'Travel to Skagen and find him. Give him my letter. Seek a better life, Marianne! Promise!' Bound by a vow made to her dying mother, Marianne sells her few belongings and leaves Grimsby. Her destination? Denmark, where she will search for her father, Lars Christensen-the golden-haired fisherman her mother fell in love with many years before. The journey will be long-and dangerous for a young girl travelling alone. As Marianne boards the fishing boat that will carry her across the North Sea, she wonders: will Denmark be the fairy-tale land she has dreamt of? Will she find happiness there? Will the father she has never met welcome the arrival of his illegitimate child? And why didn't he return for her mother, as he promised he would?

 

This book was recognised by the Waterstones Children's Book Award.

There are 320 pages in this book. This book was published 2008 by Oxford University Press .

Marie-Louise Jensen was born in Henley-on-Thames to an English father and Danish mother. She studied Scandinavian and German with literature at the UEA and has lived in both Denmark and Germany. After teaching English at a German university for four years, Marie-Louise returned to England to care for her children full time. She completed an MA in Writing for Young People at the Bath Spa University in 2005. Marie-Louise now lives in Bath, reads, reviews, and writes books for young people, and home educates her two sons. This is her seventh book for Oxford University Press. www. marie-louisejensen. com