90: Opening Chapter Critique for YA or Middle Grade novels by CANDY GOURLAY (1 of 3)

ITEM: Critique of opening chapters of YA or Middle Grade novels (2,000 words more or less).

ABOUT CANDY: Candy Quimpo Gourlay is a Filipino author based in London. She reported on the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986 in Manila. She married a British journalist and ended up in England covering first world issues from a developing world perspective for the news agency Inter Press Service. In 2005, she returned to the Philippines to write and present the Radio 4 documentary, MOTHERLESS NATION, about the children left behind by migrant workers.

Read Candy’s reflection on the Japanese earthquake http://candygourlay.blogspot.com/2011/03/grieving-with-japan-and-hoping.html

Her debut novel Tall Story was published to acclaim in 2010 by David Fickling Books. It’s about a Filipino boy, Bernardo, and his British half-sister, Andi, finally reunited after years of immigration paperwork – only for Andi to find that Bernardo is eight feet tall, a giant! Shortlisted for the UKLA Children’s Book Award, the Blue Peter My Favourite Story Prize and the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize

Reviews http://www.tallstory.net/reviews/

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