‘Dangerous, exciting,
always absorbing’
The Independent
Winner of the
Smarties Silver Medal
Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal
Teaching
points
Rich opportunities for
narrative work – dual and non-chronological
narratives.
Excellent cross-curricular
potential – the coal-mining industry,
the Ice Age, fossils, local folklore.
Introduction to the Teacher’s
Resource written by
David Almond.
Synopsis
Kit and his family have moved back to Stoneygate to
be with his grandfather who is gradually succumbing
to Alzheimer’s Disease. A once-industrious coal-mining
town, Stoneygate is now a half-wilderness scarred by
mining tragedies and potholed with treacherous mineshafts.
At his new school, Kit finds himself not only drawn
to Allie Keenan, full of energy and life, but also shadowy
John Askew and the dangerous game he plays – a
game called Death. But it’s only through playing
the game that Kit is able to see the lost children of
the mines and, ultimately, connect his grandfather’s
fading memories to his, his friends’ and Stoneygate’s
history and future.
Cross-curricular links and themes
History/Geography
– the coal-mining industry, the Ice Age, geology
and fossils, local traditions and folklore.
Citizenship
and PSHE –
death and bereavement, senile dementia.
Themes –
life and death, light and dark; landscape and identity;
the natural and industrial worlds; geology and human
history; family relationships.
