Showing results by author "Sophie Anderson" in All Categories

All 12-year-old Marinka wants is a friend. A real friend. Not like her house with chicken legs. Sure, the house can play games like tag and hide-and-seek, but Marinka longs for a human companion. Someone she can talk to and share secrets with. But that's tough when your grandmother is a Yaga, a guardian who guides the dead into the afterlife. It's even harder when you live in a house that wanders all over the world...carrying you with it. Even worse, Marinka is being trained to be a Yaga. That means no school, no parties - and no playmates that stick around for more than a day.

The Island of Morovia is shaped like a broken heart. The humans live on one side of the island, and the alkonosts—the birdpeople—live on the other. But it wasn't always this way. Linnet wishes she could sing magic, like her father, Nightingale—and bring the two sides of her island together again. For her land has been divided by a terrible tragedy, and Linnet has been banished with her father to the deepest swamps, leaving behind her best friends, Hero and Silver. So when her father is captured, Linnet must be brave and embark on a treacherous journey.

When Tasha builds a snow girl with her grandpa, all she wants is for her to be real. If only wishes on snow could come true. Then Tasha meets Alyana, a friend made of wishes, starlight, snowfall, and magic. But when your best friend is made of winter, what do you do when spring comes?

Frail butterfly enthusiast Maggie Muir has lived a lonely life in her huge remote house on the Cornish cliffs for many years. Once a mother with two beautiful children, the sudden death of Maggie’s daughter, forever a little girl in her fairy nightdress, ripped the family apart and caused her son Lucas to flee to the other side of the world. But now, Maggie is dying, and there is something she needs her son to know.

Linnet wishes she could sing magic like her father, Nightingale—and bring the two sides of her island together again. For her land has been divided by a terrible tragedy, and Linnet has been banished with her father to the deepest swamps, leaving behind her best friends. When her father is captured, Linnet must be brave and embark on a treacherous journey. Through alligator pools and sinking sands, she finds new friends. Yet without her singing magic, Linnet discovers something even more powerful. Something that could save her father and heal the broken heart of her island.

Marinka dreams of a normal life, where her house stays in one place long enough for her to make friends. But her house has chicken legs and moves on without warning. For Marinka's grandmother is Baba Yaga, who guides spirits between this world and the next. Marinka longs to change her destiny and sets out to break free from her grandmother's footsteps, but her house has other ideas....

In a freezing, isolated farmhouse with ice on its windows, Flora is looking after her sick mother. Since she was a little girl, Flora has been frightened of her mother. And when she discovers a photo of a smiling baby girl she doesn’t recognize, hidden at the bottom of a drawer, her mother grows even more remote, and refuses to talk about it. So, when a visitor arrives from a paradise island of sapphire coves and white sand beaches, and confirms that the baby in the picture is her sister, she should feel joy. But, he also brings the news that Flora’s sister is dying.

Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2021. Found abandoned in a bear cave as a baby, 12-year-old Yanka has always felt out of place in her small village. When she wakes up to find that her legs have become bear legs, she sets off into the forest to discover who she is, on a journey that takes her from icy rivers to smouldering mountains, with an ever-growing group of misfits alongside her….

The story of a woman's life, from childhood to death, somewhere in provincial France, from the 1950s to just shy of 2025. She has doting parents, does well at school, finds a loving husband after one abortive attempt at passion, buys a big house with a moonlit terrace, makes decent money, has children, changes jobs, retires, grows old and dies. All in the comfort that the middle classes have grown accustomed to. But she's bored.

When 13-year-old Olia steps through a magical doorway, she discovers another land. A land tangled by magic, where hope is lost and a scheming wizard holds all the power. Soon Olia learns that she is destined to save this land, but with time running out and her new friends and family in danger, she must search for the magic within herself—to save everything and everyone she loves.

Oh! Sweet Music is the music podcast where every Wednesday, Sophie will be delving into a song inspired by an event music history. Join her every Wednesday to hear about the meaning and history of songs inspired by an event, which occurred on the date each podcast is released. Oh! Sweet Music will cover a variety of genres, eras, artists and bands. There is truly something for everyone!Be sure to send Sophie any song, artist, era and genre requests at ohsweetmusicrequests@hotmail.com via email or @ohsweetmusicpodcast via Instagram. Also, give us follow on Tik Tok @ohsweetmusic to get involved ...