Author Spotlight October 2022 Patrice Lawrence
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Patrice Lawrence is a multi-award winning author..
Her debut book Orangeboy won both the Bookseller YA Prize and the Waterstones Prize for Older Children’s Fiction in 2017
Her second title Indigo Donut won the Crimefest YA Prize in 2018. She has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal twice and was awarded an MBE for services to Literature in 2021.
Brought up in an Italian-Trinidadian family in West Sussex, Patrice now lives on the south coast.
For teenagers
Orangeboy (2016)
Not cool enough, not clever enough, not street enough for anyone to notice. I was the kid people looked straight through. Not any more. Not since Mr Orange.
16 year old Marlon has made his mum a promise - he'll never follow his big brother, Andre, down the wrong path. So far, it's been easy, but when a date ends in tragedy, Marlon finds himself hunted.
They're after the mysterious Mr Orange and they're going to use Marlon to get to him. Marlon's out of choices, can he become the person he never wanted to be, to protect everyone he loves?
Borrow Orangeboy from Barnet Libraries
Indigo Donut (2017)
Bailey is 17, mixed race, lives with his mum and dad in Hackney and spends all his time playing guitar or tending to his luscious ginger afro.
Indigo is 17 and new to London, having grown up in the care system after being found by her mum's dead body as a toddler. All Indigo wants is to know who she really is.
When Bailey and Indigo meet at sixth form, sparks fly. But when Bailey becomes the target of a homeless man who seems to know more about Indigo than is normal, Bailey is forced to make a choice he should never have to make.
Borrow Indigo Donut from Barnet Libraries
Rose Interrupted (2019)
After Rose and Rudder escape their life in a strict religious sect with their mum, they try to make sense of the world outside. No more rules about clothes and books, films and music, no more technology bans. But also no more friendship with the people they've known all their lives, no community and no certainty. It doesn't help that their mum has to work all hours to pay rent on their cramped, smelly, one-bed flat above a kebab shop in Hackney. While Rudder gorges on once-taboo Harry Potters and dances to Simon and Garfunkel and show tunes, Rose swaps the ankle skirts and uncut hair of the Woodford Pilgrims for Japanese-cute fairy dress and her new boyfriend, Kye. Kye, who she wants with all her being. But there's loads of scary stuff about their new life that Rose and Rudder have no idea how to handle.
Borrow Rose Interrupted from Barnet Libraries
Eight Pieces of Silva (2020)
Becks is into girls but didn't come out because she was never in. She lives with her mum, stepdad and 18-year-old Silva, her stepdad's daughter. Becks and Silva are opposites, but bond over their mutual obsession with K-pop. When Becks' mum and stepdad go on honeymoon to Japan, Becks and Silva are left alone. Except, Silva disappears. Becks ventures into the forbidden territory of Silva's room and finds the first of eight clues that help her discover her sister's secret life. Meanwhile, Silva is on a journey. A journey to make someone love her. He says he doesn't, but he's just joking. All she has to do is persuade him otherwise.
Borrow Eight Pieces of Silva from Barnet Libraries
Splinters of Sunshine (2021)
Spey recently received two surprises. First: his ex-prisoner dad turns up unannounced and second: a mysterious package containing torn-up paper flowers. Spey instantly recognises it as a collage he made with his old friend Dee, and decides she must be in danger, but there are no clues to her whereabouts. There's only one person he knows who can help to track her down. On a road trip like no other, will Spey and his dad find Dee, before it's too late?
Borrow Splinters of Sunshine from Barnet Libraries
Needle (2022)
Charlene is a demon knitter. It's the only thing she enjoys and the only thing she believes she's really good at. So when her foster mum's son destroys her latest creation, Charlene loses it and stabs him in the hand with her knitting needle. It damages a nerve and she gets sucked into the criminal justice system for assault. Charlene's not sorry and she's never apologised to anyone in her life. But people keep telling her that if she says sorry, they'll go easier on her. Can she bring herself to say it and not mean it when her freedom's at stake?
Borrow Needle from Barnet Libraries
For children
Toad Attack (2019)
After a toad lands on his head after leaving home one day, Leo is determined to find out where it has come from and why. Together with his friend Rosa, he needs to come up with some answers before the angry residents of Upper Dab take matters into their own hands and the toads become toast!
Borrow Toad Attack from Barnet Libraries
Diver’s Daughter: A Tudor Story (2019)
Eve, a young West African girl, lives with her mother in the Southwark slums of Tudor London. When they hear from a Mary Rose survivor, George Symon, that one of the African free-divers who salvaged its treasures is alive and well and living in Southampton, mother and daughter try to find him. But will the pair survive when George arrives to claim his 'share' of the riches? Will Eve overcome her fear of water to rescue her mother from the sea?
Borrow Diver’s Daughter: A Tudor Story from Barnet Libraries
New Class at Malory Towers (2019)
It's time to welcome new girls to Malory Towers, the famous boarding school by the sea. One of four brand-new stories by outstanding authors, set in Enid Blyton's much-loved school, featured in a recent CBBC series.
Borrow New Class at Malory Towers from Barnet Libraries
Granny Ting Ting (2020)
Shayla can't wait to see her cousin Michael again. Last time, they had great fun chasing Granny's chickens and playing hide-and-seek in the bamboo by the river. But Michael thinks everything in London is better than in Trinidad where Shayla lives, which makes him better than her, doesn't it? Soon everything's a competition, especially when there's hot pepper sauce involved!
Borrow Granny Ting Ting from Barnet Libraries
Rat (2021)
When his mum is sent back to prison, Al knows exactly who's to blame. Mr Brayker from downstairs has been making trouble for Al's mum ever since they moved in. Al is determined to get his revenge with a plan that involves the only two creatures he can rely on: his pet rats, Venom and Vulture. But things don't turn out exactly as he'd imagined.
Borrow Rat from Barnet Libraries
Granny Came Here on the Empire Windrush (2022)
When Ava is asked to dress as an inspirational figure for assembly at school, her Granny suggests famous figures such as Winifred Atwell, Mary Seacole and Rosa Parks.. But Ava's classmates have got there first and she must choose someone else. But who? Then Ava finds a mysterious old suitcase - Granny's 'grip' - and Granny begins to share her own history, and how she came to England on the Empire Windrush many years ago. She tells her story through the precious items that accompanied her on the original voyage, each one evoking a memory of home. As Ava listens to how Granny built a life for herself in England, determined to stay against the odds and despite overwhelming homesickness, she realises that there is a hero very close to home that she wants to celebrate - her very own brave and beloved granny.
Borrow Granny Came Here on the Empire Windrush from Barnet Libraries
The Elemental Detectives (2022)
Step into a London lit up by the Elemental spirits: the fiery Dragons, the airy Fumis, the watery Chads and the earthbound Magogs. But humans have been causing chaos for centuries, trampling through the landscape trailing noise, mess and pollution. What if the Elements could slow down this new world - or stop it all together? The revenge-fuelled Shepherdess, who moves between the everyday and the supernatural London worlds, is the perfect weapon. She brings a sleeping sickness down on the city with the destruction of society in her sights.
Borrow The Elemental Detectives from Barnet Libraries
Our Story Starts in Africa (2022)
When Paloma goes to visit her family in Trinidad, she doesn't feel that she fits in. But Tante Janet has a story to tell her: An ancient story of warrior queens and talking drums, of treasures and tales that span thousands of years - a story that Paloma shares in, because her story starts in Africa, too. Join Tante and her inquisitive niece as they share the story of how her family came to the Caribbean, through the dark days of colonization and slavery, to the emergence of a thriving, contemporary community of many faces, places and successes.