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Transport

The first air passengers were a sheep, a duck and a cock, who sailed up in a hot air balloon, watched by the King of France.

An American inventor has designed a bike with 54 speeds, 5 computers, a security system, a speech synthesizer, and a telephone.

In 1838 the fast journey across the Atlantic (by steamship) took 15 days. Nowadays, planes can fly it in a few hours.

A feast of weird and wonderful facts about transport

A Science Museum Book of Amazing Facts

Illustrated by Tim Archbold

[published by Hodder Children’s Books]

Turtle’s Party in the Clouds

Turtle loves parties. She so wants to go the party in the clouds, but how can she get there without wings?

She has a very clever plan … but things don’t go quite the way she wants them …

Inspired by a traditional Brazilian folktale

Illustrated by Christine Jenny

some pages from the book

[published by HarperCollins: Collins Big Cat]

Greedy Anansi and his Three Cunning Plans

Crafty spider Anansi’s greed and cunning don’t always get him what he wants.

Inspired by three traditional tales told in several parts of Africa and the Caribbean.

Illustrated by Alexander Jansson

[published by HarperCollins: Collins Big Cat]

Down the Road to Jamie’s House

Annie wants to go to Jamie’s house

but Mum is feeding Ben – and feeding Ben

takes hours and hours

and days and days

and weeks and weeks

and months and months

and even all the year.

Annie knows where Jamie’s house is.

And she knows she’ll be safe

wearing her explorer’s hat …

But …

Illustrated by Adrian Reynolds

‘A lovely story.’

Early Years Educator

‘The happy marriage that occurs when

authors and illustrators are perfectly matched.’

The Bookseller

some pages from the book

[Down the Road to Jamie’s House published by Hodder Children’s Books]

Suzi, Sam, George and Alice

Seven o’clock on Sunday morning. Parents just want to lie in bed and sleep …

But Suzi, Sam, George and Alice have other ideas about what THEY want to do …

Illustrated by Sally Gardener

Lots of funny things going on and a smart, bouncy text.

Books for Children

The stars of this story …

… were my real cats, who were really called George and Alice and my real children when they were small, who weren’t called Sam and Suzi. I borrowed those names from two of their friends. The story is based on real things that happened at home …

Alice was small, dainty and very bossy. She thought she was in charge. George was large, lazy and loved just sleeping in the middle of the chaos around him.

[Suzi, Sam, George and Alice published by The Bodley Head & Red Fox, Random House]

Rift

In a vast African landscape four teenagers and a journalist vanish without trace from a camp below a steep rock ridge, ‘Chomlaya’.

Ella, the young sister of the journalist, helps Inspector Murothi piece together what’s happened as the search helicopters continue their constant hum over the rock ridge. But Ella and Murothi begin to wonder whether they are already too late …

MARCUS SEDGWICK, GUARDIAN

‘That delightful thing, a book which holds you from the first page. It's a fine book, with heroes to cheer and baddies to hiss at, with a satisfying ending and yet resisting the desire to tie up every single detail … an intelligent piece of writing, which brought back happy memories of Peter Dickinson's superb archaeological adventure A Bone from a Dry Sea.’

DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘A fragmented enigma, the story of a school trip gone mysteriously wrong, with not only several students but also a journalist gone missing in a wild, rocky region. There are layers within layers, and sinister events that unfold at Chomlaya Ridge … the lurking sense of threat is real. Stylised, sophisticated and richly atmospheric.’

DAILY EXPRESS

‘Compelling reading.’

LANCASHIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR

'The mystery of it all hooks you to the story like a lion to its prey.

SCHOOL LIBRARIAN

‘A tightly written, highly entertaining novel. Vibrant and haunting, Rift will hold readers’ attention well after they’ve finished reading the last page.’

YOUNG REVIEWER, EVENING ECHO

'I liked this book because of the suspense and the interesting characters. This suspense is very good. I just wanted to sit there and keep flicking the pages.’

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, U.S.

‘A suspenseful mystery. Birch does a fine job of describing the mysticism of this fictional locale where human life began.’

LANCASHIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR

'A fantastic read that keeps you hooked from the very first word. The unravelling of clues adds to the thrill and keeps you clinging on.

WRITE AWAY

‘The reader becomes hooked into the story and the investigation. I couldn’t put it down.’

TEENAGE FICTION FOR ALL AGES: audio

‘I loved, loved, loved this one … a mystery that completely holds the attention. The sense of place is amazing. Ella is a likeable and strong character. I would love to see Inspector Murothi return in another novel, teenage or adult. Clare Corbett narrates Rift exquisitely, I can’t recommend this audio book highly enough.’

CANDY GOURLAY, TIMES ONLINE

‘I also much enjoyed Rift, with Africa lovingly painted, a mystery, and a cast of sympathetic characters – especially the wonderful Inspector Murothi.’

HACKWRITERS.COM

‘A great, tense, vivid investigation novel with extraordinary characters in a beautiful, remote setting – a powerful, compelling read.’

THE EYE

‘A tense mystery. This gripped me throughout.’

What inspired RIFT?

‘It’s night-time; I’m stepping into a dark tent. The only light is the beam from my torch. My feet touch something warm, soft and sticky. Swing the torchbeam down. Something’s squelching over my sandals – wet, glistening. It takes a moment to recognise the innards of a decapitated snake spewed across the groundsheet. …

Fascination with the atmosphere of places. And with the search for human beginnings in Africa, where I grew up. I thought ‘what if people disappeared in peculiar, unexplained ways? What if it happened in the place we think was the cradle of humankind?

Then there’s the raw wildness of mountains and plains, animals and birds … I imagined being lost there. Coming face to face with an elephant or rhino. Or a leopard …

Photos: © Nick Birch

[RIFT published by Egmont Press, audio by W.F. Howes, Film optioned by Hanthum Films]

Sea Hawk, Sea Moon

‘She drifts, bumping the rock. Seaweed laces her legs and her hair spreads thin on the tide. She rolls with the wave, and her face rises to look at him …’

Ben will never forget the summer with his uncle in the Scottish highlands. How it began: restoring an old wrecked boat, Sea Hawk. Wandering the lochs in a boat with the wonderfully mysterious girl, Iona. But then the frightening dreams begin. And Iona vanishes.

Is she the girl in his dream? Has she been snatched by the waves, drifting in seaweed below grim, dark crags?

Is she the key?

Inspirations

When I was ten I read a story about two children roaming a lake in a boat, among misty mountains. I lived in a hot, dry place in Africa, but I thought, one day I’ll go there and write my own story about it. Years later, I was on the edge of just such a loch, in the Scottish Highlands. I woke one morning and Ben’s story was in my head. So I wrote it. I’ve always been fascinated by how people and events of the past seem to leave a gleam, or a shadow, or a resonating murmur of sound in a place. In a way, that’s where this story begins. It’s about a secret that refuses to stay hidden. …

Photos: © Nick Birch

[Sea Hawk, Sea Moon published by Hodder Children’s Books]

The Night of the Fire Lilies

‘The lights flickered, like red eyes mocking her from the darkness. They lurched, bobbed, weaving away down the track. She choked on the stench of dust – and a sudden, drenching shock at what she’d done.’

A holiday in Italy! The chance of a lifetime to Jennifer – except it’s with cousin Berny, five years older and fifty times cooler.

The mountain village is beautiful, the villagers friendly … particularly Paulo, their glamorous neighbor. Berny thinks he’s wonderful. Jennifer just doesn’t trust him – his invitations, his presents, his endless promises.

Berny says she’s a fool, with no sense of fun. So now she’ll have to find courage and stand alone. But as the village carnival draws near – the Night of the Fire Lilies – Jennifer’s caught in a tangled web of shadowy strangers, deceit, intrigue … and death.

Photos: © Nick Birch

[The Night of the Fire Lilies published by The Bodley Head & Red Fox, Random House]

The Keeper of the Gate

“Sara listened. No birdsong. Even the flutter of monkeys had stopped.

Yet there was movement. A silent whispering. A gathering wind that had no sound. In that instant she felt the path around them thronged with people. Panic was in the air, and terror, and the silent sound of rushing feet. Yet around them, path and forest were empty.

Muniri looked back at them. ‘Leave the path!’ he said urgently. There is great danger here! Leave the path,’ he looked towards the curve of the track where it turned out of sight. ‘Come!'”

Kenya is Sara’s home. But the mysterious Muniri shows her everything through fresh eyes. She’s never really seen and felt this place, its starling mixture of ancient history and custom jostling with modern life.

And when Muniri takes her to the ruined city of Kingwana, deep in the forest, he draws her into an ever-deepening mystery that she must pursue to the end to discover the truth.

Muniri holds the key …

inspirations …

The idea for this story came to me when I was about 11, walking with friends through an ancient forest. The darkness under the trees, the chattering monkeys and invisible creatures scuttling in the undergrowth was eerie and unsettling. We remembered stories about people vanishing in this place. Then, lit by a sudden ray of sun through the leaves, I saw a great fig tree. Its trunk had a slit, like a narrow doorway, and beyond, the forest glowed like flames. ‘That’s a gateway to somewhere strange,’ I thought.

Years later I started to write this story.

[The Keeper of the Gate published by The Bodley Head & Red Fox, Random House]

Shakespeare’s Stories

Five of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, retold for young readers as stories.

ROMEO AND JULIET

MACBETH

TWELFTH NIGHT

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

JULIUS CAESAR

Illustrated by James Mayhew

Some of James’s illustrations

an extract from Macbeth

Sunless mists turned about the place, and rocks crouched low beneath a rumbling thunder. Into the circle of the gloom they came, twisting figures woven in the air; and with them came dark whisperings:

‘When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain?’

Hoarse with a poisonous hate, the answer lingered.

‘When the hurlyburly’s done; when the battle’s lost … and won.’

The sodden earth began to tremble …

‘That will be before the set of sun.’

‘Where the place?’

‘Upon the heath.’ A curdling wail rose through the air, as though a thousand wretched creatures were imprisoned in that moaning place.

‘There to meet with Macbeth!’ The final venomous shriek swept from the writhing shadows low across the heather and then up, up into the eye of a blackly gathering storm …

‘True to the power and poetry of the original plays, these dramatic retellings will help attract the reluctant and the intimidated to the pleasures of Shakespeare.’

Booklist

‘Superbly retold’

The Young Reader

‘Highly recommended’

The Book Report

‘all the wonder is retained and the difficulty lessened’

Meadowcreek Learning Resources Centre

‘captures the power and humour of the original plays’

Educational Media & Technology

‘highly satisfactory means of introducing children to Shakespeare … tackles the central issues with great clarity and discretion’

Sunday Times

‘I’ve always been opposed to condensation and simplification of great works of literature. As a remedial reading teacher, I refused to have my students use versions of great books that were ‘written down’ … but here Birch has won me over completely.’

Kliatt Paperback Guide

[published by Hodder Children’s Books]