Fiction

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UK Writer

Simon Mayo

Itch

Corgi Books  2013         $19.99pb         422p

ISBN 978 0 5525 6550 9

Themes:  Chemistry/ Funny stories/ Series/ Periodic table/ Secondary School life

Long-listed for The Carnegie Medal 2013

Fourteen-year-old Itch (short for Itchingham) is a bit of an outsider; loves chemistry and has decided to collect all the elements in the periodic table.  Then, one day he discovers a new element, never seen before and he finds he is being hunted by some sinister heavies.  This is a fast moving story, hard to stop reading and should be popular, particularly with boys from around 10 up.  This is the writer’s first book and he tells the story with a light touch.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Simon Mayo lives in London where he works as a radio presenter of book and film reviews.

Watch out for Itch Rocks coming soon.

My copy fell to pieces after two enthusiastic and not particularly gentle 10 year olds had read it. It looks like that old, was it called, Skira binding where the pages are just glued to the spine? You might want to see if you can reinforce it in some way because it WILL get heavy use,