A beautiful, gripping story, perfect for children learning to read. Winner of the Carnegie Medal.

Every day Annie walks by the lonely marsh from her remote cottage to school. Only in winter, when the wind howls in the trees, is Annie ever afraid. Her sister Willa is pregnant and Annie is overjoyed when she comes home to have her baby. Annie tells Willa the names of local plants and Willa tells Annie about the ghost, murdered by highwaymen, who is said to haunt the old forge nearby. Then, on a terrible night, with the phone lines down, Willa goes into labour. Annie is terrified of the ghost, but knows she must brave the storm to fetch help. As she ventures into the night, a horseman swings into view. He offers to take Annie to town. But who is this horseman?

The Reading Ladder series helps children to enjoy learning to read. It features well-loved authors, classic characters and favourite topics, so that children will find something to excite and engage them in every title they pick up. It's the first step towards a lasting love of reading.

Level 3 Reading Ladder titles are perfect for fluent readers who are beginning to read exciting, challenging stories independently.

Varied sentences

Detailed illustrations to enjoy

Chapters

Interesting characters and themes

A rich range of vocabulary

More complex storylines to stretch confident readers

All Reading Ladder titles are developed with a leading literacy consultant, making them perfect for use in schools and for parents keen to support their children's reading.

Book band: White.

About the Author

Kevin Crossley-Holland is a prize-winning writer for children, a well-known poet and author of a memoir of childhood, The Hidden Roads, praised by Rowan Williams as 'A lovely, poignant book, not wasting a word and evoking place in a deep way.'
His ghost story Storm was awarded the Carnegie Medal while The Seeing Stone won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, the Smarties Prize Bronze Medal, and the Tir na n-Og Award. The Arthur trilogy has won worldwide critical acclaim and has been translated into twenty-five languages and its successor, Gatty's Tale was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
He has a Minnesotan wife, Linda, two sons (Kieran and Dominic) and two daughters (Oenone and Eleanor). He is an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, a patron of the Society for Storytelling, the European Storytelling Archive, and the Story Museum, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was President of the School Library Association (2012 - 2015). He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Worcester.

Awards
Winner of The Carnegie Medal 1985.



Book Information
ISBN 9781405282369
Author Kevin Crossley-Holland
Format Paperback
Page Count 48
Imprint Reading Ladder
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 110g
Dimensions(mm) 212mm * 145mm * 4mm