Patrick Ness, Writer in Residence

by Rhondda

Monday, July 20, 2009 at 04:50 AM EDT

Did you enjoy reading of The Knife of Never Letting Go? This was Patrick Ness’ first book written for young adults. It was published last year and went on to win the Guardian Children’s Book Prize (2008). It is a very good (if sometimes confronting) science fiction story, with a lot of thought-provoking stuff. Last weekend I saw that the sequel, The Ask and the Answer, has now been released and is our bookshops. The reader is taken right back to where we last saw the characters, in the amazing, fantastic and frightening world of New World.

If you have students who enjoyed the first novel and want more, or who are interested in writing, try visiting UK Booktrust site, where the author Patrick Ness is the current (and first) writer in residence. (Thanks to CMIS Fiction Focus post) From the beginning of March Patrick has been regularly updating his blog about writing on the Booktrust website and will continue to do so until the beginning of September. In his latest entry Patrick offers a “new set of very counter-intuitive tips on how setting limitations on your writing might actually free it”. This site also contains Q&A videos (UK students putting questions about writing and his stories to Patrick) and you can also download a lesson sequence for The Knife of Never Letting Go

From this same site can also download, for free, an exclusive Chaos Walking short story written by Patrick and set before the story of The Knife of Never Letting Go. Read The New World here (15 web pages) or you can download a pdf for free (Adobe Acrobat .doc 134Kb) to read whenever and wherever you like.

The Booktrust site is an an interesting one to look around. It is a site that is dedicated to the promotion of reading. It offers all sorts of resources that may come in useful in a school library or to anyone who wants to support and encourage reading.

Their own description: Booktrust is an independent charity dedicated to encouraging people of all ages and cultures to engage with books and the written word.