Ghostcloud

Description

Twelve-year-old Luke Smith-Sharma shovels coal under a half-bombed, blackened power station. With his best friend Ravi he keeps his head down, hoping to one day earn his freedom and return to his family, while avoiding the wrath of the evil Tabatha Margate. When he tries to help new girl Jess, Luke is punished and sent to clean the sewers of the haunted East Wing, a place from which few return. Whilst serving his punishment, Luke realises he can see things others can't in the power station: ghostly things. He befriends a ghost-girl called Alma, who can ride clouds through the night sky and bend their shape to her will. But when Luke discovers the terrible truth of why Tabatha Margate is kidnapping children and forcing them to work in the power station, Alma agrees to help him and his friends escape. Will Alma convince the ghost council to help their cause? And can Luke find his voice, while trying to find a way home?

Michael Mann is a primary school teacher by day, and mostly writes when he should be sleeping at night. He was a winner of SCBWI's Undiscovered Voices 2020, and the 2019 London Writer's Award (Spread the Word). He is passionate about diversity in children's literature as a person of British and Indian heritage. Michael was born in London but moved to North Yorkshire when he was ten. He now lives with his partner and children in London. He's a fan of board games, reading, cloud spotting and outdoor swimming. He swam from England to France across the English Channel as part of a team of six. He won his first writing competition at school aged 10, for a poem about potatoes. He had to shake hands with a giant potato in front of the whole school and still has the photo to prove it.