Katya Balen

An uplifting picture book celebrating wildness from a multi-award-winning author and illustrator team, Katya Balen and Gill Smith. A little girl loves playing in the woods and rejoicing in the wildness all around her. She sees secrets in the stars and stories in the earth. But one day she moves to the city. Surrounded by tall, grey buildings, she feels disconnected and alone. She has lost her wild. Or has she? Maybe she will find wildness where she least expects it... PRAISE FOR WILD"A lush, poetic picture book, with words by a Carnegie-winning author." The Guardian"This delightful book is perfect for kids aged three to seven years. A celebration of nature in all its forms." The Courier"features stunning artwork from Gill Smith … An uplifting celebration of the power of the natural world, even in the most built-up environments." The Bookseller

'Heart-wrenching . . . A book to read in a sitting' LUCY CALDWELL'A gut-punch of a novel' EMMA DONOGHUE'Cathartic, bold and ultimately hopeful' JESSIE BURTON 'Masterfully written . . . Envelops you' JODIE MATTHEWS 'Powerful' CATHY RENTZENBRINKWhen her life is unexpectedly upended, Anna escapes London - and her husband - for a remote cottage in the wetlands of rural England. She hopes the solitude might unblock the novel she can't bring herself to write. Out in the marshes, the locals discover something shocking, risen to the surface after many years buried in the silty earth. Anna is drawn to the site, fascinated and shaken by what she finds there. And as researchers descend, her curiosity gives way to obsession . . . An unsettling, propulsive and fiercely tender novel about buried loss and renewal, Our Numbered Bones explores how we must unearth the past in order to make peace with what we've lost.

The delightful second book in a heart-warming animal rescue series from Carnegie-winner Katya Balen and beloved illustrator Gill Smith, for readers who love animals and all things vets.The Appletree Animal Agency have found three brand-new clients: a terrapin called Algernon, a ginger cat called Crumpet, and a three-legged dog called Domino!When Domino escapes in a snowstorm, the team set out to rescue him. They track his paw prints - but when they find their dog, they stumble upon someone else who needs help...Set in the cosy village of Mossdale, this festive animal and friendship story is the perfect gift for readers age 7, 8, 9 and 10."A huge heap of fun!" Ross Montgomery, NYT bestselling author of I Am Rebel"Balen has a wonderful gift for blending humour and emotion and this heart-warming animal adventure overflows with both." Daily Mail

A captivating story about finding friendship and hope … and a place where you can spread your wings. From Carnegie Medal winner Katya Balen.Con has been angry ever since Dad left. He doesn’t want to be. He wants to play FIFA with his best friend Kyron; to make his mum proud; to let people’s words about his dad roll off him like water. Instead, rage builds inside him until he explodes. Now even Kyron is scared of him. And when Con gets suspended from school he knows he’s let everyone down. The good person he longs to be feels unreachable.And then his neighbour, Mr Williams, lets him in on a secret.Up on the roof of Con’s building, Mr Williams keeps homing pigeons. Their feathers are the colour of pearls and storm clouds. Every day they fly out, carrying messages to people in other towns before finding their way home. Mr Williams wants Con’s help looking after them. Con can’t believe it. How could someone like him be trusted with these delicate creatures? But slowly, Con begins to believe that he can.Then Mr Williams goes away for a few days. Con is left in charge, and he begins to wonder whether the pigeons might be able to bring home more than just messages. Perhaps they could find his dad.

On the Island of Ayrie, everybody knows everyone. They know each other's stories as they know every road, every hill and the coming of the tide. In the summer, there are bonfires to celebrate the migration of the puffins. Everything is familiar, nothing much changes, and for Tilda, nothing ever should - it is beautiful, it is perfect and it is home. When newcomer Albie arrives at the island, Tilda wants to show Ayrie off - Albie wants her to leave him alone. She learns quickly that it'll take more than a tour and some seal viewings to win him around. Then, she remembers stories of the old island just an hour's boat ride away from the shore. The old island is a death trap. The journey there is treacherous. Trips across to it are strictly forbidden. And there's a rumour it's haunted by the ghosts of those left there to die. But with all else having failed, the old island is the only way for Tilda to make Albie see what she sees in Ayrie. Besides, it's a different kind of ghost that worries Tilda. The ghost that's been following her, now, since her brother left the island …

The joyful and summery first book in a heart-warming animal rescue series from Carnegie-winner Katya Balen and beloved illustrator Gill Smith, for readers who love animals and all things vets."A huge heap of fun!" Ross Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of I Am RebelWhen Mattie wishes on a shooting star for a puppy, she knows her wish is hopeless. Her dad just doesn''t believe Mattie is responsible enough to look after a puppy. She finds the next best thing when she and her friend Zoë start helping the new vet and animal rescuer, Dr Polly. Mattie still may not have a pet of her own, but she has amazing adventures rescuing a runaway ferret, trying to stop a greedy goat from eating everything in the garden and looking after an adorable puppy with a hurt paw. But as the animal rescue gets more and more crowded, Mattie, Zoë and the vet''s son, Casper, realize that they need to do something more. Can they help the animals find their forever homes?Set in the cosy village of Mossdale in the lead up to their summer fete, this uplifting animal and friendship story is the perfect gift for readers age 6, 7, 8, and 9, and the perfect summer holiday read."Balen has a wonderful gift for blending humour and emotion and this heart-warming animal adventure overflows with both." Daily Mail

From the author of October, October, winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, comes a heartbreaking and heart-warming story about sisterhood, found family and accepting love in the most unusual and unknown places. Fen and Rey were found curled up small and tight in the fiery fur of the foxes at the very edge of the wildlands. Fen is loud and fierce and free. She feels a connection to foxes and a calling from the wild that she's desperate to return to. Rey is quiet and shy and an expert on nature. She reads about the birds, feeds the lands and nurtures the world around her. They are twin sisters. Different and the same. Separate and connected. They will always have each other, even if they don't have a mother and don't know their beginning. But they do want answers. Answers to who their mother is and where she might be. What their story is and how it began. So when a fox appears late one night at the house, Fen and Rey see it as a sign - it's here to lead them to their truth, find their real family and fill the missing piece they have felt since they were born. But the wildlands are exactly that: wild. They are wicked and cruel and brutal and this journey will be harder and more life changing than either Fen or Rey ever imagined ...

"Az erdőben lakunk, vadak vagyunk." Október az erdőben lakik az apukájával, és ez így van, amióta az eszét tudja. De a tizenegyedik születésnapján minden megváltozik. Apja lezuhan egy fáról, kórházba kerül, Október pedig kénytelen beköltözni az anyukájához Londonba. Hogyan sikerül alkalmazkodnia a nyüzsgő nagyvároshoz, és a maga vadságával megtalálnia a helyét az emberek között? A lélegzetelállító regény minden érzékszervedre hatni fog a csípős októberi reggelekkel, a lobogó tűz illatával, a gumicsizma cuppogásával a sárban! Október története megmelengeti az olvasó lelkét, miközben tele van kalandokkal! Tarts te is vad hősünkkel, fedezd fel magad, és fedezd fel a világot!

Katya Balen's October, October is a very special new addition to the shelf and deserves classic status - Times Children's Book of the Week A classic in the making for anyone who ever longed to be WILD. October and her dad live in the woods. They sleep in the house Dad built for them and eat the food they grow in the vegetable patches. They know the trees and the rocks and the lake and stars like best friends. They read the books they buy in town again and again until the pages are soft and yellow - until next year's town visit. They live in the woods and they are wild. And that's the way it is. Until the year October turns eleven. That's the year October rescues a baby owl. It's the year Dad falls out of the biggest tree in their woods. The year the woman who calls herself October's mother comes back. The year everything changes. Written in Katya Balen's heart-stoppingly beautiful style, this book is a feast for the senses, filled with the woodsmoke smell of crisp autumn mornings and the sound of wellies squelching in river mud. And, as October fights to find the space to be wild in the whirling chaos of the world beyond the woods, it is also a feast for the soul.