The Vanishing of Katharina Linden | TheBookSeekers

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden


School year: Lower 6th, Upper 6th, Year 10, Year 11, Year 9

No. of pages 352

Published: 2009

Great for age 12-18 years

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Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, Helen Grant's first teen novel The Vanishing of Katharina Linden follows a misfit teenager as she attempts to unravel the mystery of several strange disappearances in the small town of Bad Mnstereifel. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden bridges the world of the traditional Grimm fairytale with the darker world of Angela Carter's adult fairytales.On the day Katharina Linden disappears, Pia is the last person to see her. Terror is spreading through the town. How could a ten-year-old girl vanish in a place where everybody knows everybody else?Pia is determined to find out what happened to Katharina.But then the next girl disappears. . .'For something so chilling, it is terrific entertainment' Sunday Times'Grant's splendid debut...is a feast of treats and creeps. Wonderful' Guardian'A strange, haunting modern fairy tale' John Connolly, author of The Book of Lost ThingsThe setting of the small German town of Bad Mnstereifel, in Helen Grant's debut novel The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, is based on her own experience of emigrating there from England as a child. Her other darkly thrilling young adult novels, The Glass Demon and Wish Me Dead, are also available from Penguin.

 

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards

This book has been graded for interest at 13-16 years.

There are 352 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2009 by Penguin Random House Children's UK .

Helen Grant was born in London, and read Classics at St Hugh's College, Oxford. In 2001 she and her family moved to Bad Munstereifel in Germany, and it was exploring the legends of this beautiful town that inspired her to write her first novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden. She now lives in Brussels with her husband, her two children and a small German cat.

 

This book has been nominated for the following awards:

Booktrust Book Awards - Teen
This book was recognised in the Teen category of the Booktrust Book Awards . The Book Trust Book Awards aim to unearth the very best childrens books the UK has to offer, and to honour authors and illustrators who continue Britains proud heritage of storytelling. Heritage catgeoires include: Blue Peter Book Awards, Booktrust Best New Illustrators Award, Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Booktrust Best Book Awards (with Amazon Kindle). Current categories include: Storytime Prize, Lifetime Achievement Aawrd, Children's Laureate.

Carnegie Medal
This book was recognised by the Carnegie Award. The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people.

"Both a wonderful first novel, and a strange, haunting modern fairytale, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden is that rare beast: a book that reawakens in adults the childhood terror of the bogeyman, and confirms for children that the world is an infinitely stranger place than adults might like to pretend . . ." --John Connolly, New York Times author of The Reapers

"The Vanishing of Katharina Linden is a stunning debut with a richly evoked setting, a smart sympathetic heroine, and the best opening line for a novel I've ever read. Helen Grant conjures a tale of evil in rural Germany that would make the Brothers Grimm jealous!' --Rick Riordan, New York Times author of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series

"Dark and deadly as the original Grimm's German folktales, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden hides its menace behind the exquisitely charming narrator, Pia, an unforgettable child of the first order." --Keith Donohue, author of The Stolen Child and Angels of Destruction