Lark - WINNER OF THE 2020 CARNEGIE MEDAL (The Truth of Things)

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He has said that he read primarily non-fiction nature books when he was young, but when he was nine, a teacher gave him JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: "I don’t think I’d ever read a novel before, not even an Enid Blyton. It also provides the basis for the beginning of a shift in their relationship which is the real story of the book, since Kenny refuses to wear the woollies and suggests Nicky wear them himself. This particular cover doesn’t really relate much to the content of the book (I’m not sure why the boy is on a sofa on the beach) but it does have something of the spirit I associate with the book. A book for older children due to the langauge used - but as it's Barrington Stoke it's in a reader friendly format.

On finishing it, and with a tear in my eye, I instantly set about finding the first three books in the series, Brock, Pike, and Rook.We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.

It’s important to acknowledge that the experience this series gives voice to is primarily that of the sibling of a persom with a disability: the books are narrated by Nicky, the non-disabled sibling, and we see Kenny’s disabilty through his eyes.And crucially, I think this would have kept the books more firmly within the perspective of the teenagers who are the intended audience. Lark breaks from the style used with the earlier books, and with earlier Barrington Stoke titles in general, deploying this very distinctive linocut style image of a lark in flight. They would also only drop off a case of books and leave us to run it – it was so lovely to have you on hand to chat to the children and recommend them books, as well as the small (but appreciated!

This isn’t a weakness – in fact it’s exactly the thing that was meaningful to me – but it’s worth acknowledging. I want to see the shortlist and the winners continue to grow richer, especially in relation to race – because for sure Black British children are starving for books about themselves – but also in relation to a whole wide range of experience. His Barrington Stoke titles include the Carnegie Medal shortlisted Rook and the 2020 Carnegie Medal winner Lark which the judges described as "a standalone masterpiece". The adults are very much relegated to the background because the author's focus is almost entirely on Nicky and Kenny, and to a lesser extent on their faithful terrier Tina. On another level, the book is about the unshakable love between two brothers, one of them with special needs, after enduring family break-up, poverty, bullying and cruelty.That is, while at various points they invite judges to consider the effect of the book on the reader, there’s no explicit direction to consider the intended reader.

His Barrington Stoke titles include the Carnegie Medal shortlisted Rook and the 2020 Carnegie Medal winner Lark which the judges described as “a standalone masterpiece”. The shortlists for the last two years have shown some of the effects of this: we’ve had several non-white authors shortlisted, and this year finally saw a Black British author (Dean Atta) make it to the shortlist.

This awkward anticipation and the Easter holiday has found them part bored, and part on edge, especially Kenny. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. No sooner do they get on the hills but the clouds gather and very soon they find themselves in a blizzard.