Geraldine McCaughrean

The White Darkness

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 2008 Printz winner
• 2007 Carnegie shortlist
• 2007 LATimes–Young Adult finalist
• 2005 Whitbread-Children's shortlist
• Score: 28.58

Captain Oates, hero of the Antarctic, has been dead for nearly a century. But not in Sym’s head. In there, he is her constant companion, her soul mate, her adviser. It is as if he walked out of the Polar blizzard and into her mind. In fact, if it were not for Titus, life might be as bleak a place as the Antarctic wilderness.

Then a short family expedition makes her ask the question she has long been avoiding: who but the mad trust for happiness to someone or something that isn’t there?

A Pack of Lies

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 1989 Guardian Award winner
• 1988 Carnegie winner
• Score: 20.39

Ailsa doesn't trust MCC Berkshire, the mysterious man helping out in her mother's antique shop. He tells wonderful stories about all the antiques, and his stories persuade the customers to buy the items he talks about, but everything he says is a pack of lies, isn't it? The story of Ailsa and MCC is interwoven with the stories MCC tells the customers, which range from romances to adventure stories; from crime dramas to pirate stories; from stories set in modern-day Ireland to stories set in ancient China.

Not the End of the World

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 2004 Whitbread-Children's winner
• Score: 10.54

Everyone knows the story of the Flood, the men God chose to survive, the animals that went in two by two. But what about the others that sailed on the Ark, the women and the children? This adventure story asks what it was really like when the heavens opened and the world drowned—and what might have happened in the days that followed.

With a frighteningly zealous and single-minded Noah; Japheth and his young wife Zillah concerned for the welfare of the animals; the stowaway boy and baby found by Noah’s daughter Timna; and the animals themselves, continuing to…

Gold Dust

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 1994 Whitbread-Children's winner
• Score: 10.44

Inez and her brother are amazed to find a huge hole being dug right outside the front door of their father’s shop. Then more holes appear all over the main street. People are travelling to their town from all over the world, and the word on everyone’s lips is “Gold”.

A Little Lower Than the Angels (Oxford Children's Modern Classics)

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 1987 Whitbread-Children's winner
• Score: 10.37

Gabriel has no idea what the future will hold when he runs away from his apprenticeship with the bad-tempered stonemason. But God Himself, in the shape of playmaster Garvey, has plans for him. He wants Gabriel for his angel.

The Kite Rider

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 2001 Carnegie shortlist
• Score: 6.51

Haoyou knows that his father's spirit lives among the clouds above Ancient China. He also knows that to save his mother from being forced into a new marriage he must now follow in his father's footsteps and take to the skies, riding a kite through the clouds and the spirits of the dead. Then the Jade Circus offers him a chance to escape his enemies and travel throughout the empire, and maybe even perform before Kublai Khan himself. But is going with the circus really the best option? It could be that the circus master is leading him into even greater danger.

Stop the Train

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 2001 Carnegie shortlist
• Score: 6.51

Marooned in the vast Oklahoma praires, the newly settled town of Florence relies completely on the railway line beside which it stands. When the railroad company ruthlessly and spitefully decides to bypass Florence it seems as if the settlers' livelihood and dreams must wither and die. Somehow or other, the train has to be stopped - and the people of Florence will stop at nothing until it is.

Forever X

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 1997 Carnegie shortlist
• Score: 6.47

When their car breaks down, the Shepherd family have to stay in a hotel called Forever Xmas. Here they celebrate Christmas every day of the year, complete with Christmas dinner, Santa Claus, and Christmas presents. Complications arrive when Mr Angel lands up in a tree, when the police arrive looking for the Starrs, and when Santa Claus escapes in a bus.

Plundering Paradise

Geraldine McCaughrean

• 1996 Whitbread-Children's shortlist
• Score: 6.46

Set in the exciting and exotic world of piracy in the Madagascan Seas, this tale is an adventure story of three children, two boys and a girl, who leave an ordinary English life to battle with a host of larger-than-life villains, storms and shipwrecks, and life in a very new and different world.