Catcall (16 page)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The poem Floss gives Josh is ‘The Jaguar’ by Ted Hughes, first published in
The Hawk in the Rain,
1957. Ted Hughes is also the author of
The Dreamfighter
(Faber, 2003), the book Floss lends Josh after his accident. The creation story Josh writes in his new notebook on Chapter 26 is his version of the beginning of
How the Whale Became,
the first section of
The Dreamfighter.

In the interests of accuracy (at the time of writing), the Asian lioness at the Cotswold Wildlife Park last gave birth to cubs in 1999. These lions are part of an international breeding programme, and the two cubs born then are now in zoos in Frankfurt and Nürnberg.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Winner of the 2006 Costa Children’s Book of the Year Award for her novel
Set in Stone
, Linda Newbery is the author of more than thirty highly-acclaimed books for readers of all ages.

Linda wanted to be an author from the age of eight. She now writes full-time from her home in Northamptonshire, and is much in demand as a speaker in schools and libraries and at festivals and conferences.

For more information about
Catcall,
and Linda’s other books, visit
www.lindanewbery.co.uk
.

Also by Linda Newbery

The Shell House

Sisterland

At the Firefly Gate

Lost Boy

Set in Stone

Praise for
Catcall:

‘A highly enjoyable book written with a lot of humour, very strong characters…I would recommend it to anyone.’

Teen Titles

‘A very strong psychological drama…Josh and Jamie are battling demons that most children will recognise as demons of their own.’

The Bookbag

‘I thoroughly enjoyed this book…The characters are believable, the problem is well depicted; the tension it creates is tangible, and the solution comes as a great relief.’

Write Away

‘Presents a moving and insightful portrayal of a common family situation, given extra dramatic tension by Jamie’s lion persona and by the links between animal and human behaviour as observed by Josh, a thoughtful, sympathetic narrator who grows in empathy and self-knowledge in a very satisfying way.’

The School Librarian

Catcall
has been recommended by Adèle Geras in
Time Out
’s
1000 Books to Change Your Life.

A DAVID FICKLING BOOK

Published by David Fickling Books
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2008 by Linda Newbery

Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Ian P. Benfold Haywood

All rights reserved.

Originally published in Great Britain by Orion Children’s Books, a division of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd, in 2006.

David Fickling Books and colophon are trademarks of David Fickling.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on request.

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eISBN: 978-0-375-89152-6

v3.0