One Shot by Tanya Landman

By Tanya Landman (author) Part of the Barrington Stoke Teen series

"A super readable, rip-roaring rags-to-riches story of survival inspired by the life of America’s first female celebrity - the one and only sharp-shooting, convention-crushing Annie Oakley."

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Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2020 | Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8+

Maggie’s story is charged with emotional energy from the opening lines, when her involving narration reveals a deep, deep bond with her Pa, whom she lost at the tender age of eight. He was a man of few words whose “every last syllable was worth hearing”. “Their souls were cut from the same cloth”, whereas her city-born Ma and her siblings are truly out of place living in the wilderness.

Pa’s death leaves Maggie “in a place of bewildering horror”, and the family in a desperate struggle for survival, and so Maggie does what Pa would have done. She takes his gun to hunt for food to keep her family alive. But in place of praising and thanking her super-shot daughter, Maggie’s cold-hearted, convention-heeding Ma sends her to the County Infirmary for displaying “unnatural”, “unladylike” behaviour.

While the rest of her childhood is marred by terrible abuse, Pa’s pervasive presence and Maggie’s indomitable inner strength see her stick to her guns, a tenacity that brings unimaginably spectacular change. Propelled by heart-pounding, high-stakes action, this is a richly rewarding, sparky story for young adults with a reading age of 9+.

After the death of her beloved father, Maggie and her family are thrown into a life of destitution. With little income and no way to live off their poor land, Maggie tries to provide for her family the way her father always had - with his hunting rifle and whatever animals the forest would provide. But when her mother is confronted with her unladylike behaviour, Maggie is thrown into a life of unthinkable cruelty and abuse. With no one to care for her and only the hope of escape, all Maggie can do is survive.

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Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 13+.

Tanya Landman is renowned for her prize-winning novels including the beautifully “deft and dark”, Carnegie Medal winning Buffalo Soldier . In 2019 she won the Scottish Teenage Book Prize for her critically acclaimed novella One Shot .

Tanya says that she loves how writing allows her to daydream – something she was always in trouble for at school!