LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month September 2021 | September 2021 Book of the Month
Billy is desperate to make things change at home. Her father disappeared before he was born: he and mum had been ok when they had been alone together but now his mother’s new partner has spoilt everything. Billy is frightened for himself and he is frighted for his mum. To make a point he runs away for a few days hiding in a semi-ruined pill-box in a local graveyard. Cleverly telling the story in two narratives, from Billy’s perspective and his mum’s and interweaving other characters and their experience from whom they can learn, Pam Smy explores a range of complex emotions thrown up by a difficult situation.
Julia Eccleshare M.B.E
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About
The Hideaway Synopsis
The Hideaway is written in two alternating narratives, both different aspects of the same story. One thread tells of Billy's experience of hiding away in the graveyard, his mixed-up feelings and emotions, and the supernatural events he eventually witnesses.
The other tells of his mother's situation at home and the police search for Billy.
Covering themes of family, childhood, separation and reunion, domestic violence and doing the right thing, this is an important and beautiful book for middle grade readers right up to adults.
Billy's story is illustrated throughout with tonal and textured black and white drawings, until the event on All Souls' Eve, when the text gives way to a series of double page images of the supernatural happening. The Hideaway is a compelling, exciting and emotional story that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781843654797 |
| Publication date: |
9th September 2021 |
| Author: |
Pam Smy |
| Illustrator: |
Pam Smy |
| Publisher: |
Pavilion Children's Books an imprint of Pavilion Books |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
223 pages |
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Press Reviews
Pam Smy Press Reviews
'The new book by the amazingly gifted Pam Smy ... What an exquisite and beguiling interweaving of word and image' -- Anthony McGowan
'Pam Smy has absolutely gone and done it again, you know. In #TheHideawayBook she crafts a deeply sensitive and emotionally complex story yet tells it with such a masterful touch that it will stay with you for days, months, years... A delicate fusion between word and image in which the latter dances across the closing pages to a most beautiful, haunting melody' Mat Tobin, education influencer
'An original, haunting story’ The Bookseller
Author
About Pam Smy
Pam Smy is a Senior Lecturer Practitioner in Illustration on the MA Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. She combines her teaching career with writing and illustrating. She studied on the MA herself, graduating with the first cohort in 2004. Since then she has worked with a range of UK publishers including The Folio Society, Penguin Random House and David Fickling Books. Pam has illustrated books by Conan Doyle (The Hound of the Baskervilles), Julia Donaldson (Follow the Swallow) and Kathy Henderson (Hush, Baby, Hush!), among others.
Her first novel, Thornhill was a critical and commercial success, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the UKLA Book Awards, and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018 and winning the 2018 British Book Design & Production Award for Graphic Novels. She has delivered many talks and illustration workshops, including school events and major literary festivals.
Pam lives in Cambridge with her husband, author-illustrator Dave Shelton, and her child, Mila. Most early mornings you’ll see her walking her dog, Barney, along All Souls’ Lane into the graveyard, past Frances Cornford’s poem, the hidden pillbox and around the field beyond all of which inspired the setting and story for The Hideaway.
Photo credit Zulfiya Wilde
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