928 Miles from Home

Description

Fourteen year old Calum Brooks has big dreams. One day, he'll escape this boring life and write movies, proper ones, with massive budgets and A-list stars. For now though, he's stuck coping alone while his dad works away, writing scripts in his head and trying to stay 'in' with his gang of mates at school, who don't like new kids, especially foreign ones. But when his father invites his new Polish girlfriend and her son, Sergei, to move in, Calum's life is turned upside down. He's actually sharing a room with 'the enemy'! How's he going to explain that to his mates? Yet when Calum is knocked down in a hit and run and breaks both legs, everything changes. Trapped at home, Calum and Sergei slowly start to understand each other, and even work together to investigate a series of break-ins at the local community centre. But Calum can't help feeling like Sergei's hiding something. Is he really trying to help, or cover up his own involvement in the crime? 928 Miles from Home is a powerful new story from the multi-award-winning author of Smart and A Seven-Letter Word, Kim Slater.

Kim Slater honed her storytelling skills as a child, writing macabre tales specially designed to scare her younger brother! Taking her literary inspiration from everyday life, Kim's debut novel, Smart, won ten regional prizes and was shortlisted for over twenty regional and national awards, including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Federation of Children's Book Groups Prize. Smart was also longlisted for the 2015 Carnegie Medal. Her novels A Seven-Letter Word, 928 Miles from Home and The Boy Who Lied are all regional prize-winners. Kim lives in Nottingham with her husband and has one grown-up daughter.

Powerful and thought provoking . . . Kim Slater's message on diversity is loud and clear. * Reading Zone * [A] warm, truthful and insightful depiction of working-class life * Lovereading4kids.co.uk *