife, Lydia. And where does all this leave unhappy Jacob who makes contact not only with Mrs Dalrymple but also Nesta's family in York? A strong conclusion to the trilogy, uniting the plots from the earlier books - with a surprising and dramatic finale.

When he learns that he and his father must soon leave Earth, eleven-year-old Thomas Derwent is upset, but a terrible accident that separates the two of them makes Thomas's situation much worse.

Still struggling to readjust to the death of Appleby, the rebellious teenager of the family, the Mennyms must now face their most awesome challenge yet as the family patriarch, Sir Magnus, has predicted the end of their world

The Mennyms, a family of life-sized rag dolls, wake up to find their household has been moved and they are now under the care of an eccentric but loving old antiques dealer who soon suspects their secret. Suggested level: primary, intermediate.