Becoming Grace (Hilary Mckay)

Award-winning Hilary McKay brings the childhood of Victorian heroine Grace Darling to life in this heartfelt reimagining of her life up to and including the Forfarshire shipwreck.

Despite her fear of boats, Grace Darling loves her life as the daughter of a lighthouse keeper and spends fun-filled childhood days with her three sisters, four brothers, numerous goats, chickens, cats and her beloved dog, Happy.

The only shadows come from the many shipwrecks caused by the poor location of their lighthouse, a problem that seems to be fixed when a new one is built further out on the remote Longstone Rock.

But in September 1838, a steamship called the Forfarshire is wrecked on the dangerous Harcar Rock. Grace alerts her father to survivors, but can she find the courage to help him row out through the mountainous waves to rescue them?

Particularly suitable for readers aged 9+ with a reading age of 8.

Hilary McKay is the author of 'The Exiles, the joint winner of the 1992 Guardian Children's Fiction Award, and 'The Exilesat Home which won the Smarties Prize in 1995.