More great reads: the best books for 9 year olds

Rosa by Starlight

Name: Rosa by Starlight
Price: 7.19 GBP
Availability: InStock
Author: Hilary McKay
ISBN: 9781529074581

By Hilary McKay (author), Keith Robinson (illustrator)

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Rosa by Starlight Synopsis

From the Costa Award-winning author of The Skylarks' War, comes the story of a young girl looking for magic in the world, and the feline family who help her to find it. With gorgeous black and white illustrations by Keith Robinson.

Rosa lives in a world where she discovers there is magic. It arrives with Balthazar, a large black cat, just when she needs it most. Even so, it takes all her courage to stay hopeful and adventurous when her dreadful aunt and uncle move into her life.

And when she finds herself abandoned in the ancient city of Venice, can magic help her then? Perhaps it can.

The stars are watching, and there are lots of cats in Venice . . .

_{*Hilary McKay won the Costa Children's Book Award in 2018 with The Skylarks' War}

About This Edition

ISBN:	9781529074581
Publication date:	10th July 2025
Author:	Hilary McKay
Illustrator:	Keith Robinson
Publisher:	Macmillan Children's Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan
Format:	Paperback
Pagination:	222 pages
Suitable For:	9+ readers 11+ readers
Other Genres:	Historical Fiction Animal Stories Children’s / Teenage fiction: Historical fantasy Children’s / Teenage general interest: Lives of children in the past Children’s / Teenage general interest: Supernatural and mythological creatures

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Author

About Hilary McKay

Hilary McKay won the Costa Children's Book Award for The Skylarks' War, the Guardian Fiction Prize for The Exiles, and the Smarties and the Whitbread Award for The Exiles in Love and Saffy's Angel respectively. Hilary McKay's Fairy Tales was her first book with Macmillan Children's Books and is a critically acclaimed collection of clever retellings.

You can read her character Rose Casson's blog by clicking here - and Rose's tweets on the right hand side of this page.

Q & A with Hilary McKay

What is your earliest childhood memory?
Watching steam trains with my grandfather. He died before I was two years
old, so that is a very early memory.

If you could be any animal, what would it be and why?
Well, who could turn down the gift of flight? Or travel without luggage? Or a
life spent following the sun? Without doubt, I would be a swallow. I realise this
means a lifetime of eating flies, but I think it would be worth it.

What is your dream holiday destination?
I would start at the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico and travel South
through Central America, along the coast to Peru, then down through Chile
across to the Falklands and on to Antarctica, which I would circumnavigate.
Then I would travel North to New Zealand where I would spend a long time
warming up and then across to Australia. I would spend quite a long time in
Sydney and go up into the Blue Mountains (I might go sapphire hunting there)
and then to the Great Barrier Reef (of course).
That would be far enough for me.

What is your morning routine?
Alas, I do not have a morning routine.

If you could have one special talent, what would it be?
Singing, undoubtedly. That would make me the happiest. But I have a friend
whose talent is languages and I envy that one very much.

Likes: Millions of things! Books, cats, honey, letters from readers (hint, hint), real music, apples, swimming in cold water, chocolate coated ginger biscuits, trees.

Dislikes: Putting things away, litter, loud TV, hot rooms, being told what to think.

3 words that best descibe me: Untidy, happy, hopeful!

A Secret that not many people know: I am a VERY slow reader!

More About Hilary McKay