Storm (novella)

Storm (1985) is a children's book by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Alan Marks. It won the Carnegie Medal for 1985.^[1]

Published in the Banana Book series by Heinemann, this can be considered the first title for younger readers to win the Carnegie Medal. There had been some discussion and concern among children's librarians^[2] that during the 1970s and early 1980s the Medal had been going almost exclusively to titles aimed at teenage readers, so this winner was seen as an attempt towards redressing the balance.^[3]

That said, it is not a simple story. The language is deceptively simple: no difficult words are used but the effect is poetic and moving, and the ideas conveyed are anything but simple. Is it a ghost story? Is it a folk legend? Crossley-Holland is a folklore scholar and brings elements of the folk tale, and of the legends of the East Anglian country in which he lived at the time, into this 42-page story of Annie and her adventure on a wild stormy night.

References