The First Year
Age 9+
Poetry
From award-winning poet, Matt Goodfellow comes the eagerly awaited sequel to best-selling verse novel, The Final Year
Nate’s eleven and has just finished Primary School. After a challenging final year, life is looking up. His brother has recovered from a life-threatening heart condition, he’s got the love of his mum, brothers and Auntie San, and he’s off to Secondary School with his two best mates. While he’s finding his feet in a new school with high expectations, new friends and avoiding the focus and fists of Turner, his old nemesis; an unexpected arrival turns his whole world upside-down. As The Beast - the anger he tries so hard to control - reappears, will Nate find a way to keep himself and his family together?
Creators
Now a multi award winning full-time poet, Matt Goodfellow's debut novel, told in verse, The Final Year, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, for middle-grade readers, won The CLiPPA Award for Children’s Poetry 2024 and the Children’s Book Award for Older Readers 2024 (Federation of Children’s Book Groups) amongst many others. He is also the author of Caterpillar Cake, illustrated by Krina Patel-Sage and shortlisted for the CLiPPA award in 2022, Shu-Lin’s Grandpa, illustrated by Yu Rong and shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2022 and a contributor to CLiPPA-shortlisted poetry collection Being Me: Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings, all published by Otter-Barry Books.
Joe Todd-Stanton grew up in Brighton and has a first class degree in Illustration from UWE, Bristol. He is a widely acclaimed author and illustrator of picture books and graphic novels including The Secret of Black Rock and The Comet. He illustrated the award-winning The Final Year, by Matt Goodfellow. His latest book is Luna and the Treasure of Tlaloc, published in 2024. He lives in London.
