St Nicks

If you start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy named Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one.

Eines Nachts begegnet der tapfere und angesehene Feldherr Macbeth in der Heide drei Hexen, die ihm prophezeien, dass er König von Schottland werden wird. Zunächst skeptisch, wird er von den skrupellosen, zielstrebigen Ambitionen Lady Macbeths angetrieben, die keinen Zweifel ihres Mannes teilt. Doch die Prophezeiung bis zu ihrem blutigen Ende zu erfüllen, führt beide in einen Strudel aus Paranoia, Tyrannei, Wahnsinn und Mord. Diese erschütternde Tragödie – eine gewaltsame Warnung an jene, die Macht um ihrer selbst willen suchen – ist bis heute eines von Shakespeares beliebtesten und einflussreichsten Meisterwerken.

The River Between explores life on the Makuyu and Kameno ridges of Kenya in the early days of white settlement. Faced with an alluring, new religion and 'magical' customs, the Gikuyu people are torn between those who fear the unknown and those who see beyond it. Some follow Joshua and his fiery brand of Christianity while others proudly pursue tribal independence. In the midst of this disunity stands Waiyaki, a dedicated visionary born to a line of prophets. He struggles to educate the tribe - a task he sees as the only unifying link between the two factions - but his plans for the future raise issues which will determine both his own and the Gikuyu's survival.

Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal and runner-up for the Children's Book Award, RED SKY IN THE MORNING is remarkably moving and beautifully narrated. Twelve-year-old Anna is looking forward to the birth of her baby brother. Ben arrives, but is disabled and will never be like other children. Anna loves him with her whole heart but she finds herself unable to admit the truth of Ben's condition to her school friends. Eventually the truth gets out and leads not to the ridicule Anna expected, but sympathy and understanding.