a b c "Costa Book Awards 2021 category winners announced". Costa. Archived from the original on 5 January 2022 . Retrieved 5 January 2022. The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Medals shortlists 2022". Readings Books. 16 March 2022. Archived from the original on 17 March 2022 . Retrieved 6 June 2023. Nat and Sammy complete each other's stories, the words and phrases repeating as move from one POV to the other. Mann's poetic language use, which we first became familiar with in her debut Run, Rebel, continued to create a haunting, portrait of the reality. My heart ached as I was immersed in both young protagonists' struggle for survival in a world where their humanity is being questioned.

There is Natalie, who lives in the UK and is part of a low-class family. She struggles with housing issues, the loss of her mother and the distance she begins to feel toward her brother, Ryan, who joins far-right marches and is full of hatred for immigrants. Natalie decides to raise money for refugees by swimming the English channel and this purpose gives her (and her dad who trains her) hope for the future. a b "Sheffield Children's Book Award". Sheffield City Council. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023 . Retrieved 8 June 2023. Tesfay, in his entire being, represents the hope that his name translates to, which Ryan's undoing cannot ever come close to. We are reminded that Ryan is not a bigot as he got his sister a rainbow cake to celebrate her coming out, but his actions really speak louder than words. Even in his redemption, Ryan is not given a voice, rather he speaks after being prompted by his father. If there was a sequel or a companion novel, I would want it to be from the perspectives of the 2 sibling: Ryan and his descent into fascism, and Sophia and her survival as a forcefully conscripted soldier.I feel the seeds of the idea were sown in 2015 when I moved to the seaside town of Folkestone. A small town with growing tensions around refugees, unemployment and DFLs (Down From London people) causing gentrification. The unease was tangible and easily taken advantage off by right-wing political parties. This reached a crisis point in 2018 when the number of refugees seeking safety coincided with a spate of far-right protests around the UK. Boats arriving on the shores of Folkestone and Dover were a daily occurrence and the protests in Dover turned violent and brought the town to a standstill.

Natalie decides to undertake the Cross Channel swim that her mum had always planned to do. Knowing she is keen to continue her mum's aim of helping refugees, she decides to raise money for a refugee charity. A chance encounter, brief and from the distance in a Calais refugee camp, sees Natalie and Sammy understanding there is a link between them. Folkestone also has, understandably, a huge channel swimming community and in 2018 a small festival in the town was showing a series of channel swimming films. This juxtaposed with stories of desperate people arriving in boats after crossing the same stretch of water and police reports into the far-right protest had my head swimming. I wanted to make sense of what I was seeing and I wanted to do something that would help build empathy and understanding. Which character in the book is your favourite, and why? Praise for Run, Rebel - a Guardian best book of 2020: A tightly crafted series of punchy, often heartbreaking narrative poems . . . Mann's brilliant, coruscating verse novel lays out the anatomy of Amber's revolution, and the tentative first flowerings of hope and change. Guardian The Crossing is heart-wrenching tale of friendship and strength even in the most adverse situations. Awards: CLiPPA Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. 21 July 2021. Archived from the original on 9 December 2022 . Retrieved 8 June 2023.

Retailers:

I am part of a shadowing group for the Carnegie and Greenaway Medal with my daughter and a great bunch of bookish enthusiasts. It is a privilege to chat bookish thoughts with a great group of young people. Out of the 8 shortlisted books for the Carnegie Medal, my daughter and I decided to make, 'The Crossing,' our first read. The cover, the blurb, and the style of narrative caught our attention, and it did not disappoint! walk down the high street. Nat is window-shopping while thinking about the homeless woman in a shop doorway and how close she is to this fate, while Mel is weighed down with bags full of the latest gear. Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 11 February 2022. Archived from the original on 12 February 2022 . Retrieved 12 February 2022. Mel in particular, is another example of Mann's clever writing. While Ryan rages about a presumably non-white family moving into a house in the estate (he mentions "people born in this country should take priority" and gets chastised by his sister) he doesn't bat an eyelid at "Mel's sea-view mansion". Even Nat's father is happy to work "renovating a mansion in the middle of Kent", while losing their community and home to the new, ironically named "Prospect Homes", a wealthy housing development. David Almond introduces his new picture book, A Way to the Stars, a story about perseverance and finding a way to make dreams come true.