Book description
Ally really doesn't want to go with his mum on her weekly visit to his
fragile aunt Chloe at the big Victorian hospital - until he discovers a
hidden garden in the grounds. Here a young homeless couple have made
themselves a home. Suddenly Ally begins to discover a new way of looking
at the world - and to understand his aunt and some of her sensitivity.
But there is another side to the coin, too, and the young couple must
also be prepared to adapt to suit their changing circumstances . . .
Anne Fine has been an acknowledged top author in the children's book
world since her first book was published in the mid 1970s, and has now
written more than forty books and won virtually every major award
going, including the Carnegie Medal (more than once), the Whitbread
Children's Award, the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, the Smarties
Prize and others. The Children's Laureate from 2001-2003, Anne is also
very funny and young readers love her lack of hypocrisy about the
family and her honesty about how people can behave. She lives in the
North-East.
'One of the sharpest and most humorous observers of the human
condition writing today for the young' School Librarian
'She is translated into 26 languages and has regularly won every
major children's literary award in the land, including the Carnegie
Medal twice and the Whitbread Children's Novel award twice . . . There
are few more influential, or more unfailingly intelligent, authors at
work' Scotsman
'A subversively wicked gift for exploring family tensions' Independent
