By Simon Mason (author)
Paperback In Stock £12.99 £11.69
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One of the 4 titles longlisted for the Guardian Children's Book Prize 2011.
How love is tested, challenged and threatened, but can ultimately hold families together is at the heart of Moon Pie . Martha is used to managing her father's sometimes erratic behaviour after her mother dies. Dealing with his oddities and caring for her small brother Tug seems not much stranger than her friend Marcus' obsession with Hollywood movies. But finally, even for her, it is all just a bit too much. This is a beautifully told story that is long on affection and short on preaching.
Titles longlisted for the 2011 Guardian Children's Book Prize:
My Name is Mina by David Almond
Small Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans
Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge
Momentum by Saci Lloyd
Moon Pie by Simon Mason
Return to Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher
Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout by Andy Stanton
Eleven-year-old Martha is used to being the one who has to keep her head. Tug, her little brother, is too small. Dad is too strange. And Mum's not here any more.
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So when Dad falls off the roof, it's Martha who ices his knee and takes him to the doctor. And when Dad doesn't come home, it's Martha who cooks Tug's favourite pie and reads him his bedtime story. And when Dad passes out, it's Martha who cleans him up and keeps his secret.
But eventually Dad's problems become too big for even Martha to solve. There is only one person who can sort things out now. Dad.
Simon has always been fascinated by crime novels and grew up reading the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie.
To this day, he continues to be mesmerised by their most famous detectives: Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe and Hercule Poirot. These are the characters who inspired Simon to write his first crime novel, Running Girl, introducing Garvie Smith, a young man with a brilliant brain and an obvious reluctance to use it responsibly. Maths was a subject Simon struggled with at school – so he made Garvie a maths genius.
He also asked himself: what makes a really good crime novel, what keeps readers hooked until the very end? And he answered: 1) a totally gripping story full of mystery, danger and foul deeds, 2) a charismatic detective, and 3) a vivid sense of place. This is what he always aims for in his own writing.
Simon lives in Oxford, the city of another very famous detective, Inspector Morse, and he is currently writing another Garvie Smith Mystery.
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Eleven-year-old Martha is used to being the one who has to keep her head. Tug, her little brother, is too small.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Moon Pie and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
Moon Pie features in the following genres: Recommended Children's eBooks, Recommendations, Featured Books for 9+ readers, Books of the Month, Featured Books for 11+ readers
Paperback, Hardback. £11.69, down from the £12.99 cover price. In Stock.
Moon Pie was written by Simon Mason and published by Yearling an imprint of Penguin Random House Children's UK
Moon Pie has 326 pages
£11.69, reduced from £12.99. In Stock.
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