Product details
- ISBN 9781862306066
- Weight: 183g
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 03 Apr 2008
- Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Anthony McGowan is the Carnegie Medal 2020 winning author of Lark.
He is coming to kill me.
Now would be a good time to run.
I cannot run.
I am too afraid to run.
Paul Varderman could be at any normal school - bullies, girls and annoying teachers are just a part of life. Unfortunately 'normal' doesn't apply when it comes to the school's most evil bully, Roth, a twisted and threatening thug with an agenda quite unlike anyone else. When Paul ends up delivering a message from Roth to the leader of a gang at a nearby school, it fuels a rivalry with immediate consequences. Paul attempts to distance himself from the feud, but when Roth hands him a knife it both empowers him and scares him at the same time . . .
This thought-provoking and original novel highlights the terrible consequences of peer pressure and violence, and casts a spotlight on the worrying rise in knife crime among teenagers.
Anthony McGowan was born in Manchester in 1965. Educated at a Catholic comprehensive, he won't say that his character's schooldays are exactly based on his own but he certainly writes from experience. Before turning to writing full-time, Anthony gained a PhD in Philosophy, worked as a nightclub bouncer, an Open University tutor, a journalist and a civil servant. He is married with two children.
In 2006 he won the Teenage Booktrust Prize for Henry Tumour, which was also shortlisted for the Sheffield Children's Book Award, Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award, Redbridge Teenage Book Award and the Catalyst Award.
