Marcus Sedgwick

The Dark Horse

Marcus Sedgwick

• 2002 Carnegie shortlist
• 2002 Guardian Award shortlist
• Score: 12.52

Having risen to power as chief of his people, the Storn, sixteen-year-old Sigurd leads them as they try to resist the bloodthirsty invaders known as the Dark Horse and makes a shocking discovery about his foster sister Mouse.

The Book of Dead Days

Marcus Sedgwick

• 2005 Edgar-Young Adult nominee
• 2003 Guardian Award longlist
• Score: 10.55

The days between 27 December and New Year’s Eve are dead days—days when spirits roam and magic shifts restlessly just beneath the surface of our everyday lives. There is a man, Valerian, whose time is running out, who must pay the price for the pact he made with evil so many years ago. His servant is Boy, a child with no name and no past; a child he treats with contempt, but who serves his master well and finds solace in the company of his only friend, Willow.

Unknown to any of them it is Boy who holds the key to their destiny. Set in dark threatening cities…

Blood Red, Snow White

Marcus Sedgwick

• 2007 Costa-Children's shortlist
• Score: 6.57

Beyond the vast plains, deep in the snowy forest, the great bear that is Russia wakes from a long sleep and marches to St Petersburg to claim its birthright. Its awakening will mark the end for the Romanovs, and herald an era that will change the world. Another man played a part in it all. His name was Arthur Ransome, a journalist and writer who left his English home, his wife and daughter, and fell in love with Russia and a Russian woman, Evgenia. This is his story.

My Swordhand is Singing

Marcus Sedgwick

• 2007 Carnegie shortlist
• Score: 6.57

In the bitter cold of an unrelenting winter Tomas and his son, Peter, arrive in Chust and settle there as woodcutters. Tomas digs a channel of fast flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Tomas is a man with a past; a past that is tracking him with deadly intent. As surely as the snow falls softly in the forest of one hundred thousand silver birch trees, Father and son must face a soul-less enemy and a terrifying destiny.

Witch Hill

Marcus Sedgwick

• 2002 Edgar-Young Adult nominee
• Score: 6.52

Now I knew what it was like to wake from a deep sleep and still be afraid long after the nightmare is over. I stared into the darkness, not daring to move. It felt as if there wasn’t enough air in the room. I struggled, gasping for breath. It was as if there was something else in the room, using up my air.

The fire in his home was a family tragedy that Jamie can’t forget. Fire dominates his waking thoughts and haunts his dreams. When his family sends him away to Crownhill to recover, they don’t realize they are sending him to a village…