Conville & Walsh
Feather Boy
- Author: Nicky Singer
- Category: Fiction Young Adult
- Publisher: HarperCollins Childrens (UK)
- Pub date: 2 January 2002
- Length: 288 pages
About Feather Boy
Blue Peter’s Book of the Year
BBC adaptation won BAFTA for Best Children’s Drama
Robert Nobel, the school pariah, triumphs over his own fears and the school bully, in this extraordinary tale of self-empowerment, legend and death. Robert is a boy who can do anything - or so old Edith Sorrel at the nursing home tells him. Robert doesn’t think so, knowing as he does that he is the school geek. But something compels him to do what Edith asks - to visit old Chance House, where a boy once fell to his death from the top floor flat, to confront his fears and find some answers. Niker the bully thinks this is a great laugh. He challenges Robert to spend the night at Chance House with him - but there the balance of power changes, and it is Robert who proves to be the stronger.
Niker feels threatened by the change - and when he finds out Robert’s secret obsession, to make the dying Edith Sorrel a coat of feathers like in the old legend of the Firebird, he knows just how to wrest his old power back. But just how important is the coat of feathers? Could it really save Edith’s life?
About the Author
Nicky has written four novels for adults, two books of non-fiction and five works for young people. Her first children’s novel, FEATHER BOY, won the Blue Peter ‘Book of the Year’ Award and is published in 28 countries. It has also been adapted for TV (winning a BAFTA for Best Children’s Drama) and commissioned by the National Theatre as a musical with lyrics by Don Black and music by Debbie Wiseman. Nicky’s other novels for young people include: DOLL, THE INNOCENT’S STORY and GEMX. KNIGHT CREW is her most recent novel.
March 2010 sees the Glyndebourne premiere of a full-length operatic version of Knight Crew with a libretto by Nicky and music by Julian Philips. This is the first time Glyndebourne have ever commissioned an opera from a teen novel and the making of the show is being filmed by the BBC for a three-part documentary series to be presented by Gareth Malone.