When I Was Joe

When I Was Joe

Brilliant thriller debut from exciting new author!

When Ty witnesses the knife murder of another boy he identifies some very dangerous people and the police put him and his mother into hiding in a witness protection scheme. Over the coming months, Ty becomes Joe, is given a new look and starts at a new school. To his surprise, he finds he is attracting the attention of the girls in his class, and the boys find his need to conceal his real identify cool- being Joe is not so bad. His ability as a runner is spotted and he starts training under a college student. Somehow Joe keeps drawing attention to himself despite his efforts to remain anonymous. Then his beloved grandmother back in London is badly injured in an attack designed to flush Ty out of hiding and demonstrates a relentless determination to silence him. This wonderfully gripping and intelligent novel movingly depicts Ty/Joe's confusing sense of identity in extreme danger- a remarkable debut from a great new writing talent.

Explores highly topical issues of knife crime and witness protection
Through-provoking rich in plot, characters and themes
Comparable with award-winning novels by Anne Cassidy and Sophie McKenzie.

Keren David started her career as an apprentice reporter on Fleet Street and worked her way up to news editor and then commissioning editor on The Independent. She and her family then went to live in Amsterdam for eight years where she was editor in chief of a photo-journalism agency. On retuning to the UK in 2007 she decided to attend a course on writing for children at the City University. When I Was Joe started out as a project for that course. She lives in London with her husband and two children and is currently writing a sequel to When I Was Joe.

When I Was Joe
Macmillan
Author: Keren David
ISBN: 9781847801005
Price: $16.95