This is an absolutely marvellous soaring adventure that gives you a glimpse, and a memorable one at that, of another world. The story is completely original, like nothing you will have read before and utterly compulsive. The words are rich and evocative of time and place without a word out of place.
Haoyou knows that his father's spirit lives among the clouds above Ancient China. He also knows that to save his mother from being forced into a new marriage he must now follow in his father's footsteps and take to the skies, riding a kite through the clouds and the spirits of the dead. Then the Jade Circus offers him a chance to escape his enemies and travel throughout the empire, and maybe even perform before Kublai Khan himself. But is going with the circus really the best option? It could be that the circus master is leading him into even greater danger. This outstanding story is like nothing else you've ever read - packed with action, adventure and emotion.
'It snatches you up from the first chapter . . . beautiful and compulsive' The Sunday Times
'gripping stuff' Ian Hislop, The Sunday Telegraph
'a marvellous soaring story that gives you a glimpse into another world' The Guardian
Author
About Geraldine McCaughrean
Geraldine McCaughrean is one of today's most successful and highly regarded children's authors. She has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book Award (three times), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award (four times) and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Geraldine lives in Berkshire with her husband, daughter and golden retriever, Daisy.Read more about the author here.
'I reckon Geraldine McCaughrean knocks the socks off every other children's writer today. Everything she does is different and everything works – look at her list of prizes. She must write in tremendous bursts. Some years, she's so prolific the rest of us start joking that the fairies come in at night to do her work for her. Then she'll go quiet, so unlike all those writers who are persuaded by their publishers to come up with something every year, no matter how tired or drab. If Geraldine has nothing fresh to write, she doesn't write it.' (The Guardian)
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