ANN KELLEY
WINNER OF THE COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2007
“The author as artist evokes people and places with delicacy, humour and truth…”
A new novel for teenagers
KOH TABU
Oxford University Press 978-01927 5604 6 £6.99
You can’t wait for the camping trip. You’re heading off for a weekend with your friends, free from your parents, away from the disciplines of timetables and school.
But a blip in the weather system means that the expedition goes wrong from the start. And those you trust, those for whom you have high hopes, those who are supposed to be responsible turn out to be a terrible disappointment.
Day 10: I keep thinking it can’t get any worse but it does. The nightmare is neverending.
Suddenly everything is down to you…
Koh Tabu is an island of horrifying secrets and magical discoveries. There, dreams and nightmares meet in an unforgettable thriller about trust, fear, growing up and courage.
Koh Tabu is a thriller in the tradition of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, by an award winning writer for teenagers.
Ann Kelley is a poet, photographer and writer, the author of 5 novels for teenagers, including The Bower Bird which won the prestigious Costa Children’s Book Award 2007. Her books are praised for their honest portrayal of young people facing a period of challenge, often as part of the transition between adolescence and adulthood.
‘Koh Tabu is all about survival. And I’m a bit of a survivor myself. I’ve survived walking into a pride of lions in Zimbabwe, and then half an hour later, meeting up with 30 angry elephants, I inadvertently swam with sharks on the Great Barrier Reef, and was bitten by a guard-dog in the Cook Islands. I live on the edge of a cliff in Cornwall where, one winter, there was a landslip, a flood, a lightning strike, the roof blew off in a southerly gale, and then a glass roof blew in on her in a northerly gale.’
Ann is available for talks and workshops.
Her talks include readings from her novels, insight into the work of a writer, guidance for young writers and, where appropriate, practical exercises in creating settings, characters, plotting etc. She also enjoys answering question and answer sessions.
Ann offers poetry-writing workshops.
Ann’s preferred readership is 11 to 18 years.
She will talk to groups of any size, but poetry workshops should be restricted to no more than 15 pupils.
For further information about specific events, fees and how to book Ann to visit your school, library or book group, contact her on annkelley@blue-earth.co.uk
Visit Ann Kelley’s website on www.annkelley.co.uk
Nine girls, one tropical island, no parents . . . paradise?
Wonderful day, wonderful island -THE WRONG ISLAND, but who cares? For Bonnie MacDonald it didn’t matter that they’d blown off course, she and her friends were off on an adventure to a beautiful tropical island. And there were no parents or teachers to spoil things. There was Layla Campbell, of course, but she didn’t count as a proper grown-up-she was so cool, so beautiful, and treated the girls as equals, not like children. But how can a place go from paradise to hell in just one night? How can life go from being a wonderful adventure to a desperate struggle to survive? Sun . . . sea . . . sand . . . Destruction . . . danger . . . death . . .
