Showing results by author "William Sutcliffe" in All Categories

It’s the summer holidays and 13-year-old Luke has just had his life turned upside down. First his older sister, Rose, moved 'across the road’ - where a community of climate rebels are protesting the planned airport expansion - and now his dad’s gone, too. Dad only went to get Rose back, but he’s out there building totem poles out of old furniture and wearing sandals and drinking mead (whatever that is) with the best of them. Luke is determined to save his dad, his sister AND his summer.

Fifteen-year-old Sam isn't special. He's not a famous vlogger, he's never gone viral and he doesn't want to be the Next Big Thing. What he likes most is chatting to his friends and having a bit of a kick about. None of which was a problem until Dad got rich and Mum made the whole family move to London. Now Sam is being made to go to the North London Academy for the Gifted and Talented, where every student is too busy planning Hollywood domination or starting alt-metal psychedelica crossover bands or making clothes out of bathmats to give someone as normal as him the time of day.

Matt, Daniel and Paul were childhood friends. Now in their 30s, they've lost touch and have only one thing in common: their mothers. Little do they know that, having spent a cardless Mother's Day discussing how their emotionally dysfunctional offspring should be settling down, Carol, Gillian and Helen have decided to pay their wayward sons a visit. On the same day, they turn up on their sons' doorsteps, uninvited and unannounced. Their plan is to reestablish the mother-son bond by moving in for one week. Just a week. Surely that's not a lot to ask....

Joshua lives with his mother and step-father in Amarias, an isolated town, where all the houses are brand new. Amarias is surrounded by a high wall, guarded by soldiers, which can only be crossed through a heavily fortified checkpoint. Joshua has been taught that the Wall is the only thing keeping his people safe from a brutal and unforgiving enemy. One day, Joshua stumbles across a tunnel that leads underneath the Wall. The chance to catch a glimpse of life on the other side of The Wall is too tempting to resist. He's heard plenty of stories about the other side, but nothing has prepared him for what he finds…

In a future London, Concentr8 is a prescription drug intended to help kids with ADD. Soon every troubled teen is on it. It makes sense, doesn't it? Keep the undesirable elements in line. Keep people like us safe from people like them. What's good for society is good for everyone. Troy, Femi, Lee, Karen, and Blaze have been taking Concentr8 as long as they can remember. They're not exactly a gang, but Blaze is their leader, and Troy has always been his quiet, watchful sidekick - the only one Blaze really trusts.

DER 13-JÄHRIGE LUKE WILL EINFACH NUR GECHILLTE SOMMERFERIEN VERBRINGEN – DOCH DANN WIRBELT EINE GRUPPE VON KLIMAAKTIVISTEN SEINE NACHBARSCHAFT GRÜNDLICH DURCHEINANDER. Als Lukes große Schwester ins Protestcamp auf die andere Straßenseite zieht, liegen die Nerven der Eltern blank. In Lukes Augen sind die Öko-Rebellen mit ihren Bongo-Trommeln und Tattoos eigentlich ganz okay. Nervig ist nur Sky – die findet Schulpflicht und regelmäßige Mahlzeiten einfach nur toll und beneidet Luke um sein Spießerleben.

Genial sein ist auch keine Lösung. Sam hat keine allzu großen Ansprüche an sein Teenagerleben. Er hat kaum Follower auf Instagram, sein Freundeskreis ist überschaubar, er schreibt mittelmäßige Noten und das Wichtigste: Er ist mit seiner Durchschnittlichkeit voll und ganz zufrieden. Doch als seine Familie in ein schickes Londoner Viertel zieht, fangen für Sam die Probleme an: Seine Mutter meldet ihn an der "Nord-London-Akademie für Begabte und Talentierte" an, einer Elite-Schule für künstlerisch interessierte und hochbegabte Kinder, die allesamt damit beschäftigt zu sein scheinen, irgendwelche Elektro-Wave-Emo-Crossover-Bands zu gründen oder eines Tages Hollywood zu erobern.