Brock

Story

Brock is the story of Nicky, a bullied young boy with a troubled home life who finds a local gang destroying the home of a family of badgers. Can he save the badger pup and beat the bullies?

Why we chose it

In his four books about brothers Nicky and Kenny, Anthony McGowan creates very real characters and situations, telling beautifully crafted stories in spare, poetic prose.

Where it came from

Anthony McGowan is an English writer of stories for adults, young adults, and children, and he also writes articles for a number of newspapers. Growing up, he loved fiction and non-fiction, particularly The Lord of the Rings, Tom’s Midnight Garden, and anything about nature.

The beautiful pen and ink illustrations at the bottom of each page are the work of Staffan Grosspellius, a Swedish printmaker, illustrator, and writer based in London. Along with his book illustration, his work has appeared on television, and engravings of his also featured on the back of the Brixton Pound banknotes.

Brock is one of the books published by Barrington Stoke designed to be dyslexia friendly, with the paper, typeface, and layout all made with dyslexic readers in mind.

Where it went next

Brock was longlisted for the Carnegie and the UKLA prizes in 2014. It was the first in the The Truth of Things series, and was followed by Pike (2015), Rook (2017), and Lark (2020), which won the 2020 Carnegie award.

Associated stories

McGowan writes for children and young adults. His books for children include the Bare Bum Gang and Project X series. His YA book The Knife That Killed Me (2008) was made into a film in 2014 and Henry's Tumour won the Booktrust teenage prize in 2007. He has also written non-fiction, including How to Teach Philosophy to Your Dog (2019).