Starboard
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- 49,00 kr
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- 49,00 kr
Publisher Description
‘Spectacular. A wild, hilarious, surreal adventure of self-discovery’ Guardian
‘A fabulously entertaining, hugely inventive novel of epic adventure, friendship and bravery’ Editor’s Choice, Bookseller
The extraordinarily inventive and inspiring new middle-grade novel from the rapturously acclaimed author of BLOOM.
This is the story of Kirsten, an apparently happy and successful 11-year-old YouTube star who meets a ship that comes alive… and is claimed by it as its new captain as it breaks free from its dry dock.
Inspired by the true history of the SS Great Britain, Starboard is about the friendship, heroism and bravery that you can find in others, whether they’re made of flesh or iron. It’s about taking control of your own life and going on epic adventures. But most of all, it’s about finding out who you really dare to be, when you’re completely out of your depth…
Reviews
‘A uniquely brilliant story about setting your own course; clever, funny and moving’ Anna James, author of Pages & Co.
‘Spectacular. A wild, hilarious, surreal adventure of self-discovery’ Guardian
‘An impressive feat, achieved with prose that often feels newly minted’ Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week
‘A fabulously entertaining, hugely inventive novel of epic adventure, friendship and bravery’ Editor’s Choice, Bookseller
‘A gloriously imaginative adventure’ Daily Mail
Praise for BLOOM:
‘A hilarious, beautiful book… a blooming marvellous read’ Onjali Q. Rauf, author of The Boy at the Back of the Class
‘A riotous, original and timely reminder that sometimes rules are made to be broken.’ Guardian Books of the Year
‘A cracking debut… fresh and fun’ Times Children’s Book of the Week
‘Delightful… Humorous, original…’ Amanda Craig, New Statesman
‘A gorgeous debut… assured, funny, compelling’ Guardian
‘Original, surprising and wonderfully surreal’ The Bookseller
Praise for STORM:
‘Hugely inventive’ Independent
‘Funny, moving and surprising, told with real wisdom and heart’ The Bookseller
‘Surprising and endearing’ Daily Mail
About the author
As a freelance journalist and copywriter, Nicola Skinner has written for the Guardian, The Pool and many national magazines. Her first novel for children, Bloom, was published in 2019 to much critical acclaim. Storm is her second novel.
Nicola lives in Bristol with her family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Bristol field trip turns sea adventure for a young reality-TV star in this thoughtful swashbuckling fantasy from Skinner (Storm). Eleven-year-old Kirsten Bramble is known for At Home with the Brambles, a show that evolved from Kirsten's desire to help her adopted father find true love. Kirsten's under pressure to promote the Bramble brand, but she swaps television drama for her own desires during a field trip to the formerly renowned SS Great Britain, which finds her immediately taken with the docked ship. After she dons a long-missing captain's hat while aboard, a people-reading map reveals that Kirsten is a chosen one whose needs are "eerily tangled up" with those of the vessel, and they must make a journey in which things will be named, people will be forgiven, and truths will be revealed. Magically, the ship takes to the sea, peopled by Kirsten; estranged best friend Olive Chudley, who has a history with Kirsten's family's show; and a crew of animate fiberglass museum-display mannequins. Acknowledging the feeling of an ill-fitting existence and the thrill of true connection (the ship "radiated a mysterious power. It made her stop walking. It made her hold her breath"), a mystically tinged third-person voice follows the memorable characters' slow-growing sense of authenticity and self following myriad losses. Human protagonists cue as English and white. A historical note concludes. Ages 8–12.
