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31-year-old Keith was born and brought up in Grimsby and knew from an early age that he wanted to be a writer. When he received 0% for his accountancy exams he decided to pursue his dream. He has since gone on to win the Angus Book Award and the silver medal in the Smarties Prize. He has twice been shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teen Prize and the Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Rave reviews about his writing have appeared in every broadsheet. Keith was a judge for the Blue Peter Book Award, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Kathleen Fiedler Award. He has just been asked to judge next year's Booktrust Teen Prize. He was recently interviewed on Radio 4 with Jacqueline Wilson about writing for teens, was featured on Live and Kicking, and his novel The Warehouse has been optioned for television. Keith is now a full-time writer living in Edinburgh.
Shortlisted for the Scottish Teenage Book Prize 2017 Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8 The Lost Soldier is lots of things: a genuinely creepy ghost story, and a gripping tale of loss, conflict, revenge and redemption. The ghost takes the form of a gruesome exhibit in the Museum of Marvels at a travelling carnival: the remains – real? – of a soldier, supposedly the last to die in World War One. It preys on Joe, a young man fighting his own battles in the small Texas town where he’s growing up, and on his brother, Wade, desperate to stop Joe leaving as their father did, never to return. Thoroughly involving, this is a powerful piece of storytelling. ~ Andrea Reece Commenting on his nomination for the Scottish Teenage Book Prize Keith said: “I'm surprised, excited and genuinely honoured to have ‘The Last Soldier’ shortlisted for the Scottish Teenage Book Prize. It's extremely unusual to have a work of short fiction considered for a prestigious literary award and I hope the readers enjoy finding the big story, big characters, and big emotions in such a small book.” Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 12+ Barrington Stoke is the foremost publisher of dyslexia friendly books and those for reluctant readers. Here on Lovereading4kids we are constantly selecting new titles and refreshing our special dyslexia friendly category. Click here to view our current selection which is broken down by age range. ............................................. Find out more about The Last Soldier and being a reluctant reader in this special blog piece by Keith Gray.
Interest Age 14+ Reading Age 8+. A really gripping thriller for teenage boys. Short and fast-paced, it’s the story of Johnny Kemp, a boy that no one is prepared to mess with, until that is, Dan manages to get him excluded from school. But now he’s back and determined to wreak his revenge. To view other titles we think are suitable for reluctant readers please click here. A Dyslexia Friendly title.
Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8+ A really gripping thriller for teenage boys. Short and fast-paced, it’s the story of Johnny Kemp, a boy that no one is prepared to mess with, until that is, Dan manages to get him excluded from school. But now he’s back and determined to wreak his revenge. Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 12+ Barrington Stoke is the foremost publisher of dyslexia friendly books and those for reluctant readers. Here on Lovereading4kids we are constantly selecting new titles and refreshing our special dyslexia friendly category. Click here to view our current selection which is broken down by age range.
Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8+ Award-winning Keith Gray tells a page-turning adventure with gusto and style. Comic-mad Toby wakes one morning to find a man with a badly beaten up head staring at him from the end of the bed. Worse still, the man claims that Toby killed him! Did he? Toby sets out on a quest to discover the truth. The result is a quick witted detective story and well as an entertaining journey of self-discovery.
June 2012 Book of the Month. Brilliantly written, each of the stories in this thought-provoking and surprisingly entertaining collection asks what happens next? Award winning authors including Malorie Blackman, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Philip Ardagh and Keith Grey explore the question, what is death? How does it make us feel? And speculates on what do those who have died feel? Never mawkish although at times sad, this collection will set your mind into overdrive as you consider life after death.
Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8+. A chilling and brilliant horror story, Ghosting tells how the make-believe of contacting the spirit world becomes horribly real for Sandy and her brother Nat. Taught by their Mum how to ‘talk’ to the dead, Nat and Sandy put on a great double act. Sandy loves the easy way of making money but Nat has doubts. He hates the lying and cheating that it involves. And then they get caught out. The world they thought they created becomes horribly real and sandy and Nat find themselves in extreme danger. Without exception dyslexia-friendly books published by Barrington Stoke get off to an exciting start and maintain the impetus throughout, with a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter. The plot is clear, the characters appealing and there are plenty of visual clues, as dyslexics like to run a story like a video in their heads. To view other titles we think are suitable for reluctant readers please click here. A Dyslexia Friendly title.
Shortlisted for the Teenage Book of the Year Award 2009, the Young Minds Book Prize 2009, the Carnegie Award 2009, for the 2008 Costa Children’s Book Award and the Independent Booksellers' Book Prize 2010. A novel that so cleverly, almost miraculously you might say, blends friendship with devastating loss whilst at the same time is filled with humour and warmth that in turn means you cannot fail to be completely drawn in to what is undoubtedly one of the must-reads of the year. Fellow author, Jill Murphy, has to our mind hit the nail on the head when she says: ‘Right from the title Ostrich Boys inhabits the teenage emotional landscape with unerring precision and great sensitivity... It's beautifully plotted... I'm in awe at the intelligence behind the structure, with little pieces of the puzzle slotting into place at just the right moment. I can't think of a word that was wasted’. What the Carnegie Award judges said: 'A beautifully realised rite of passage novel, very strong on the relationships between its central characters and accurate about the emotions of teenage boys. The dialogue is particularly powerful and the pace of the plot just right in this authentic book about the end of childhood and the beginning of adult lives.' A word from Keith Gray: "It’s incredibly rewarding to see a book that’s so personal in so many ways affect an audience like Ostrich Boys has done. I was 18 in 1990 when I attempted suicide. I’m now 36, 18 + 18, and it’s this year more than any other that’s got me thinking about my feelings back then: who I would have left behind, what’s changed and what I would have missed out on. Ostrich Boys is a positive novel about those good things that may be waiting just out of sight around the corner. Being shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards is obvious proof. Who’d have guessed? Certainly not me 18 years ago." A word from Keith Gray's editor: “I am so thrilled that this book has been shortlisted for such a prestigious prize. Working with Keith on this incredible journey has been a privilege and an honour. What he's achieved is a novel that is moving, funny, entertaining and complex. But ultimately this book demonstrates the power of the written word - the power to heal lives, the power to change lives and sometimes the power to save them.” Titles on the 2009 Teenage Book of the Year Award shortlist were: Auslander by Paul Dowswell The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray The Ant Colony by Jenny Valentine The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness The shortlisted titles for the 2010 Independent Booksellers' Award were: Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates Auslander by Paul Dowswell Dogs by Emily Gravett The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech Henderson’s Boys: The Escape by Robert Muchamore Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray What’s for Dinner Mr Gum? by Andy Stanton Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce The Last Leopard by Lauren St John Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner
Four sharply observed and cleverly linked short stories written in an easy to read style capture the complexities of life for Cal, Joe, Ben and Kate. Cal wants to stop being a good guy with top of the class grades. Joining Tully’s gang looks like but a way out but luckily Cal soon realises what a dead end it will be. Joe wants to show that he can be a winner unlike his looser Dad but are the risks really worth it? Ben thinks he can manage having two girls friends but ends up showing that he only thinks of himself and Kate has to face up to saying goodbye to her Dad who is dying. Real life action told with great understanding.
The year is 1885 and Erik Weisz, a penniless immigrant, has found himself in trouble again. His uncanny talent for picking locks and his gleeful showboating to match it, have earned him very few friends and a bad reputation. But this is just the beginning of his story and Erik is destined for a far more magical future. Watch as he transforms before your very eyes into the greatest showman the world has ever seen... Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 8+
'Hundreds of people want to be in a band. They all get guitars and they all play gigs and they all write songs, and they still never make it.'There's a big difference between being a rock star and a pop idol - Will and Danny know which they'd prefer to be. They form the group Happy and it seems they are on the way to realising their ambitions. But when Happy's first gig is cut short by a fire at the venue, Will struggles to cope with his bitter disappointment and retreats into his private world, rejecting everyone around him. His girlfriend, Beth turns to Danny for comfort and their friendship soon becomes something more. With nothing left for him at home, Will leaves for London to stay with his session-musician father and to follow his dream.
Shortlisted for the Scottish Teenage Book Prize 2017 Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8 The Lost Soldier is lots of things: a genuinely creepy ghost story, and a gripping tale of loss, conflict, revenge and redemption. The ghost takes the form of a gruesome exhibit in the Museum of Marvels at a travelling carnival: the remains – real? – of a soldier, supposedly the last to die in World War One. It preys on Joe, a young man fighting his own battles in the small Texas town where he’s growing up, and on his brother, Wade, desperate to stop Joe leaving as their father did, never to return. Thoroughly involving, this is a powerful piece of storytelling. ~ Andrea Reece Commenting on his nomination for the Scottish Teenage Book Prize Keith said: “I'm surprised, excited and genuinely honoured to have ‘The Last Soldier’ shortlisted for the Scottish Teenage Book Prize. It's extremely unusual to have a work of short fiction considered for a prestigious literary award and I hope the readers enjoy finding the big story, big characters, and big emotions in such a small book.” Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 12+ Barrington Stoke is the foremost publisher of dyslexia friendly books and those for reluctant readers. Here on Lovereading4kids we are constantly selecting new titles and refreshing our special dyslexia friendly category. Click here to view our current selection which is broken down by age range. ............................................. Find out more about The Last Soldier and being a reluctant reader in this special blog piece by Keith Gray.
'I know a place you can go'. It's a secret place hidden among the run-down buildings of the derelict dockyards. A community of young people have gathered in an old warehouse to get away from a world they don't fit in to. Through separate but interweaving narratives Warehouse tells the stories of three of the community's members. There's Robbie who is running away from his violent older brother, Frank, and needs some space to realise that the beatings are not his fault. Amy, who's supposed to be travelling in Europe but has had her rucksack stolen and is too proud to ask her smothering family for help. And then there's Lem, an ex-drug-addict and founder of the Warehouse community, whose perceived role as leader by the other young people is too much for him to cope with.
Interest Age 14+ Reading Age 8+. A really gripping thriller for teenage boys. Short and fast-paced, it’s the story of Johnny Kemp, a boy that no one is prepared to mess with, until that is, Dan manages to get him excluded from school. But now he’s back and determined to wreak his revenge. To view other titles we think are suitable for reluctant readers please click here. A Dyslexia Friendly title.
Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8+ Award-winning Keith Gray tells a page-turning adventure with gusto and style. Comic-mad Toby wakes one morning to find a man with a badly beaten up head staring at him from the end of the bed. Worse still, the man claims that Toby killed him! Did he? Toby sets out on a quest to discover the truth. The result is a quick witted detective story and well as an entertaining journey of self-discovery.
Four sharply observed and cleverly linked short stories written in an easy to read style capture the complexities of life for Cal, Joe, Ben and Kate. Cal wants to stop being a good guy with top of the class grades. Joining Tully’s gang looks like but a way out but luckily Cal soon realises what a dead end it will be. Joe wants to show that he can be a winner unlike his looser Dad but are the risks really worth it? Ben thinks he can manage having two girls friends but ends up showing that he only thinks of himself and Kate has to face up to saying goodbye to her Dad who is dying. Real life action told with great understanding.
Eric, are you ready to travel to a place you've never been before? Mathew Masters asked, loud enough for the whole audience to hear. Are you ready to do something truly magical? Are you ready, Eric, to vanish not somewhere, but Elsewhere? Where do you go when you disappear? Or, rather, when you are `disappeared'. Eric is about to find out when a school trip to a magic show takes an unexpected turn. This playful story mixes the mundane and the fantastical, as Eric is given an amazing choice: to go back to his old life of school, his so-called mates and being kept awake by his baby sister, or to take a step into the unknown. *Help Key Stage 3 students move from Level 3a to Level 4c in reading. *Support comprehension with the striking, age-appropriate illustrations. *Encourage shared and guided reading using the ready-made tasks and discussion points on the activity pages at the back of the book.
June 2012 Book of the Month. Brilliantly written, each of the stories in this thought-provoking and surprisingly entertaining collection asks what happens next? Award winning authors including Malorie Blackman, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Philip Ardagh and Keith Grey explore the question, what is death? How does it make us feel? And speculates on what do those who have died feel? Never mawkish although at times sad, this collection will set your mind into overdrive as you consider life after death.
Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8+. A chilling and brilliant horror story, Ghosting tells how the make-believe of contacting the spirit world becomes horribly real for Sandy and her brother Nat. Taught by their Mum how to ‘talk’ to the dead, Nat and Sandy put on a great double act. Sandy loves the easy way of making money but Nat has doubts. He hates the lying and cheating that it involves. And then they get caught out. The world they thought they created becomes horribly real and sandy and Nat find themselves in extreme danger. Without exception dyslexia-friendly books published by Barrington Stoke get off to an exciting start and maintain the impetus throughout, with a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter. The plot is clear, the characters appealing and there are plenty of visual clues, as dyslexics like to run a story like a video in their heads. To view other titles we think are suitable for reluctant readers please click here. A Dyslexia Friendly title.
When Alex's dad drags him to Boswall and Sons, the local department store, he never expects to find himself thrown into a world of kidnap and spies. Written by Carnegie-nominated author Keith Gray, this fast-paced, exciting book shows that things aren't always as they seem... * Diamond/Band 17 books offer more complex, underlying themes to give opportunities for children to understand causes and points of view. * A mystery story * A plan of the department store on pages 54 and 55 allows readers to recap the journey the boys make. * Curriculum Links: Citizenship: Choices. * This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.
Melvin Burgess, Keith Gray, Patrick Ness, Anne Fine, Sophie McKenzie, Bali Rai, Jenny Valentine and Mary Hooper. Some of today's leading writers for teens are gathered here in a wonderful collection of original stories: some funny, some moving, some haunting but all revolving around the same subject - having sex for the first time! You never forget your first time and you'll never forget this book!
Shortlisted for the Teenage Book of the Year Award 2009, the Young Minds Book Prize 2009, the Carnegie Award 2009, for the 2008 Costa Children’s Book Award and the Independent Booksellers' Book Prize 2010. A novel that so cleverly, almost miraculously you might say, blends friendship with devastating loss whilst at the same time is filled with humour and warmth that in turn means you cannot fail to be completely drawn in to what is undoubtedly one of the must-reads of the year. Fellow author, Jill Murphy, has to our mind hit the nail on the head when she says: ‘Right from the title Ostrich Boys inhabits the teenage emotional landscape with unerring precision and great sensitivity... It's beautifully plotted... I'm in awe at the intelligence behind the structure, with little pieces of the puzzle slotting into place at just the right moment. I can't think of a word that was wasted’. What the Carnegie Award judges said: 'A beautifully realised rite of passage novel, very strong on the relationships between its central characters and accurate about the emotions of teenage boys. The dialogue is particularly powerful and the pace of the plot just right in this authentic book about the end of childhood and the beginning of adult lives.' A word from Keith Gray: "It’s incredibly rewarding to see a book that’s so personal in so many ways affect an audience like Ostrich Boys has done. I was 18 in 1990 when I attempted suicide. I’m now 36, 18 + 18, and it’s this year more than any other that’s got me thinking about my feelings back then: who I would have left behind, what’s changed and what I would have missed out on. Ostrich Boys is a positive novel about those good things that may be waiting just out of sight around the corner. Being shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards is obvious proof. Who’d have guessed? Certainly not me 18 years ago." A word from Keith Gray's editor: “I am so thrilled that this book has been shortlisted for such a prestigious prize. Working with Keith on this incredible journey has been a privilege and an honour. What he's achieved is a novel that is moving, funny, entertaining and complex. But ultimately this book demonstrates the power of the written word - the power to heal lives, the power to change lives and sometimes the power to save them.” Titles on the 2009 Teenage Book of the Year Award shortlist were: Auslander by Paul Dowswell The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray The Ant Colony by Jenny Valentine The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness The shortlisted titles for the 2010 Independent Booksellers' Award were: Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates Auslander by Paul Dowswell Dogs by Emily Gravett The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech Henderson’s Boys: The Escape by Robert Muchamore Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray What’s for Dinner Mr Gum? by Andy Stanton Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce The Last Leopard by Lauren St John Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner
Nat and his sister are fake psychics - until the real ghosts of a serial killer's victims appear, with terrifying results. Compelling horror for teens. Barrington Stoke specialise in books for reluctant, struggling and dyslexic readers.
In 1699 William Milmullen took his six pupils to the lakeside but only he returned after a creature rose up from the water and devoured the six boys right before his eyes. The whole town was shocked and terrified by the tragedy. Many were now too frightened to go out on the lake to fish, and the town's economy was under threat. William Milmullen recovered from the shock of what he'd seen. He named the creature 'The Mourn', and declared himself 'Mourner'. He took upon himself the responsibility to appease the creature by feeding livestock into the lake and vowed his family would forever be responsible for the safety of the town, and that every Milmullen son would take the mantle of Mourner at the age of 16. This novel is set in the present day, and nobody believes in monsters anymore. These days the town is somewhat embarrassed about its monster stories and to many the Milmullen family is a bit of a joke. The family, however, have held onto their duty, believing that if they forsake the creature it will rise from the lake again. Tim Milmullen turns 16 in a week's time. On his birthday he will become the 13th Mourner. But Tim doesn't know if he wants the role. For one thing all the kids at school tease him, calling his father crazy, saying Old William back in 1699 killed the schoolboys himself and made up the story. And Tim's biggest problem is that he doesn't know if he believes in the legend or not. How can he dedicate his whole life to something he has never seen?
Four stories. Four people. Four lives. All brought together and changed forever by this one book. This is an astonishingly original story which stays with the reader long after the last page. Barrington Stoke specialises in books for reluctant, struggling and dyslexic readers.
Jason has had enough of his parents' arguments. He's running away to stay with his brother in Liverpool. On the train journey he meets a 'runner' called Jam, who lives on the monster Intercity trains and stations. His carefree and adventurous life sounds so exciting that Jason begins to think he might join Jam. Then Jason discovers Jam's secret.
Derwent Drive was known as the Speed Creep. A continual chain of Dashes into Blind. We'd all heard the story about the Creeper who dropped Blind into a garden, only to discover he was standing in a dog pound. It was also the longest creep; twenty-five houses all in a row, no bends, no kinks. And no Creeper had ever done the lot. But Jamie and I reckoned we could do it. Jamie was the best Creeper around. He was the best Buddie you could have. And he was mine. Ever heard about 'creeping' before? Probably not. Nobody really talks about it. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It does. Creeping over back fences all the way down a street without getting caught; without being hurt. It happens more than you might think. It's probably happening somewhere tonight.
Brook High is a great grey concrete ants' nest of a school. John Malarkey is the new kid, thrown in at the deep end of Year 11. He's the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Through what at first appears to be a random meeting, he helps a girl called Mary Chase out of a tricky situation, but is subsequently accused of stealing report cards to sell to students so they can write their own bogus reports. He quickly realises it was all a set-up, and that he's been used to take the fall. The teacher who accuses him of the crime gives him one day to prove his innocence. Malarkey tries to track down Mary Chase, but it's difficult in such a huge place. He does, however, discover strange goings-on beneath the surface of the normal school day. The more questions he asks the deeper he becomes involved in the corrupt under-belly of the school. He's also noticed the peculiar fact that so many kids at Brook wear Adidas trainers - black with the three white stripes. He realises that these are the badge of membership worn by those involved in the school's 'mafia'. He discovers that the name of the organisation's leader is Freddie Cloth, and Mary Chase turns out to be Cloth's girlfriend. Malarkey is soon noticed for asking so many questions, and receives warnings and then threats to back down. But, with time quickly running out for him, he still has to prove his innocence. And the only way to do this is to get to Freddie Cloth.
'Hundreds of people want to be in a band. They all get guitars and they all play gigs and they all write songs, and they still never make it.' There's a big difference between being a rock star and a pop idol - Will and Danny know which they'd prefer to be. They form the group Happy and it seems they are on the way to realising their ambitions. But when Happy's first gig is cut short by a fire at the venue, Will struggles to cope with his bitter disappointment and retreats into his private world, rejecting everyone around him. His girlfriend, Beth turns to Danny for comfort and their friendship soon becomes something more. With nothing left for him at home, Will leaves for London to stay with his session-musician father and to follow his dream.
'I know a place you can go'. It's a secret place hidden among the run-down buildings of the derelict dockyards. A community of young people have gathered in an old warehouse to get away from a world they don't fit in to. Through separate but interweaving narratives Warehouse tells the stories of three of the community's members. There's Robbie who is running away from his violent older brother, Frank, and needs some space to realise that the beatings are not his fault. Amy, who's supposed to be travelling in Europe but has had her rucksack stolen and is too proud to ask her smothering family for help. And then there's Lem, an ex-drug-addict and founder of the Warehouse community, whose perceived role as leader by the other young people is too much for him to cope with.
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