Zilombo

S.P. Gates was born in Grimsby, England. Her dad is a musician and her mum was a tailor. Before she became a full-time writer she lived and worked in Malawi, Africa, then taught in schools in Coventry and County Durham in England. 
 
She has written more than 100 books for children. Many of which have won prizes, including twice overall winner of the Sheffield Children's Book Award, commended for the Carnegie Medal and Highly Commended for the Nasen Special Educational Needs Award. She's diversified a lot in children's writing (she likes a new challenge) and has written plays, poems, picture books, books for reluctant readers, novels for teenagers, comedy, thrillers, comedy/thrillers, historical novels - and even once a series of books about grammar for schools. 
 
If she hadn't been a writer, she'd like to have been a professional guitarist like her father, who is still gigging at 88 years old!

Something strange is going on by the slimy river Oozeburn. But Jin is the only one who knows. The ancient predator Zilombo is loose and has snatched Jin's baby brother. When Mizz Z, a secret agent, arrives to investigate, the race is on to save him. But the beast's mysterious powers are evolving. She's getting stronger. As Jin, his sister Frankie and Mizz Z make their plans, Zilombo grows hungrier...

The Curse of the Crocodile King

An ancient predator is loose - again! The follow-up story to Zilombo by acclaimed author, Susan Gates.

No-one the Croc King curses ever escapes Avenger . . . Avenger never gives up. It always tracks you down. 
 
Frankie Sparks and her brother Jin are going about their lives as normal, when Mizz Z, the formidable secret agent, arrives in town on a mission. She's on the hunt for some ancient relics, relics that everybody thinks have lost their powers completely. Everybody is wrong . . . 
 
The spirit of the tyrant Crocodile King has been lurking for years, waiting for his chance to return and release Avenger, his killing-machine tracker, once more . . . 
 
Frankie and Jin find themselves caught up in a centuries-old curse. Can they help Mizz Z to break it, or will the evil Avenger claim another victim . . . ?

The Three Heads in the Well: A Magic Beans Story

A short story from the Magic Beans series, in which a fair maiden encounters mysterious magic . . .

Susan Gates was born in Grimsby, England. Before she became a full-time writer she lived and worked in Malawi, Africa, then taught in schools in Coventry and County Durham in England. She has written more than 100 books for children, many of which have won prizes. She has been overall winner of the Sheffield Children's Book Award twice, commended for the Carnegie Medal, and Highly Commended for the Nasen Special Educational Needs Award.

When the King remarries, his beautiful daughter is forced to leave his castle by her mean-spirited stepfamily. Laden only with bread, cheese and kindness, the Princess seeks her fortune and finds three friendly heads in a well. When the stepsister follows, however, it is clear that the three heads may be either friend or foe . . . 
 
This story is a magic bean. It may not look much like a bean, but I can promise you that it is. For if you plant it in a young mind, it will grow into a love of story and reading. These beans are favourite fairytales and legends that will delight, thrill and thoroughly entertain. Each story has been brilliantly crafted by one of the best-loved writers for children. 
 
This story was published by David Fickling Books as part of the Magic Beans anthology. The complete anthology is available in hardback and in ebook format.

Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag

Beautiful retellings of favourite fairytales by the best-loved writers for children.

An entrancing collection of classic fairtyales retold by leading storytellers such as Philip Pullman, Adele Geras, and Malorie Blackman. Elegant line drawings add to the magic

A wonderfully entertaining sampler of 14 great storytellers, who include Anne Fine, Phillip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson. It's rich retellings range from Aesops Fables to the Little Mermaid

With wonderfully told stories by brilliant writers including Alan Garner, Linda Newbery, Anne Fine, Gillian Cross, Berlie Doherty and Philip Pullman, parents will love it every bit as much as their kids

If you don't have a collection, then Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag is as good a place to start as any . . . Even bought as a reference guide to fantastic writers for your kids to explore, it'll be money well spent

With comfortable print and decorative embellishments by well-known illustrators, this rich kaleidoscope of stories is a book for keeps

Much nicer and more accessible than a traditional keepsake edition, this anthology will actually be read and enjoyed rather than resting on the shelf. The whole clutch of stories is beautifully, clearly written, and adults will relish reading them aloud to children

Brims with elegant prose, enchantment, comedy and mischief . . . It's the perfect gift but also a book to squirrel away for yourself and enjoy on a rainy afternoon

Smartly written, the tales can be enjoyed afresh, imbued with a love of words that will no doubt excite and delight your child. The new hardback collection is printed in large type so should be a good first read. It would also make a lovely gift

Each of the stories in this anthology is a magic bean: a wondrous take that will capture your imagination. Lovingly crafted by some of the finest authors and illustrators in the business . . . these 'magic beans' will delight and thoroughly entertain

All the stories give a fresh and immediate version of the often cruel but funny originals where the darkest sides of human nature are contrasted against innocent honesty; magic intervening first on one side, then the other, until virtue triumphs. Skilful writing from modern storytellers

A bright cover and good sized print are attractive but the irresistible factor is the list of 14 authors . . . Amazing, brilliant and a comparative bargain

Adèle Geras (Author) ADELE GERAS was born in Jerusalem and travelled widely as a child. She started writing over twenty-five years ago and has published more than 80 titles. Ithaka was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Chirldren's Book Award. She lives in Manchester with her husband and has two grown-up daughters and two grandchildren. Anne Fine (Author) Anne Fine is one of our most distinguished writers for children. She has written over fifty highly acclaimed books and has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and both the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal twice over. Anne was appointed the Children’s Laureate from 2001-3, and her work has been translated into over forty languages. In 2003 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE. Anne lives in County Durham. Henrietta Branford (Author) Henrietta Branford was born in India in 1946 but grew up in a remote part of the New Forest. Her first novel, Royal Blunder, was published in 1990. After that she wrote many different sorts of books, from picture books to teenage novels, including Dimanche Diller (Smarties Prize and the Prix Tam-Tam) and Fire, Bed and Bone (Guardian Children's Fiction Prize). After her death in 1997 a prize was established to commemorate her and her editor Wendy Boase - the Branford Boase Award for a first novel. Jacqueline Wilson (Author) Jacqueline Wilson wrote her first novel when she was nine years old, and she has been writing ever since. She is now one of Britain’s bestselling and most beloved children’s authors. She has written over 100 books and is the creator of characters such as Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather. More than forty million copies of her books have been sold. 
 
As well as winning many awards for her books, including the Children’s Book of the Year, Jacqueline is a former Children’s Laureate, and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. 
 
Jacqueline is also a great reader, and has amassed over 20,000 books, along with her famous collection of silver rings. 
 
Find out more about Jacqueline and her books at JacquelineWilson.co.uk Malorie Blackman (Author) MALORIE BLACKMAN has written over sixty books and is acknowledged as one of today’s most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers. She has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Fantastic Fiction Award. Malorie has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In 2005 she was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her contribution to children’s books, and in 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children’s literature. She has been described by The Times as ‘a national treasure’. Malorie Blackman was the Children’s Laureate 2013–15. Philip Pullman (Author) Philip Pullman is one of the most highly respected children's authors writing today. Winner of many prestigious awards, including the Carnegie of Carnegies and the Whitbread Award, Pullman’s epic fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials has been acclaimed as a modern classic. It has sold 17.5 million copies worldwide and been translated into 40 languages. In 2005 he was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. He lives in Oxford. Tony Mitton (Author) Tony Mitton is an award-winning poet, whose gently mesmerising, often humorous poetry is irresistible to both children and adults alike. He is an extremely versatile author, writing story poems and shorter verse with skill and wit. Tony does lots of author events, school visits and poetry readings and always leaves his audience entranced. 
 
He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children. Alan Garner (Author) Alan Garner was born in Congleton, Cheshire, in 1934. His began writing his first novel at the age of 22 and is renowned as one of Britain's outstanding writers for young adults. He has won many prizes for his writing, and, in 2001 he was awarded the OBE for services to literature. Berlie Doherty (Author) Berlie Doherty began writing for children in 1983, after teaching and working in radio. She has written more than 35 books for children, as well as for the theatre, radio and television. Berlie has won the Carnegie Medal twice: in 1987 for GRANNY WAS A BUFFER GIRL and in 1992 for DEAR NOBODY. She has also won the Writer's Guild Children's Fiction Award for DAUGHTER OF THE SEA. Her work is published all over the world, and many of her books have been televised. Gillian Cross (Author) Gillian Cross was born in 1945. Although she is now a full-time writer, she has had a number of informal jobs, including being an assistant to a Member of Parliament. Her books include Wolf (Carnegie Medal 1990), The Great Elephant Chase (Whitbread Children's Book Award, Smarties Prize, 1992) and the titles in the 'Demon Headmaster' sequence, which was also made into a TV series. Kit Wright (Author) Kit Wright was born in 1944 and is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children. His books of poetry include The Bear Looked Over the Mountain (1977), which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award, and Short Afternoons (1989), which won the Hawthornden Prize and was joint winner of the Heinemann Award. His poetry is collected in Hoping It Might Be So: Poems 1974-2000 (2000). Michael Morpurgo (Author) Michael Morpurgo has written over 120 books, many of them award-winning. His most well-known work, War Horse, was adapted into a multi-Oscar nominated film by Steven Spielberg, and a widely-acclaimed play at the National Theatre. 
 
In 2003 Michael became the third Children's Laureate, a position he helped create with the poet Ted Hughes. 
 
With his wife, Clare, he set up the charity Farms for City Children, and for their pioneering work they were both awarded the MBE in 1999. Susan Gates (Author) S.P. Gates was born in Grimsby, England. Her dad is a musician and her mum was a tailor. Before she became a full-time writer she lived and worked in Malawi, Africa, then taught in schools in Coventry and County Durham in England. 
 
She has written more than 100 books for children. Many of which have won prizes, including twice overall winner of the Sheffield Children's Book Award, commended for the Carnegie Medal and Highly Commended for the Nasen Special Educational Needs Award. She's diversified a lot in children's writing (she likes a new challenge) and has written plays, poems, picture books, books for reluctant readers, novels for teenagers, comedy, thrillers, comedy/thrillers, historical novels - and even once a series of books about grammar for schools. 
 
If she hadn't been a writer, she'd like to have been a professional guitarist like her father, who is still gigging at 88 years old! 
 
www.susangateschildrenswriter.blogspot.co.uk 
 
www.facebook.com/pages/Susan-Gates-Children's-Author/208668295974052 
 
www.pinterest.com/monsterinthemud/susan-gates-childrens-books 
 Linda Newbery (Author) As a child Linda Newbery was a secret writer, filling exercise books with stories which she hid in her wardrobe. Now she is a published author of over forty books, mainly children's and teenage fiction. She has been shortlisted for many prestigious literary prizes and has won the Costa children's book award. 
Linda lives in an Oxfordshire village and enjoys yoga, gardening, walking and the cinema.

Magic beans. Sow them. Plant them. Watch children grow. 
 
'If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!' - Shel Silverstein, Poet 
 
Each and every one of the stories in this anthology is a magic bean: a wondrous tale that will capture your imagination. Prepare to be dazzled by Rapunzel's golden tresses. Prepare to be moved by the suffering of the Little Mermaid. Prepare to laugh yourself silly as 'Mr Sultana' struggles to get the better of a little red rooster! 
 
Lovingly crafted by the finest authors and illustrators, these 'magic beans' will delight, thrill and thoroughly entertain.

The Spud from Outer Space

'A truly funny children's writer' - Independent

Susan Gates was born in Grimsby. As a child, she loved science fiction and detective stories, and went on to study American literature at Warwick. She has been a teacher, including one in Malawi, Africa.In 1995, her teenage book, Raider, was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal (pub OUP). She has twice won the Sheffield Award with books for younger readers published by Scholastic. She now lives in County Durham.

This is a potato with attitude! It's come from outer space and it's landed in the council rubbish tip. It's growing bigger by the minute and it's looking round for things to eat. Only Cruncher, his grandad and a potato-obsessed professor are around to stop it before it wipes out the human race. The bad news is that the crash has upset the rules of space and time and Silas Smite, the mad preacher, has been brought from the past to hunt down all potato lovers. The good news is that Grandad has a secret weapon: Gloria, the super bin van designed to collect space junk. It's chaos out there - expect anything!

Night of the Haunted Trousers

Susan Gates has written books for a very wide age range. RAIDER, a novel for older readers, was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Fiction Award, and her younger novel, BEWARE THE KILLER COAT, won the Sheffield Children's Book Award. Susan lives in County Durham.

Liam's grandad is devastated when Mrs Porteous succeeds in her mission to close Nursery Rhyme Land, a museum full of stuffed animals displayed in nursery rhyme scenes. Not only that, but Liam has to contend with a pair of haunted trousers, which when combined with General Custer's false teeth, turn the wearer into  Rabbit, a sad orphan cat-catcher - and both Grandad and Mrs Porteous fall victim!  Stir in a fainting goat, stand back as the museum animals come to life and attack Grandad, and watch the fast and furious fun develop.  Surprisingly, all ends happily as Grandad and Mrs Porteous open the Fainting Goat Farm.

Revenge of the Toffee Monster

Susan Gates has written books for a very wide age range and is perhaps best-known for her Carnegie shortlisted title, RAIDER. Susan lives in County Durham.

Lennie finds old Miss Butterworth in the run-down toffee works and is told the dreadful story of Clum, the toffee monster created by old Mr Butterworth in Victorian times. Little does Lennie know that Clum is kept in the freezer until, through a series of mishaps, he finds himself confronted by the 7 foot rampaging toffee fiend. To escape, Lennie must don a lace dress and tam o'shanter and disguise himself as Clum's master, Young Harold. Clum, shining with sparkle bars, looks like a silver knight and walks with the disguised Lennie onto a building site. He is buried by a JCB.  Lennie is very sad, but cheers up when he becomes a helper in Miss Butterworth's toffee works.  But in the spring, Clum's hand wriggles through the ground ...

Robbie Arnott

Susan Gates

'Dusk is a sublime novel of loss and redemption, fight and surrender, that left me in absolute awe. Robbie Arnott's prose is incandescent, his storytelling mythic and filled with a wisdom that extends beyond the page. With Dusk, he asserts himself as one of Australia's finest literary writers'

'Starkly beautiful and deeply felt... Dusk is a book about love: not just the love between the twins but the love they feel for the landscape… the pared-back textures of Dusk’s prose… recall those of Cormac McCarthy'

'A Conrad-like storyteller whose tales always tremble on the edge of the mythic and legendary'

Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark

'One of Australia’s finest writers'

Sisonke Msimang, author of The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela

'Arnott has an eye and an ear for description that can elevate otherwise quiet moments to something genuinely transcendent'

Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley

'Everything [in Dusk]…is drawn vividly, not least the stunning, monumental landscape: a character in itself, it seems to nod to past crimes and extinctions… an absorbing adventure'

'Arnott… writes with tenderness about characters and passion about the lands through they move. A stunner'

Dusk is my book of the year so far – a story of loyalty, betrayal, desperation and the ties that bind, which culminates in one of the finest closing scenes I’ve ever read

An expertly paced quest narrative doubling as the tale of a community riven by suspicion

This is a propulsive novel of survival and betrayal, enriched by arresting depictions of nature

'A sublime novel' Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites 
 
An explosive novel of the wild, and the lengths humans will go to control it 
 
The distant highlands, covered in snow and strewn with ancient bones, are an alien home for a puma from South America. But when Dusk escapes her captors, reports of killing sprees of sheep and shepherds soon follow. 
 
The highlands are no less alien to twins Iris and Floyd, whose family history renders them outcasts. Out of work, money and friends, they hear of the significant bounty on Dusk’s head. They decide to join the hunt. 
 
As they journey up into the wild, haunted country, they discover there’s far more to the land and people than they imagined. Forced to make an uneasy alliance with a fellow tracker, the twins’ lifelong bond is put at risk. And as the trio close in on their prey, it becomes clear where the true danger lies . . . 
 
'Magnificent' TIM WINTON, author of Juice 
 
'Starkly beautiful and deeply felt ... the pared-back textures of Dusk’s prose occasionally recall those of Cormac McCarthy' Guardian (Australia)

Susan Gates

Praise for Dusk

'Magnificent'

'Dusk is a sublime novel of loss and redemption, fight and surrender, that left me in absolute awe. Robbie Arnott's prose is incandescent, his storytelling mythic and filled with a ...

'Starkly beautiful and deeply felt... Dusk is a book about love: not just the love between the twins but the love they feel for the landscape… the pared-back textures of Dusk’s pro ...

'Magnificent'

'Dusk is a sublime novel of loss and redemption, fight and surrender, that left me in absolute awe. Robbie Arnott's prose is incandescent, his storytelling mythic and filled with a ...

'Starkly beautiful and deeply felt... Dusk is a book about love: not just the love between the twins but the love they feel for the landscape… the pared-back textures of Dusk’s pro ...

'Magnificent'

'Dusk is a sublime novel of loss and redemption, fight and surrender, that left me in absolute awe. Robbie Arnott's prose is incandescent, his storytelling mythic and filled with a ...

'Starkly beautiful and deeply felt... Dusk is a book about love: not just the love between the twins but the love they feel for the landscape… the pared-back textures of Dusk’s pro ...

Books by Susan Gates

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