Rosa by Starlight

From the Costa Award-winning author Hilary McKay, comes the story of a young girl looking for magic in the world, and the feline family who help her to find it.

Rosa lives in a world where she discovers there is magic. It arrives with Balthazar, a large black cat, just when she needs it most. Even so, it takes all her courage to stay hopeful and adventurous when her dreadful aunt and uncle move into her life.

And when she finds herself abandoned in the ancient city of Venice, can magic help her then? Perhaps it can.

The stars are watching, and there are lots of cats in Venice…

About the Author

Hilary McKay is a critically acclaimed award-winning author. She won the Guardian Fiction Prize for The Exiles, and the Smarties and the Whitbread Award for The Exiles in Love and Saffy's Angel respectively. Hilary McKay's Fairy Tales was her first book with Macmillan Children's Books and is a critically acclaimed collection of clever retellings. Her 2018 title, The Skylarks' War, marks the centenary of the end of the First World War and was the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2018. 

About the Illustrator

Keith Robinson has been a freelance illustrator since 2001 and loves illustrating children’s fiction. His work is informed by a love of nature, myth and history, all of which can be found in abundance where he lives, on the Devon-Dorset border. When Keith isn't working he enjoys hiking, camping, beach-combing, playing the guitar and rummaging through second-hand book shops. He lives with his wife and two children in a woodland cottage near the seaside town of Lyme Regis.

Reviews

"A wistful, comforting treasure of a story destined to become a classic." —Emma Carroll, bestselling award-winning author of Letters to the Lighthouse

"Beautiful, captivating, such a joy to read I didn't want it to end!" —Sophie Anderson, bestselling author of The House with Chicken Legs and The Snow Girl

"A magical story, beautifully told and illustrated too. With cats and Venice and – at the end – kindness." —Tom Palmer

"Even in the darkest of times, there are cats and magic and starlight! This is a book to be treasured – I loved it." —Lucy Strange, author of Our Castle by the Sea and The Island at the Edge of the Night

"A charming Ghibli-esque tale of a girl whose only friends are cats. Surprising and magical in equal measures." —M.G. Leonard, bestselling author of The Adventure on Trains Series, The Twitchers series, and The Ice Children

Dimensions: 14.4 x 2.4 x 22.6 cm