Winner of the Children’s Book Award 2016, Books for Older Readers category - Longlisted for the 2015 Guardian Children's Book prize - Shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Carnegie Medal Apple is sure that one day her mother will return. And when that happens she is sure that everything in her life will be good again. But when Mum does return, Apple finds that what you wish for may not always be what you really want. With the arrival of mum, Apple’s life is turned upside down. Home, school and most of all, what she really thinks about all those around her, are all thrown into confusion. Can Apple find happiness in a new way of life? Apple’s poems help her to tell this touching story of an unhappy and complicated family life.
When Apple's mother returns after eleven years of absence, Apple feels whole again. She will have an answer to her burning question - why did you go? And she will have someone who understands what it means to be a teenager - unlike Nana. But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she left, her mother's homecoming is bitter sweet, and Apple wonders who is really looking after whom. It's only when Apple meets someone more lost than she is, that she begins to see things as they really are.
Like a brilliant hybrid of Cathy Cassidy and Jacqueline Wilson, Sarah Crossan entices you into her world, then tells a moving, perceptive and beautifully crafted story which has the power to make you laugh and cry.
Praise for Apple and Rain ‘This poignant, realistic tale is about learning to love and taking responsibility, and about how poems can tell the truth, as Emily Dickinson put it, at a “slant” ’ Sunday Times, Pick of the Week
‘Crossan’s skill as a writer is at its most pronounced, contributing to a portrayal of adolescence that is subtle and humane’ Irish Times
‘An inspiring tale’ Irish Examiner
‘It’ll make you laugh and cry . . .’ Company
‘Apple and Rain is a beautifully crafted story about painful reunions, loyalty and the true meaning of love; a story with a deep emotional core, both heart-wrenching and heart-warming’ Sita Brahmachari, author of Artichoke Hearts
‘Sarah Crossan writes with insight and honesty in this moving story of family, friendship, and love’ Claire Furniss, author of The Year of the Rat
‘Honest, funny and at times, heart-breaking. Apple and Rain is perfect for readers who want to read about an ordinary person with an extraordinary family’ Rebecca Westcott, author of Dandelion Clocks
‘Apple and Rain is a wonderful feel-good kind of book, the kind that doesn’t offer you an unrealistic happy ending, but rather an ending which leaves the reader full of hope. A wonderful book indeed’ www.librarymice.com
Praise for The Weight of Water
A story of the redeeming power of love. It's beautifully written and it made me cry but it also made me laugh The Bookbag
Poignant, powerful, just perfect - Cathy Cassidy
Succinct, with a gentle lyricism, the poems are telling about immigration, prejudice, self-delusion, families and first love, on the way to a life-changing conclusion The Sunday Times - Children's Books of the Week
Exquistely and touchingly written - Irish Times
Author
About Sarah Crossan
Sarah Crossan has lived in Dublin, London and New York, and now lives in East Sussex. She graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Literature before training as an English and drama teacher at the University of Cambridge. The Weight of Water and Apple and Rain were both shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. In 2016, Sarah won the CILIP Carnegie Medal as well as the YA Book Prize, the CBI Book of the Year award and the CLiPPA Poetry Award for her novel, One.
Sarah is the go-to writer of the free verse novel in the UK and Ireland, and is the current Laureate na nÓg (Ireland’s Children’s Literature Laureate). Her theme as Laureate is #WeAreThePoets, a two-year project inspiring young people to express themselves through poetry and verse.
