Books: Caro King's Seven Sorcerers shortlisted for Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2010 (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Books: Caro King's Seven Sorcerers shortlisted for Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2010

2:00pm Thursday 14th January 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

A year ago Caro King was only dreaming of life as an author, but 12 months on she finds herself giving talks to school children and being shortlisted for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2010.

The civil servant only published her book Seven Sorcerers in April but received rave reviews for it and she has now been nominated for the prize, the winner of which will be announced next month.

"When I parcelled my book up and sent it off I thought all that would happen would be me getting a rejection letter a week later."

Caro King

"I'm very pleased about it obviously," she said.

"I never imagined I would get shortlisted for a prize like this.

"I have heard people refer to it and I don't think I had quite realised how big it was.

"When I parcelled my book up and sent it off I thought all that would happen would be me getting a rejection letter a week later.

"Now I have various school events coming up and I think there are quite a few book signings too."

Seven Sorcerers follows the adventure of Nin Redstone, a child who awakes in the imaginary world of The Drift alone with her little brother missing and her identity stolen.

She decides to try and find her brother and befriends a waistcoat-wearing bogeyman Skerridge, who helps her in her quest.

Such has been the success of the book, King has penned a sequel, Shadow Spell, which will be hitting the shelves in April and she revealed her idea behind the book came from simply staring out the window and a cold winter day.

"Everything outside was grey," she said.

"The buildings were grey, the sky was grey and it was all pretty gloomy.

"I looked out and it looked so dead.

"It just started me thinking that inside all these buildings were all these people and they were all probably imagining this rather colourful world rather then the grey-coloured one we were all looking at and from that the Drift, was born."

The shortlisting means Seven Sorcerers will be featured across Waterstone’s stores and in their front window display, with the shop in the Whitgift centre planning a signing event in the near future.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)