He has said that he read primarily non-fiction nature books when he was young, but when he was nine, a teacher gave him JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: "I don’t think I’d ever read a novel before, not even an Enid Blyton. It’s appropriate that whereas the first three books open with a chapter from the point of view of the animal, and focus the plot around this animal, Lark breaks from this.

Yourself and Bob are much cherished in our booky world and I personally really appreciate everything that you do. They also have attractive cover designs which present them as typical mass market paperbacks rather than as ‘special’ books (these have gotten better and better over time as Barrington Stoke have become more established and their budget correspondingly higher).

On the other hand, this is something which has often given rise to criticism in relation to the Carnegie Medal’s trend towards awarding more and more young adult fiction.

This book is a perfect example of how a book doesn't have to be long to achieve a lot - McGowan makes every word count and explores a range of themes. Polly Crosby tells ReadingZone about her novel, This Tale is Forbidden (Scholastic), a fractured fairy tale set in a dystopian world. Established at the beginning of 2016, Cranachan is a small independent publisher and a fresh-face in Scottish publishing landscape.The way their strong sibling bonds shine through feels absolutely authentic, as does the daring scatological badinage; while Nicky's concern for his brother's wellbeing is a joy to behold even while it's severely tested.

Teenager Nicky and his older brother are filling in time before their mother flies in for a visit with the boys and their father, from whom she's divorced. The relationship between the brothers is once again at the heart of the story and when a trip to the moors takes a dark and frightening turn it is tested to the limits. Sure enough it does, and I wished that the close observation of childhood and what it means to be a family had been put to better use. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.Dad’s happily settled with nice Jenny, who sorted out the family’s domestic chaos of the earlier stories. Lark is a short, focused novel and it works as such, but I think that understanding the aims of the publisher make it easier to embrace the form rather than wishing for more. In a year with quite a few shortlisted books I would have been happy to see win, I was utterly delighted that the Medal went to this one. The last of a quartet of novellas composed for readers with reading difficulties, Lark is not only perfectly relatable as a standalone but is also testament to the fact that 'simple' writing needn't be simplistic, nor does it exclude moments of beauty and emotion.

We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. And while I do think that Lark should work really well for youngsters who like their stories short, to the point and that the book’s dyslexia-friendly format (a large font size and double spacing) also caters to reluctant or struggling readers, Anthony McGowan's themes, contents and that as mentioned above, Lark does not end at all happily, yes, very sensitive children (very sensitive readers) might indeed find Lark too negative, too traumatic, too lacking in hope and any kind of optimism and promise. Ross Welford introduces Time Travelling with a Tortoise, the sequel to Time Travelling with a Hamster, and a whole new time travel adventure! In thinking about the significance of this year’s Carnegie winner, I’ve thought a lot about issues of representation: the way Lark made me feel seen, and the questions around disability representation it raised for me.The final chapter is a touching meditation on death and the existence – or not – of God, that takes in everything from Aristotle to Schopenhauer and leaves you suspecting dogs might already have had many of the answers all along. His Barrington Stoke titles include the Carnegie Medal shortlisted Rook and the 2020 Carnegie Medal winner Lark which the judges described as “a standalone masterpiece”. They are just as likely to welcome evocative, lyrical nature writing as gritty realism, just as they are likely to come from all sorts of social and ethnic backgrounds.