Books with author Catherine Barr

Three teens. Two worlds. One amazing story.Fifteen-year-old Leo North’s prospects in life are limited. He reluctantly attends military school because that’s what most boys do in Malonia. He grudgingly lives with his pious, fearful grandmother and looks after his young brother, Stirling. He resists his innate powers because those who demonstrate any sort of magical ability are considered enemies of the state. But when he finds a blank book in the snow, his typical indifference melts away. From the very first moment he touches the book, he senses its strange power. Passages start to appear on the pages—revealing family secrets, telling the history of Malonia, and uncovering the story of Ryan and Anna, two teens from a parallel world. When Leo’s seemingly narrow path takes an unexpected tragic turn, he finds himself on a journey from which he can never really return.

"The daughter of an artist and a scientist, and your own interesting self, Millie. What more could you need?” But Millie isn’t sure that Tom, her mum’s boyfriend, is right about that. A new town, a school project due, an enemy called Tayla, a boy with the initials RH and Tom himself . It’s all too much even for an interesting girl like Millie. But as her father says, change is needed, and sometimes it’s the biggest changes that make us who we are. Millie and the Night Heron is a gentle, lyrical and moving tale from award-winning author Catherine Bateson which reminds us all to stop and remember the important things in life.

Alex was born with bilateral talipes, club feet to you and me. He struggled to sleep in his boots and bar until one night his Mummy told him about Dreamland. In his boots and bar, With straps so tight. Alex struggled to sleep through the night His legs uncomfortable, His toes too hot! He tossed and turned and banged his cot! His Mummy came running, He sat on her knee. She dried the tears from his eyes and explained why it had to be... She rocked her baby And held his hand. Whispering a lullaby “go play in Dream Land”

Following on from The Wish Pony, Catherine Bateson's new novel returns to the world of magic realism to chart the stormy waters of a child's grief.When grief strikes, you need an ally. For Mimi, that ally is Ableth, the wildly disobedient blue slave. He comes, he goes, he says and does whatever he likes, but he's always there when Mimi needs him most, offering his own brand of crooked wisdom. Ableth says, 'You need to learn to look under the surface of things. Look at water. It's just a great expanse of blue with little wavelets and riffs of foam. But underneath the surface are whole worlds of wonder. There are treasures and wrecks and bones . . .' But it's hard to look beneath the surface when your Mum is shipwrecked by despair, and you're the only one left to keep things afloat. There's a bric-a-brac shop to run, your first Christmas without a dad, and quite possibly a fugitive taking refuge in your back shed.This warm, captivating story celebrates the odd families we make, as well as those we are born into.