A Song for Ella Grey

LoveReading4Kids Says

Winner of the 2015 Guardian Children's Book prize - One of our Books of the Year 2014 and Winner of the 2015 Peters Book of the Year 'Teen Fiction' Award Award-winning David Almond is at his lyrical best in this eloquent, tender and ultimately devastating contemporary teenage love story which draws lightly but to great effect on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Camping on a beach near home as a break from school and its pressures, a group of teenagers, minus their friend Ella, come across Orpheus, a wandering musician. No one knows where he comes from or whether he will appear again but his music is so special that Claire plays it down the phone to Ella. And Ella is entranced.

But who is Orpheus? The power of love and the terrible danger it can pose drives this exceptionally touching and thoughtful story. ~ Julia Eccleshare

Judge and author Jenny Valentine described the book as “an absolute masterclass in the transformative power of language. It is fearless, free and full of wonder and I am changed by reading it.” Fellow judge Natasha Farrant said that reading the story of Ella Grey “hasn’t just changed the way I look at Orpheus. It has changed the way I look at the world.”

The following titles were longlisted for the 2015 Guardian Children's Book Prize
Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders
A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond
My Name’s Not Friday by Jon Walter
Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
An Island of our Own by Sally Nicholls
El Deafo by Cece Bell
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

This year’s prize is being judged by authors Piers Torday, Jenny Valentine and Natasha Farrant, and chaired by Guardian children’s books editor and Lovereading4kids editorial expert, Julia Eccleshare.  Torday said: “These books are quite simply some of the best writing for children today, from graphic novels to Victorian sequels, Greek myths to the US civil war. Diverse, complex, accessible, experimental, page turning and heart-breaking, they bring young readers the world on a single shelf.”

The winner of the prize will be announced on the 19th November.

LoveReading4Kids

About A Song for Ella Grey

I'm the one who's left behind. I'm the one to tell the tale. I knew them both...knew how they lived and how they died.

Read the full description

Find This Book In