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Sally Gardner is an award-winning novelist from London. Her books have been translated into 22 languages and have sold more than one million copies in the UK.
Her historical novel for older readers, I, Coriander, won the Smarties Children's Book Prize in 2005. Two thrillers both set at the time of the French Revolution, The Red Necklace and The Silver Blade, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2009, followed. Actor Dominic West (The Wire) has bought the film rights to both titles.
Her YA novel, The Double Shadow, was published in 2011 to critical acclaim. Sally Gardner's stories for middle readers include Lucy Willow and the popular Magical Children series of six titles: The Strongest Girl in the World, The Invisible Boy, The Boy with Magic Numbers, The Smallest Girl in the World, The Boy with the Lightning Feet, and The Boy who could Fly, which are also available as audio books. She has also written and illustrated picture books including The Fairy Catalogue, The Glass Heart, The Book of Princesses and Playtime Rhymes. Sally Gardner continues to be an avid spokesperson for dyslexia, working to change the way it is perceived by society. She is dyslexic and argues that it is not a disability, but a gift.
If you'd love to know more about Sally, click here to download a more detailed biography and Q&A.
To see a video of Sally talking about her book Fairy Shopping - CLICK HERE
Or watch a video of her talking about The Silver Blade:
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month June 2021 | Too much grumpy Gupper Fog is swirling around Rubbish Island. The moon has disappeared into the sea and everything has turned topsy turvey…How can the Tindims put things right and make Rubbish Island a safe and pleasant place to live again? There’s great charm to Sally Gardner’s zany story which is amplified in Lydia Corry’s illustrations.
Sally Gardner’s stories of the Tindims, little people who, like nautical Borrowers, collect up the rubbish floating in the sea and reuse it, are as full of adventure as they are of charm, mixing a refreshing innocence with a real sense of urgency about the need for humans to change our ways. In this story Tiddledim the explorer is sailing into Turtle Bay, Granny Gull is baking cakes and just about everyone else is searching for the Bottlerama, the special instruments Tindims use to welcome visitors to Rubbish Island. Made from ten green bottles, it makes a sound as if the clouds are singing. But the Bottlerama needs fixing, and the Tindims can’t find enough glass bottles, though they’ve got lots (and lots) of plastic ones. Things work out happily, and the story ends with the Tindims singing along to their new Bottlerama, while a whale has been helped in the process too. The story will appeal to all eco-conscious young readers as well as those who dream of independent adventures. The font is dyslexia friendly and with illustrations by Lydia Corry throughout (as well as a simply gorgeous colour map on the inside cover) these stories are accessible to all readers. Printed in dyslexia-friendly font with pictures on every page and perfect for the reluctant reader.
Interest Age 5+ Reading Age 5 | Selected for The Book Box by LoveReading4Kids | Something like nautical Borrowers, the Tindims live on a floating island, gathering, reusing and recycling what people throw away. When Bottle Mountain gets too big and slides off the island, it knocks Granny Gull’s house into the sea and with it Captain Spoons and Broom. With typical ingenuity, the Tindims prepare a rescue mission even as the captain and Broom are being lifted out of the ocean by Long Legs (ie adult humans). While the rescue doesn’t go quite according to plan, everything works out, in particular the meeting with the Long Legs and their Little Long Legs. Children will love the Tindims and their world. These little people are both wise and innocent, delighting in poetry, song and jam-making as well as their recycling. Printed in an easy-to-read dyslexia-friendly font and with Lydia Corry’s gorgeous illustrations on every page, the stories are perfect for newly independent readers. Printed in dyslexia-friendly font with pictures on every page and perfect for the reluctant reader.
Interest Age 5+ Reading Age 5 | Sally Gardner has a unique imagination and a special ability to create fresh, sparkling fairy tales for today. This new series introduces us to the utterly delightful little Tindims who, like the Borrowers, make their home out of things we humans – or Long Legs as they know us – throw away. ‘Rubbish today is treasure tomorrow’ is their motto, though from their floating home of Rubbish Island, they do worry just how many plastic bottles they can recycle. In this episode they are preparing for their Brightsea Festival, when Ethel B Dina is swept away. They save her of course – the Tindims are always going to find their happy endings. Children will love them and their recycled world, and these stories are beautifully accessible and perfectly illustrated by Lydia Corry. Printed in dyslexia-friendly font with pictures on every page and perfect for the reluctant reader. Books in the Series: 1. The Tindims of Rubbish Island 2. The Tindims and the Turtle Tangle 3. The Tindims and the Ten Green Bottles 4. The Tindims and the Floating Moon
Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2021 | What a majestic conjuration of Middle Grade magic this is – think Alice in Wonderland in a dazzling theatrical setting. The year is 1870 and Celeste is a lowly orphan who runs errands in a Royal Opera House. She wakes one day haunted by a dream in which an enigmatic emerald suited-man spoke ominously of her involvement in a game called the Reckoning. Celeste recalls a shipwreck from the dream too and then, back in what appears to be real life, the opera house’s huge galleon-shaped crystal chandelier splinters into a thousand pieces and everyone thinks Celeste is someone else. The opening in which she cascades into the story world is as exhilaratingly bewildering as Alice’s entry to Wonderland: “Down she falls. Oh, how the world has tumbled.” Why does everyone think she’s a gifted dancer called Maria? Why can’t everyone see her? And so an intricate, suspenseful tale of identity plays out as Celeste struggles to untangle the truth, with dreadfully high stakes. Gardner’s cast of larger-than-life characters is vibrantly drawn, and special mention must be made of vindictive diva Madame Sabina and her awful daughter, and Celeste’s ally Viggo. But the true star of this production is - of course – Celeste, whose resolve is adeptly expressed through the thoughts of the mysterious man in the emerald suit: “Seldom has he met a child with strength enough to move on to the final part of the game.” This is a dream of a book for confident readers who relish fiction that ignites their imaginations and delight in flexing their cerebral muscles.
Beautifully illustrated throughout, a tale of love, disappearance and trust as Becky disappears and her friend Jazmin is suspected of somehow being complicit in that disappearance. A challenging and rewarding read.
Jazmin has been shunned ever since her best friend Becky disappeared. But Becky didn't just disappear - she jumped off a tall building and seemingly never reached the ground. It was as if she simply vanished into thin air. Did Jazmin have something to do with her disappearance? Or was it more to do with Icarus, so beguiling and strangely ever youthful, with whom Becky became suddenly besotted . . . With detailed and intriguing black and white illustrations throughout.
Jam-packed tales full of hilarity, excitement and fun but this latest in the Wings and Co. series from Sally Gardner, winner of the Costa Book Award 2013, and acclaimed artist, David Roberts is even more mashed up than usual. It sounds like a case for Wings & Co, the famous fairy detective agency when a giant bunny, out of control broomstick and magically shrinking cars are causing chaos! So can the Wings and Co. detectives of Emily, Budget and Fidget put a stop to this magical mischief before it's too late? Perfect for all young readers looking for a thoroughly engaging read. If you loved David Walliams's Gangsta Granny, you'll love these hilarious tales of mischief, mayhem, magic and mystery. One of our Books of the Year 2014
A brand new quirky detective series called WINGS & Co. brimming with humour, mystery and magic by million-copy selling author Sally Gardner and illustrated by David Roberts. Operation Bunny is the first case for the Fairy Detective Agency and with the help of a talking cat called Fidget and a grumpy fairy detective called Buster, it's up to Emily Vole to get to the bottom of Operation Bunny. It's a series that 7+ year olds shouldn't be missing.
Shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal - Shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Carnegie Medal Award-winning Sally Gardner tells a gripping, bloody and bold story drawing on the traditions of fairy stories of all kinds and especially Hans Christian Andersen’s The Tinder Box. Tinder tells how a young and romantic soldier finds true love by overcoming every kind of magic and trickery in the world through a mixture of bravery and cunning while also trying to hold fast to goodness and truth. Behind him and almost all he meets lie the horrors and the excitement of serving as a soldier; all of them long for a peaceful life they cannot resist the heady excitement of living with danger an urge that leads them all into violence with all the terrible attendant consequences. ~ Julia Eccleshare
Shortlisted for the UKLA 2016 Book Award in the 12 - 16 year old category. This novel contains some strong language. A new novel by multi-award winning Sally Gardner is always highly anticipated. She is one of the most original writers of today, and The Door That Led To Where is typical of her writing: a story that will surprise readers as it intrigues and absorbs them. This is a time travel novel. AJ, the young hero, is able to travel through a door – a door to which he alone has the key – and into the London of 1830. Dickens is a palpable presence in the book and would have appreciated the story that unfolds, one of missing children, madness and murder. Both Londons – today’s and yesterday’s – are brought to life in vivid prose and images. AJ and his associates are great company and it looks like there may be more adventures for them to come – good news for readers! ~ Andrea Reece
This novel contains some strong language. A new novel by multi-award winning Sally Gardner is always highly anticipated. She is one of the most original writers of today, and The Door That Led To Where is typical of her writing: a story that will surprise readers as it intrigues and absorbs them. This is a time travel novel. AJ, the young hero, is able to travel through a door – a door to which he alone has the key – and into the London of 1830. Dickens is a palpable presence in the book and would have appreciated the story that unfolds, one of missing children, madness and murder. Both Londons – today’s and yesterday’s – are brought to life in vivid prose and images. AJ and his associates are great company and it looks like there may be more adventures for them to come – good news for readers! ~ Andrea Reece
