Unexpected Twist! An Oliver Twisted Tale Award-winning author by Michael Rosen (author) (UK edition)

Double the trouble! An original novel by Michael Rosen, told alongside the Dickens classic that inspired it: Oliver Twist. Shona and her dad are moving house, and at Shona’s new school, the rules are pretty confusing; she keeps getting into trouble without realizing! It’s a lot like how it is for Oliver Twist, that boy she’s reading about in English class. After Shona is unexpectedly given a mobile phone, she begins to suspect there’s something fishy about the new boys she’s met. Where did the phone come from? And some gifts, she soon learns, aren’t exactly free… Read two stories at once – both illustrated by Tony Ross.

Product Details

Format

Paperback

ISBN

9781407188560

Publisher

Scholastic

Date published

September 6th, 2018

Accelerated Reader

AR book level: 5.9; Middle years; 7.0 points

Other details

320 pages

Condition

New

UK edition

Author/Illustrator

Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen was born into a London Jewish family, the son of two distinguished educators – Connie and Harold Rosen. Michael’s childhood was rich in books, stories and conversation.

Michael attended Middlesex Hospital Medical School for a year but transferred to Wadham College, Oxford to study English Literature. At Oxford, he started to realise his ambition of acting (as well as writing and directing). Michael still says that if he wasn’t a poet, he’d like to be an actor. Anyone who has seen him in performance knows that he already is!

The narrowness of his course of study proved a source of dissatisfaction and Michael began looking outside his recommended reading to contemporary working, class ballads. He retains a passion for street rhymes, popular songs and folk stories.

Michael Rosen has been writing poetry since the age of 18. His first collection, Mind Your Own Business, was published in 1974. Although it was not planned as a collection for children, it appeared on Andre Deutsch’s children’s list. This, says Michael, was a turning point – “Suddenly it all fused: the writing, the performing, the popular audience. It was just incredibly exhilarating.”

He quickly made a name for himself with his collections of humorous verse and picture books for children. He is described as one of the most significant figures in contemporary children’s poetry, drawing closely on his own childhood experiences, and ‘telling it as it was’ in the ordinary language children actually use.

Michael is now a poet, author and broadcaster, and was Children’s Laureate from 2007-2009.