This blog gives readers a chance to check out new and rising authors in Teen and Young Adult genres. We hope their work sparks inspiration and excitement. This month we meet Tochi Onyebuchi.
QUICK FACTS@ Patrick Ness
- He was born in Virginia, spent his childhood in Hawaii, and spent teen and young adult life on west coast.
- He has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book AwardNess taught creative writing at Oxford University.
- He has written for The Daily Telegraph, The Times Literary Supplement, The Sunday Telegraph and The Guardian.
- Ness was revealed to be the author of Tip of the Tongue, the May e-short featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa as part Puffin’s eleven Doctor Who e-shorts in honour of the show’s 50th anniversary.
- He has been a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and was the first Writer in Residence for Booktrust
- Ness was naturalized a British citizen in 2005.
- He lives in the United Kingdom with his partner whom he married in 2013.
- If you are interested in finding out more about this author, check out his website here.
Chaos Walking Trilogy
The knife of never letting go / Patrick Ness
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
The Ask and the Answer / Patrick Ness
We were in the square, in the square where I’d run, holding her, carrying her, telling her to stay alive, stay alive till we got safe, till we got to Haven so I could save her – But there weren’t no safety, no safety at all, there was just him and his men…
Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor’s new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode…
Monsters of men / Patrick Ness
As a world-ending war surges to life around them, Todd and Viola face monstrous decisions. The indigenous Spackle, thinking and acting as one, have mobilized to avenge their murdered people. Ruthless human leaders prepare to defend their factions at all costs, even as a convoy of new settlers approaches. And as the ceaseless Noise lays all thoughts bare, the projected will of the few threatens to overwhelm the desperate desire of the many. The consequences of each action, each word, are unspeakably vast: To follow a tyrant or a terrorist? To save the life of the one you love most or thousands of strangers? To believe in redemption or assume it is lost? Becoming adults amid the turmoil, Todd and Viola question all they have known, racing through horror and outrage toward a shocking finale
Other Works By Author
Burn / Patrick Ness
On a cold Sunday evening in early 1957, Sarah Dewhurst waited with her father in the parking lot of the Chevron gas station for the dragon he’d hired to help on the farm…
Sarah Dewhurst and her father, outcasts in their little town of Frome, Washington, are forced to hire a dragon to work their farm, something only the poorest of the poor ever have to resort to.
The dragon, Kazimir, has more to him than meets the eye, though. Sarah can’t help but be curious about him, an animal who supposedly doesn’t have a soul, but who is seemingly intent on keeping her safe.
Because the dragon knows something she doesn’t. He has arrived at the farm with a prophecy on his mind. A prophecy that involves a deadly assassin, a cult of dragon worshippers, two FBI agents in hot pursuit—and somehow, Sarah Dewhurst herself.
The rest of us just live here / Patrick Ness
What if you aren’t the Chosen One?
The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?
What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.
Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.
Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions…
To celebrate the arrival of Peter Capaldi on to our screens as the newly regenerated Doctor, this collection of Doctor Who short stories, each written by a different author, now includes an extra, brand-new twelfth adventure as part of the 12 Doctors, 12 Stories paperback anthology. Offering the perfect addition to the top-selling series, the twelfth story, “Lights Out,” has been penned by self-professed Doctor Who fan and best-selling female sci-fi writer Holly Black.
Stories Included:
A Big Hand For The Doctor by Eoin Colfer, starring One (William Hartnell).
The Nameless City by Michael Scott, starring Two (Patrick Troughton).
The Spear of Destiny by Marcus Sedgwick, starring Three (Jon Pertwee).
The Roots of Evil by Philip Reeve, starring Four (Tom Baker).
Tip of the Tongue by Patrick Ness, starring Five (Peter Davidson).
Something Borrowed by Richelle Mead, starring Six (Colin Baker).
Spore by Alex Scarrow, starring Eight (Paul McCann).
The Beast of Babylon by Charlie Higson, starring Nine (Christopher Eccleston).
The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage by Derek Landy, starring Ten (David Tennant).
Nothing O’Clock by Neil Gaiman, starring Eleven (Matt Smith).
Lights Out by Holly Black, starring Twelve (Peter Capaldi)