The Middle of Nowhere
Published on 1. October 2013
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-4095-2200-3 (ISBN)
Description
When Mary Pinny dies from a snakebite, she leaves her young daughter, Comity, and husband Herbert in the Middle of Nowhere. As Stationmaster of the Kinkindele Repeater Station, Herbert Pinny takes great pride in his job; receiving morse messages and passing them down the Wire to the rest of Australia and beyond. But Comity dreams of a different life - where her mother is alive and she has her own horse and a new piano - and sends letters to her grandmother and her snooty aunt full of colourful tales of her imaginary life. That is, until the new station assistant, Quartz Hogg, arrives and brings Comity and her father sharply back down to earth.
Reviews / Votes
[A] superbly constructed and beautifully written tale. * John Newman, Newham Bookshop * A clear-sighted, beautifully written examination of racism and courage. * The Metro * Award-winning Geraldine McCaughrean captures a far off landscape and a far off time in her fabulously dramatic nineteenth century story interwoven with the magic of the mysterious and stories of the Aboriginal Dreamtime. * LoveReading4Kids * Full of phrases, images and ideas that pull you up short, and is a brilliant adventure too. * Books for Keeps * Geraldine McCaughrean [has] effortless skill in evoking atmosphere. * Books for Keeps * Geraldine McCaughrean is an awe-inspiring writer with a miraculous talent for bringing to life past times and faraway lands. * Sunday Telegraph * Geraldine McCaughrean writes a superb sentence, and they come thick and fast in The Middle of Nowhere. * Booktrust * Geraldine McCaughrean's The Middle of Nowhere was a real breath of fresh air - beautifully written and drawing you in to the time and environment with great skill. I loved the characters, too. Geraldine's very good at dialogue - the different voices of the aboriginal boy, the Punjabi camel driver, the young girl, the upright, uptight dad, the horrible army veteran, the snooty relatives in Adelaide - they all ring true. It's also a story with a very contemporary resonance. * Young Quills Historical Fiction Award * In The Middle of Nowhere Geraldine McCaughrean's gift for manipulating words to create atmosphere is well to the fore, and readers of 10s-plus will find this latest story from the award-winning author exciting and absorbing. * Newbury Weekly News * McCaughrean is one of the greatest living children's authors. * The Bookseller * McCaughrean's writing is glorious... as relevant as ever. * Little Rebels Children's Book Awards Judging Panel * This novel about courage, love and tolerance sings with McCaughrean's glorious, new-minted phrase-making.Everything Geraldine McCaughrean touches turns to gold. * The Sunday Times * Warmly recommended... a fast-paced, quirky, original and unpredictable novel. * SLA Newsletter * What could be classed as a 'sweeping epic', The Middle of Nowhere is essentially a love letter to the Outback - richly layered, peppered with seamless similes and wonderfully evocative... a truly beautiful book. * Gobblefunked *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Children/juvenile
Interest Age: From 10 years
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-4095-2200-3 (9781409522003)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Geraldine McCaughrean
The Middle of Nowhere
E-Book
08/2018
1st Edition
Usborne Publishing Ltd
from
€8.19
Available for download
Geraldine McCaughrean
Middle of Nowhere
E-Book
10/2013
1st Edition
Usborne Publishing Ltd
€3.39
Available for download
Person
Geraldine McCaughrean is one of today's most successful and highly regarded children's authors. She has won the CILIP Carnegie Medal twice: first in 1988 with A Pack of Lies and again in 2018 with Where the World Ends. She's won the IBW Book Award 2018, the Whitbread Children's Book Award three times, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award four times, the prestigious U.S. Printz Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Geraldine lives in Berkshire with her husband John and the lingering shades of all those characters she has invented in her books.