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Press Release

John Connolly's "The Gates" (H&S) shortlisted for Bisto Children's Book of the Year Award24/03/2010

The Gates by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton) has been shortlisted for the Bisto Children's Book of the Year Award. This is the most prestigious children's literary award in Ireland.

The Bisto Children’s Book of the Year Awards are presented annually in recognition of excellence in writing and/or illustration of books for young people. The awards are administered by Children’s Books Ireland, the national organisation for children’s books and sponsored by Bisto gravy. The winners of the Awards will be announced at a reception in Dublin on Monday, 24 May 2010.

THE SHORTLIST

An Gréasaí Bróg agus na Sióga – Catríona Hastings and Andrew Whitson
Chalkline – Jane Mitchell
Colm and the Lazarus Key – Kieran Mark Crowley
Gluaiseacht – Alan Titley
Lincoln and his Boys – PJ Lynch
Solace of the Road – Siobhan Dowd
The Eyeball Collector – F.E. Higgins
The Gates – John Connolly
The Third Pig Detective Agency – Bob Burke
There – Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick
 

Synopsis of The Gates

A strange novel for strange young people.

Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund Boswell are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Hallowe'en. Which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Avenue.

The Abernathys don't mean any harm by their flirtation with Satanism. But it just happens to coincide with a malfunction in the Large Hadron Collider that creates a gap in the universe. A gap in which there is a pair of enormous gates. The gates to Hell. And there are some pretty terrifying beings just itching to get out . . .

Can Samuel persuade anyone to take this seriously? Can he harness the power of science to save the world as we know it?