Feather Boy

Story

Robert Nobel is being bullied at school. He’s never picked for the team and he’s upset about his parents’ divorce. Nothing seems to be going right. When his class visits an old people’s home he begins an unlikely friendship with Edith, an old lady dying of cancer. Edith asks Robert to visit Chance House, a derelict Victorian mansion, to solve a mystery that has long troubled her. It’s said that a boy once fell to his death from an upper window.

To get to the truth Robert must learn what it really means to fly.

Why we chose it

Absorbing, moving and beautifully written, Nicky Singer’s first children’s novel, Feather Boy, was Blue Peter’s Book of the Year in 2002 and has become a modern classic.

By turns funny and sad, mythical and mysterious, this is a book that many readers say they found hard to put down and have never forgotten.

A regular recommendation for anti-bullying week, Feather Boy is chosen by teachers for its empowering conclusion and its sensitive portrayal of a friendship across generations.

Where it came from

Nicky Singer lives in Brighton and has worked in publishing, television and the arts. A keen writer from the age of six, she has written novels for adults and children as well as plays and opera for young people.

Singer was walking by the sea one cold April day when she came across a large abandoned house that she had never noticed before, inspiring a chain of imaginings that became Feather Boy.

Where it went next

Feather Boy was made into series for BBC television, and adapted as a musical for the National Theatre.

Associated stories

Other children’s books by Nicky Singer include The Flask, Knight Crew, Island and The Survival Game.