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Kate Saunders is the author of Magicalamity and Beswitched and many other books for adults and children. She is also an actress and a journalist. She has written for the Sunday Times, Sunday Express, Daily Telegraph and Cosmopolitan, and has contributed to Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Start the Week and Kaleidoscope. She lives in London.
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2019 | One of Our Books of the Year 2017 | November 2017 Book of the Month | A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month October 2017 | Award-winning Kate Saunders takes readers on a wondrous fantasy adventure in the best tradition of children’s stories in which there is another world to ours in which strange and silly things can and do happen. The story is tinged with sadness as the adventures stem from beautifully conveyed feelings of grief that it is often hard to express. Mourning the death of her much-loved sister, Emily finds herself having the most curious dreams in which soft toys came alive and do the most extraordinary things. When Ruth, a neighbour whose son died as a child, dreams the same things, the pair begin an adventure in which the worlds of reality and storytelling and make-believe seem to flow together effortlessly and the absurd becomes the everyday. For both Emily and Ruth, learning to laugh again at the happenings in the imaginary world of Smokeroon provides them with exactly the comfort and imaginary release they so badly need.
One of Our Books of the Year 2017 | November 2017 Book of the Month | A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month October 2017 Award-winning Kate Saunders takes readers on a wondrous fantasy adventure in the best tradition of children’s stories in which there is another world to ours in which strange and silly things can and do happen. The story is tinged with sadness as the adventures stem from beautifully conveyed feelings of grief that it is often hard to express. Mourning the death of her much-loved sister, Emily finds herself having the most curious dreams in which soft toys came alive and do the most extraordinary things. When Ruth, a neighbour whose son died as a child, dreams the same things, the pair begin an adventure in which the worlds of reality and storytelling and make-believe seem to flow together effortlessly and the absurd becomes the everyday. For both Emily and Ruth, learning to laugh again at the happenings in the imaginary world of Smokeroon provides them with exactly the comfort and imaginary release they so badly need.
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2016. Shortlisted for the 2015 Guardian Children's Book prize. Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2014 | Witty, tender and full of insights into life love and politics, this is a brilliant book in its own right as well as a worthy tribute to E. Nesbit’s classic Five Children and It. The year is 1914. Anthea, Robert, Jane and Cyril, who has just enlisted, are now grown up, the Lamb is a schoolboy and even Edie, an addition to the family since the original, is old enough to meet the extraordinary and magical Psammead when he re-enters their life. All the children are longing for some new adventures but has the Psammead still got his magical powers? As befits the serious times, the Psammead plays an invaluable role in helping the family understand the First World War while also sorting out problems from his own past. Action-packed, funny and thoughtful this is a book to fall in love with.
One minute Flora is dreaming on a train heading back to boarding school and the next a magic spell has spun Flora into the past. She’s mysteriously swapped lives with a schoolgirl in 1935! What a nightmare: no iPod, no mobile, no hair products and ridiculous rules. How will she survive? She has to speak French at breakfast, wear hideous baggy bloomers and sleep in a freezing dormitory. Flora also finds lots of positives in her new life but realises she must also find her way back to the 21st century and the reason for her time-travel. Full of magic and humour this wonderfully touching story will have girls desperate to join Flora on her time-travel escapades.
Witty, tender and full of insights into life love and politics, this is a brilliant book in its own right as well as a worthy tribute to E. Nesbit’s classic Five Children and It. The year is 1914. Anthea, Robert, Jane and Cyril, who has just enlisted, are now grown up, the Lamb is a schoolboy and even Edie, an addition to the family since the original, is old enough to meet the extraordinary and magical Psammead when he re-enters their life. All the children are longing for some new adventures but has the Psammead still got his magical powers? As befits the serious times, the Psammead plays an invaluable role in helping the family understand the First World War while also sorting out problems from his own past. Action-packed, funny and thoughtful this is a book to fall in love with.
Shortlisted for the 2015 Guardian Children's Book prize - One of our Books of the Year 2014 - October 2014 Book of the Month - Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2014 | Witty, tender and full of insights into life love and politics, this is a brilliant book in its own right as well as a worthy tribute to E. Nesbit’s classic Five Children and It. The year is 1914. Anthea, Robert, Jane and Cyril, who has just enlisted, are now grown up, the Lamb is a schoolboy and even Edie, an addition to the family since the original, is old enough to meet the extraordinary and magical Psammead when he re-enters their life. All the children are longing for some new adventures but has the Psammead still got his magical powers? As befits the serious times, the Psammead plays an invaluable role in helping the family understand the First World War while also sorting out problems from his own past. Action-packed, funny and thoughtful this is a book to fall in love with. Although Kate Saunders' novel takes its inspiration from E Nesbit's Five Children and It, Five Children on the Western Front is an entirely stand alone novel and there is no need to have read the original classic.
Shortlisted for the Independent Booksellers Book Award 2011 The author of Beswitched has written one of the most enchanting, funny and suspenseful stories to have been published for some time.
A bewitching, bewildering, hilarious and absolutely irresistible magical adventure. A wonderful new life begins for Oz and Lily when their father inherits the family chocolate factory from a long lost uncle. Moving into their new home, Lily knows at once that strange and magical things are about to happen… First she meets an invisible cat, then there’s a talking rat and finally the ghost of an elephant. Whether the family like it or not, they are now involved in a thrilling battle to protect the precious family chocolate recipe from the ruthless villains who are after it. Click here for more books by Kate Saunders.
One minute Flora is dreaming on a train heading back to boarding school and the next a magic spell has spun Flora into the past. She’s mysteriously swapped lives with a schoolgirl in 1935! What a nightmare: no iPod, no mobile, no hair products and ridiculous rules. How will she survive? She has to speak French at breakfast, wear hideous baggy bloomers and sleep in a freezing dormitory. Flora also finds lots of positives in her new life but realises she must also find her way back to the 21st century and the reason for her time-travel. Full of magic and humour this wonderfully touching story will have girls desperate to join Flora on her time-travel escapades.
