Blood Ties (Sophie McKenzie)

Synopsis
When Theo discovers the father he thought died when he was a baby is still alive, he's determined to find him. The clues lead him to the lonely Rachel, who has problems of her own, including parents who compare her unfavourably to her long-dead sister. But when Rachel and Theo are attacked by men from RAGE - the Righteous Army against Genetic Engineering - at Rachel's school disco, they are rescued by strangers and taken to meet a mysterious figure. There, they both make some startling discoveries about their identities, which will affect their past, present, and future in dramatic and life-altering ways...

Author
Sophie is the author of the award-winning Girl, Missing, as well as Blood Ties, Six Steps to a Girl and Three's a Crowd. Blood Ransom, the follow-up story to Blood Ties showing what happened next to Rachel and Theo, will be published in October 2010.

Sophie lives in London with her twelve-year-old son and goes boxing training in her spare time.

Guantanamo Boy (Anna Perera)

Synopsis
Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy from Rochdale, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. He is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, where his hopes and dreams are crushed under the cruellest of circumstances. An innocent denied his freedom at a time when Western boys are finding theirs, Khalid tries and fails to understand what's happening to him and cannot fail to be a changed young man.

Author
Anna Perera was born in London to an Irish mother and Sri Lankan father. She worked as an English teacher in two secondary schools in London, and later became responsible for a unit for excluded boys. She lives in Hampshire, England. Guantanamo Boy is her first teenage novel.

Life, Interrupted (Damian Kelleher)

Synopsis
Luke’s world is turned upside down when his mum collapses at the hospital where she works as a nurse. Fourteen-year-old Luke and his football-obsessed younger brother Jesse each cope in their different ways, and, as time passes, they must confront some painful truths.
Honest, funny and deeply moving, this is a story about facing the worst and surviving.

Author
Damian Kelleher is a freelance journalist, broadcaster, writer and publishing consultant, specialising in the field of children’s media. He was book editor for Young Telegraph and T2, and has reviewed for the teen press, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and the TES. He is married and lives in north London with his wife and two teenage children. This is his first full-length novel for young people.

Numbers (Rachel Ward)

Synopsis
Since her mother’s death, fifteen-year-old Jem has kept a secret. When her eyes meet someone else’s, a number pops into her head - the date on which they will die. Knowing that nothing lasts forever, Jem avoids relationships, but when she meets a boy called Spider, and they plan a day out together, her life takes a new twist and turn. Waiting for the London Eye, she sees everyone in the queue has the same number - something terrible is going to happen.

Author
Rachel Ward is married with two children and lives in Bath. This is her first novel and it was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. She is working on a sequel, which will be published in 2010: 'Numbers 2: The Chaos' picks up the story sixteen years on and follows Jem's son, Adam, as he struggles with the gift he has inherited from his mum.

The Red Necklace (Sally Gardner)

Synopsis
The story of a remarkable boy called Yann Margoza; Tetu the dwarf, his friend and mentor; Sido, unloved daughter of a foolish Marquis; and Count Kalliovski, Grand Master of a secret society, who has half the aristocracy in thrall to him, and wants Yann dead.

Yann is spirited away to London but three years later, when Paris is gripped by the bloody horrors of the Revolution, he returns, charged with two missions: to find out Kalliovski's darkest deeds and to save Sido from the guillotine.

With a tangle of secrets, a thread of magic and a touch of humour, the follies of the aristocracy and the sufferings of ordinary people are unfolded as their lives move relentlessly towards the tragic and horrific days of the Terror.

Author
Sally was a theatre designer and specialised in costume for fifteen years before moving into children's books. Sally lives in London and works full-time as an illustrator and writer.