Floodland

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With both your publisher and author hat on, what advice can you give would-be children's authors in getting published? Alone and desperate among marauding gangs, she manages to dig a derelict boat out of the mud and get away to Eels Island. Rest assured though it’s not a rant about that but the author brilliantly interweaves our possible future into an utterly compelling story. This is essential reading for it paints a vivid picture of what life may well be like in the not too distant future if we don’t do something NOW about global warming.

The main character was a very head strong, independent girl named Zoe who overcame many problems with mostly no adult figures to guide her. Yes, I always loved myths and legends - I used to read and re-read two books from the library - one a big illustrated edition of Greek Myths and the other Old Peter's Russian Tales.

His first book, Floodland, was published by Orion in 2000, and won the Branford-Boase award for best debut children's novel.

However Zoe is a gutsy little girl and survives long enough to find her boat, make an ally and to escape in the middle of a battle and continue off to find her parents. We particularly liked linking William Blake's poem 'Little Girl Lost' to the book and creating our own tribal dances for the Eels, Cats and Horses.So bleibt es eher auf dem Niveau von Büchern, die man 14-Jährige zwingt zu lesen, die somit an den Ernst der Welt denken sollen . Set in the near future on the east coast of England that has been reclaimed by the sea it tells the story of a girl who, having been mistakenly left behind by her parents escaping from the flood, she heads off to find them but ends up in the hands of a mob of nasty men on a small island. An easy and quick read that is set in the near future where global warming causes sea levels to rise, which then causes floods. At first Dooby wanted to escape the island with Zoe, abandoning all his people, but Zoe refused after seeing Dooby's violence. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

It is an interesting premise and provides a glimpse of how rising waters could change life as we know it from a 10 year old girl's perspective.

Despite its bleakness the story itself is very good and has a very believable plot it’s just that Zoe is all over the place as far as her character goes and on top of that it seems like the story starts and ends in the middle. The themes it throws up link to a number of topics from rivers, oceans, humanity, and global warming. Entirely deserving of the Branford Boase Award, Floodland is a stunning debut novel that precluded more literary brilliance to follow. He has illustrated some of his books, and has provided wood-engravings for a couple of private press books. This book was the winner of the Branford Boase Award 2001 and marked the start of author Marcus Sedgwick's multi-award-winning career.

The language in the book is simple but very descriptive, with interesting discussion points too, making it a good choice of book to read/study as a class. She lands on tiny Eels Island, where she must survive in a nightmarish world run by wild children and their boy-leader, Dooby. But it does feel unfinished and I feel like the editor should have pushed for a bit more detail or explanation.I don't know why I was fascinated by these stories, but maybe simply because I find them to be more glamorous than contemporary stories. We read this because of our Climate Change topic and it has inspired us as a class to try to halt climate change! Ten-year-old Zoe Black was left behind on Norwich by accident when her parents escaped in the last supply ship to visit the island.