Hans Christian Andersen Award winner David Almond conjures the imaginative bond between a father and son as they pool their resources to defeat gravity and realize a dream. Joe is starstruck, determined to find his way up, up, up to the magical lights in the night sky. “In your dreams!” his pals say. But when Joe and his dad put their heads and hearts together, there’s no stopping them. Together they climb ladders, construct towers, and launch rockets in a tireless quest to reach the unreachable. Airy and playful, Gill Smith’s dynamic illustrations perfectly complement David Almond’s ebullient tale of sky-high courage—and the power of the imagination to pilot a dream—in a picture book adventure for stargazers and sidekicks of all ages.
Author
David Almond is a British children's writer who has penned several novels, each one to critical acclaim. He was born and raised in Felling and Newcastle in post-industrial North East England and educated at the University of East Anglia. When he was young, he found his love of writing when some short stories of his were published in a local magazine. He started out as an author of adult fiction before finding his niche writing literature for young adults. His first children's novel, Skellig (1998), set in Newcastle, won the Whitbread Children's Novel of the Year Award and also the Carnegie Medal. His subsequent novels are: Kit's Wilderness (1999), Heaven Eyes (2000), Secret Heart (2001), The Fire Eaters (2003) and Clay (2005). His first play aimed at adolescents, Wild Girl, Wild Boy, toured in 2001 and was published in 2002. His works are highly philosophical and thus appeal to children and adults alike. Recurring themes throughout include the complex relationships between apparent opposites (such as life and death, reality and fiction, past and future); forms of education; growing up and adapting to change; the nature of 'the self'. He has been greatly influenced by the works of the English Romantic poet William Blake. He is an author often suggested on National Curriculum reading lists in the United Kingdom and has attracted the attention of academics who specialise in the study of children's literature. Almond currently lives with his family in Northumberland, England. Awards: Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing (2010).
