The Tale of Truthwater Lake: 'Absolutely gorgeous.' Hilary McKay

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Emma Carroll is a household name when it comes to children’s fiction, and children’s historical fiction in particular. Living with the kindly Blackwell family, she relies on her close friendship with Lena, an Indian girl who has been sent to Syndercombe to recover from TB. Poignantly in 2032 there are regular extremes of temperature and the Government imposes lockdowns when the temperature rises too high. She is transported back 80 years and relives Nelly’s story, a brave young girl who loves swimming so much she wants to be the first child to swim the channel.

Polly fears deep water, but when she ventures out into the hot night for a cautious swim, she finds an old door handle at the lake’s edge. The main characters are from dissimilar cultures, but their stories tell how their dreams and vulnerabilities are the same. In the too-hot, climate-changed summer of 2032, Polly and her brother are packed off to a favourite aunt who lives by an artificial lake, a reservoir which flooded the Devon valley and village of Syndercombe in 1952.She has been nominated for and the winner of numerous national, regional and schools awards – including the Books Are My Bag Readers’ Award, Branford Boase, CILIP Carnegie Medal, Young Quills, Teach Primary and the Waterstones Book Prize. Unusually, the story begins 10 years in the future where the impact of climate change is putting a strain on the planet. Nellie and her best friend Lena have been taken in by the kindly Ma and Pa Blackwell, Lena has been sent from London to recover from TB in the fresh farm air, and Nellie is living with them after the death of her mother.

Chosen as a Book of the Month by Nicola Penfold - " Emma Carroll takes us thirty years into the future and a summer of record-breaking temperatures. Mine are the long-legged variety) The hairy one is Olive, named after the main character in Letters from the Lighthouse. Whilst at the lake Polly accidentally ends up in 1952 – before the village under the lake was flooded to make the reservoir. This review was written by Ann Alston Ann Alston has worked as a lecturer/senior lecturer in children's literature at the University of the West of England, Bristol for over 15 years. I quickly got lost in the story and the descriptive narrative built a picture of rhe characters in my head.Emma Carroll's new historical fiction novel, The Tale of Truthwater Lake, is a time-slip adventure that takes us back to post-war Britain to explore a near-future and climate change. The winners of The Farshore Reading for Pleasure Teacher Awards 2023, highlighting the work schools are doing to encourage a love of reading, have.

Why did you decide to explore the effects of climate change by glimpsing into a near future in this story? This is such a brilliant, timely and thought-provoking story that completely absorbed me as I followed the friends plans for their Channel swimming challenge, the drowning of a village, and Polly’s discoveries in her present … such incredible secrets revealed … and the most wonderful heart-warming ending.Your debut children's book, Frost Hollow Hall, was published by Faber Children's Books a decade ago. Nellie’s story gives life to a community which lost its home in the creation of a reservoir, so the irreversible consequences of environmental change also link these children past and present. A stay with their aunt Jess on the banks of Truthwater Lake reservoir promises a break for them both. We're celebrating ten years of writing historical fiction by author Emma Carroll and exploring her brilliant new time-slip novel, The Tale of Truthwater Lake, which takes us from a near-future affected by climate change back into the past, to post-war Britain, at a time when the country's reservoirs were being built.

The Tale of Truthwater Lake is a gripping time-slip adventure which blends the past and the near-future perfectly in a story of enduring friendship, courage and resilience.She published her book on Family in English Children's Literature in 2008, and has co-edited with Cathy Butler, collections of critical essays on Children's Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century (2019) and Roald Dahl (2012). When a champion swimmer visits her club, she realises she just might have a chance – unless a new boy and his family succeed in taking everything away from her. Nellie is a wonderful character, strong and stubborn, with a determination to achieve her dreams and goals. The story evolves around the summer period when Polly and her brother go to stay with their aunt and discover the tale of a newarby village that was immersed underwater in the 1950s and the creation of a reservoir.