Highlight: M . L Welsh - Heart of Stone - David Fickling

                                   

                                 

M.L. Welsh sets sail again for the harbour town of Wellow, where Verity Gallant lives amidst the rich maritime, magical history of her ancestors. After a summer enjoying the pleasure of her new-found talent at sailing, and a new-found friendship with Henry Twogood, Verity is ready for a new school year full of promise. In Heart of Stone, Wellow is again under threat from a hidden power - one that is destroying the very fabric of its life and future - as well as the companionship of its inhabitants. 'Wellow's surface began to crack like an egg in a serpent's jaw. No street or path escaped. Walkways and paths crumbled like soft flour. The town seemed literally to be slipping away under their feet.' As the townsfolk grow frightened and fractious it is up to Verity and her friends to expose the forces which threaten Wellow with extinction.


Mistress of the Storm introduced readers to Verity Gallant - a bright, quiet girl somehow disconnected from her family and heritage - and Wellow, Verity's hometown, a place of legend and intrigue deeply intertwined with its inhabitants, both past and present. Readers will return, enthralled, to their story, as both people and town are plunged into mystery.


'Welsh writes just beautifully - there's an ease and a flow about everything and so Heart of Stone is an absolute pleasure to read. The sailing sequences are possibly my favourites as they're written with clear affection. Just as with Swallows and Amazons, they will make even the most confirmed of landlubbers - me, for instance - long to take to the waves in a special dinghy all of their very own.' - The Bookbag