Shortlisted for the Carnegie Award 2009 and shortlisted for the Bisto Irish Children's Book Award. From multi-award winning author Kate Thompson comes another absorbing read, blazing an enthralling path between the stark realities of modern-day society and the fantasy for which she has become so well known. Told through the voice of 14-year-old Bobby, the novel transports the reader into the tearaway’s world, which has been characterised by joy riding, alcohol, and drugs.
Bobby has no intention of letting his move to the countryside halt his destructive lifestyle, however the longer he remains in the cottage the more preoccupied he becomes with the peculiar nocturnal occurrences which both intrigue and terrify him. What was that staring through the dog-flap in the middle of the night? Far from a simple tale of the supernatural, Creatures Of The Night is a highly original piece of writing which combines a compelling tale with a timeless theme.
What the Carnegie Award judges said:
'A profoundly moving and believable novel by a natural storyteller which really gets the teenage experience. The language is strong but not gratuitous, the story gripping and powerful, and Bobby a character you care about despite his wayward tendencies.'
When Bobby's mother moves the family into a house in the country, a neighbour tells him that a child was once murdered there. Bobby doesn't care. But the longer he spends in the old cottage, the more convinced he becomes that something very strange is going on there. Was there really a murder? And if so, was it the one he has been told about?
Kate Thompson is one of the most exciting authors writing for young people today for she is a born storyteller, is highly original and thought-provoking in her ideas. She has travelled widely in the USA and India and studied law in London. After living in County Clare, she moved to Kinvara in County Galway and there, three years ago, she discovered her passion for playing the fiddle. She is now an accomplished player and also has a great interest in restoring instruments. Kate Thompson has won the Children’s Books Ireland Bisto Book of the Year award three times – in 2002 for The Beguilers, in 2003 for The Alchemist’s Apprentice and in 2004 for Annan Water. The New Policeman won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Book Award Children’s category in 2005.
