I loved getting compendiums as gifts and I’d have loved this truly international mix of young people with extraordinary tales – whether in sport, activism or survival.
Rise Up: Ordinary Kids with Extraordinary Stories is bang up-to-date beginning with Greta Thunberg and ending with Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
Each story, penned by Amanda Li, is followed by fact boxes of skills and tips – from what to do in an avalanche or alligator attack to how to do a keepie-uppie to what’s Z in Braille.
Tracy Darnton is a keen reader and author of children’s and YA fiction, and a graduate of Bath Spa MA Writing for Young People, where she is now an Associate Lecturer.
Her latest novel Ready or Not is out in May 2022. It’s a thriller about a girl who goes missing during a game of hide-and-seek on holiday in Cornwall.
Her first YA novel The Truth About Lies is a thriller set on Dartmoor about a girl who remembers everything. Described by the Guardian as “thought-provoking and crisply written…an assured and charismatic debut”, The Truth About Lies was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019.
Tracy won the YA Short Story Prize run by Stripes and the Bookseller and was published in I’ll Be Home for Christmas. Her short story became the basis of her YA novel, The Rules, published in 2020, about a girl on the run from her prepper dad. Described by the FT as a “heart-thuddingly nervy thriller” , and The Irish Times said: “this tense, taut novel is chillingly believable”.
Tracy also enjoys writing for much younger children and a couple of picture books are being published shortly. She lives in a village near Bath.
Twitter @TracyDarnton
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With so many good children’s’ books to choose from, it always helps to get a trusted recommendation, that’s precisely what My Book Corner is here for.
My Book Corner consists of a team of published authors, budding authors, TV script writers, teachers, journalists and all-round book enthusiasts offering you a carefully curated list of books that we love, and more often than not, absolutely adore.
Books to make you laugh, cry, cringe and shriek. Books that fire the imagination and will ultimately shape the childhood of generations of children to come.
My Book Corner has been around since 2011 and plan to be here for many more years to come.
Ooh, this sounds fantastic!
Great review, thanks for posting the pictures. Really makes a difference with picture book reviews. Will order for the store…
His books are a great way help kids read while soaking up important Science concepts without even knowing it. Ironically,…
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