Prize-winning author Gillian Cross tells a nail biting and fascinating story that’ll make readers think hard about how the lives of individuals connect and the wide ranging impacts they can have.
Told in the voices of three teenagers who become inextricably intertwined when Khadija, a Somali girl, is spotted by a fashion designer who determines that her ‘look’ will be the next big thing. The ludicrous wealth of the UK fashion world is dextrously set against the extreme poverty and danger of life in Somalia as the two worlds touch and collide.
There are guns and bandits in this story. And supermodels. And there's drought and starvation too. Are you wondering how they can all come together? Well, that's how life is these days. Things don't happen neatly, in separate little places. We're all caught by the great spider's web of media that spans the world. That's where this story is set. The world. It's the story of Abdi and Khadija and Freya (that's me) and what happened to us because of Somalia ...
Gillian Cross has won numerous literary prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children’s Novel Award (now the Costa), and the Smarties Prize.
Gillian Cross has been writing children’s books for over thirty years. Before that, she took English degrees at Oxford and Sussex Universities, and had various jobs including working in a village bakery and being an assistant to a Member of Parliament. She won the Carnegie Medal for Wolf, the Smarties Prize and the Whitbread Children’s Novel Award for The Great Elephant Chase; and the Little Rebels Award for After Tomorrow.
