Where the World Ends

Geraldine McCaughrean

Usborne

£6.99

The Carnegie Medal, Britain’s most prestigious award for children or young adult novels was first won in 1937 by Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post. In 2018 it’s been awarded to Geraldine McCaughrean for a novel based on a true 18th century survival story of nine young boys left stranded on sea stacks by an isolated Scottish island. Qwilliam and his companions have been despatched from Hirta to the inhospitable Warrior Stac to harvest the sea birds there. They expect to be away ten days but no boat comes to collect them. Why is this and how do they survive? It’s a world away from Pigeon Post but equally worth reading.