Sophie Mckenzie - Children's Author

Sophie McKenzie has enjoyed great success and critical acclaim in less than five years as a published author.  To date, she has won twenty national, international and regional book awards.

Sophie was born and brought up in London, where she still lives with her teenage son. She has worked as a journalist and a magazine editor, but fell in love with writing after being made redundant and enrolling in a creative writing course. She burst into the publishing world with Girl, Missing, her debut novel (published 2006), which tallied up numerous award wins nationwide, including the Richard and Judy Best Kids’ Books 2007 (12+ category), The Red House Book Award and The Manchester Children’s Book Award. She was also longlisted for the Branford Boase award, which commends debut authors, and the coveted Carnegie Medal.

Following her exceptional debut, Sophie published the All About Eve trilogy, comprising Six Steps to a Girl (2007), Three’s a Crowd (2008), and The One and Only (2009).

A return to thriller-writing saw publication of Blood Ties in 2008, another multiple award-winner which again saw Sophie longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and crowned winner of the North East Teen Book Award and the Red House Book Award among many others. Blood Ransom, the sensational follow-up to Blood Ties was published in 2010. Sister, Missing, Sophie’s long-awaited sequel to Girl, Missing, was released in September 2011.

The Medusa Project series was launched in July 2009, following the thrilling, fast-paced story of four teenagers impregnated with the Medusa gene, a gene which manifests itself in various psychic abilities. The series so far features The Set-Up, The Hostage, The Rescue, Hunted and Double-cross.  A special short story, The Thief, was published for World Book Day in 2010 and Hit Squad, the final book in the series, was published in January 2012.

Sophie has also published The Fix, Time Train to the Blitz, Author’s Sword and contributed to Losing It, alongside the likes of Melvin Burgess, Keith Gray, Jenny Valentine and Patrick Ness.

You can see Sophie giving her writing tips in a video - click here.

Author photo © J Ring Aug 2012

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Featured Books, with extracts by Sophie Mckenzie

Missing Me
Sophie Mckenzie
March 2013 Book of the Month     Best-selling teen author Sophie McKenzie hooks readers straight into this action-packed and page-turning story. A sequel to Girl, Missing and Sister, Missing this also works well on its own as Madison, shocked by...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Books of the Month | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 28/02/2013
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Burning Bright
Sophie Mckenzie
January 2013 Book of the Month  In this high-octane sequel to Falling Fast, River, still passionately in love with Flynn,  finds herself more and more confused and anxious by his violent behaviour. Time and again she forgives him knowing some of...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Books of the Month | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/01/2013
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Missing Me
Sophie Mckenzie
September 2012 Book of the Month. Sophie McKenzie's ability to tap into the teen pysche is second to none and here yet again in this the third in her Missing series (the first and second were Girl, Missing and Sister,...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers | Books of the Month | eBooks
Format: Hardback - Released: 13/09/2012
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Sister, Missing
Sophie Mckenzie
Bestselling Sophie Mackenzie follows up Girl, Missing with a nail-bitingly tense and action-packed thriller as Lauren, still reeling from her own kidnapping, loses her little sister Madison in the blink of an eye on a crowded beach. Surely this can’t...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/07/2012
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The Fix
Sophie Mckenzie
Interest Age Teen, Reading Age 8+. A tense novel about finding the special kind of courage needed to do the right thing in difficult circumstances. Blake is great footballer; playing football is all he wants to do but, with money...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers | Dyslexia-friendly | Reluctant Readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 12/03/2012
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Falling Fast
Sophie Mckenzie
March 2012 Book of the Month. From the author of bestsellers Girl, Missing, the Medusa Project series, Blood Ties and the Luke & Eve romance trilogy (Six Steps to a Girl, Three’s a Crowd, The...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Books of the Month | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/03/2012
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The Medusa Project : Hit Squad
Sophie Mckenzie
Category Winner of The Red House Children’s Book Award 2013.  The sixth and final Medusa Project thriller about four teenagers with psychic abilities brings the bestselling series from Red House award-winning author, Sophie McKenzie to an explosive end. Click here to visit Sophie...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 9+ readers | Book Awards
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/01/2012
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Sister, Missing
Sophie Mckenzie
A Lovereading4kids 'Great Read' you may have missed 2011 selection. The long-awaited sequel to the award-winning bestseller, Girl, Missing. Sophie McKenzie takes us back to the characters and complex family set-up of her award-winning debut thriller in this nail-bitingly tense sequel.
Featured in: 14+ readers | eBooks
Format: Hardback - Released: 15/09/2011
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Girl, Missing
Sophie Mckenzie
This is a gripping thriller, inspired by the real-life case of a toddler who went missing in the early ‘90s.  Touching on areas such as difficult relationships with parents, kidnapping and adoption, along with a compelling and high-speed plot, romance,...
Featured in: 11+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/08/2011
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The Medusa Project : Double-Cross
Sophie Mckenzie
Sophie McKenzie’s sure touch is brilliantly on display in this thrilling new adventure about her four teenagers transformed by the Medusa gene. This time the four, all of whom have special mind powers, are in serious danger; their mentor has...
Featured in: 11+ readers | Books of the Month
Format: Paperback - Released: 09/06/2011
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The Medusa Project: Hunted
Sophie Mckenzie
The fourth in this hi-octane series featuring four teenagers, each of whom have different psychic powers, who together can defeat almost anything. One of them Dylan has her hands chock full as she tries to discover the truth behind his...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/01/2011
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Blood Ransom
Sophie Mckenzie
Fast-paced and thought provoking, this is a thrilling story with a powerful science fiction theme. The first ever human clones Rachel and Theo have been separated by the Atlantic with Rachel in Scotland and Theo in the US. They are...
Featured in: 11+ readers | Books of the Month | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/10/2010
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The Medusa Project: The Rescue
Sophie Mckenzie
This is the third in this hi-octane thriller featuring four teenagers, each of whom have different psychic powers, which together can defeat almost anything.  The problem is that government agents want them to help to infiltrate the criminal underworld but...
Featured in: 11+ readers | Books of the Month | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 08/07/2010
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Time Train to the Blitz
Sophie Mckenzie
A gripping time-slip story with a World War Two setting plunges two children into an exciting adventure when they climb aboard a mysterious train and find themselves transported back to London at the time of the Blitz. Soon Joe and...
Featured in: 7+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 30/04/2010
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The Medusa Project : The Hostage
Sophie Mckenzie
A breathtaking, headlong thriller that grips from the very first moment - this sequel to The Set-Up tells how Nico, Ketty, Ed and Dylan, recent recruits into the undercover crime-fighting force called The Medusa Project, tackle their next major mission....
Featured in: 11+ readers | Books of the Month
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/01/2010
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The Medusa Project: The Set-Up
Sophie Mckenzie
This is not science fiction. Within the lifetime of children now the human race will have created new improved humans through genetic manipulation. Frightening but true. Here in the first of a thrilling roller-coaster adventure series you can join four teenagers, each...
Featured in: 11+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/07/2009
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The One And Only
Sophie Mckenzie
From the author of the Richard and Judy Children's Books winner, Girl, Missing comes the final instalment in a terrific teenage love story trilogy, which captures the ups, downs and at times almost unbearable emotions of being in love. To...
Featured in: 14+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/02/2009
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Blood Ties
Sophie Mckenzie
Winner of the Red House Children's Book Award 2009. Terrifically paced, this thriller links two teenagers who must work fast to unravel the past and discover the dangerous secret that unites them. Theo and Rachel have a lot at stake...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Book Awards | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/07/2008
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Three's a Crowd
Sophie Mckenzie
Full of passion and heartbreak, this is a powerful and touching love story. Luke and Eve are longing for their first holiday together but they hadn’t reckoned what it would be like staying with Eve’s father. Almost from the start,...
Featured in: 14+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2008
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Six Steps To A Girl
Sophie Mckenzie
Winner of the Manchester Children's Book Award 2009 The first in the tangled teenage transatlantic love story ... To read the trilogy in order start with Six Steps to a Girl then Three’s a Crowd and end with The...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Book Awards | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/08/2007
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