F O R I M M E D I AT E R E L E A S E

by

Sally Gardner

illustrated by Julian

Crouch

Living under the dictates of a ruthless regime, a teenager risks all to expose the truth about a heralded moon landing.
On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesnt want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell sees things differently from the rest of the traintrack thinkers. So when he and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And its big. One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting. Sally Gardner is an award-winning author whose novels have sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.K. and have been translated into twenty-two languages. She is dyslexic and is an avid spokesperson for dyslexia, arguing in part that it can be a gift. Sally Gardner lives in London. Julian Crouch is a director and designer whose career has spanned theater, opera, film, and television. He is currently designing Big Fish for Broadway and Cinderella for the Dutch National Ballet. Julian Crouch lives in Brooklyn, New York.

On sale February 12, 2013

HC: 978-0-7636-6553-1 $16.99 288 pages Age 12 and up
Illustrations 2012 by Julian Crouch

A Q&A with author SALLY GARDNER

Why did you choose to write the novel in one hundred short chapters? What kind of impact do you hope this format will have on the reader? We live in a day and age where things happen so quickly, where information comes to us in small fragments so its almost the best way to keep peoples attention. Also, this story is being told in thought, in Standishs head, and my thoughts come in short, sharp moments, so the short chapters more closely reflect someone who is retelling the past in his head. Maggot Moon includes some really provocative black-and-white illustrations that also work as a flip book throughout. How does adding this kind of art change or add to the story? As a former illustrator, I often think the best pictures are those that represent the abstract thought behind the story the essence of it but not a literal interpretation. The bold pictures in Maggot Moon work in what I call the slipstream of the writing, and Im thrilled with Julians work. His illustrations really enhance the narrative, the idea of the cycle. Ive always admired him as an artist. Can you tell us about Maggot Moons main character, Standish Treadwell? What role does his dyslexia play in the story? Standish has been very lovingly brought up, and hes a loving young man, a sensitive young man. He was a joy to write. Standishs dyslexia is vital to him its his whole being. Dyslexia is a way of thinking. As a severely dyslexic person myself, I wanted to try to show what dyslexia is like without the use of bad spelling, as it so often is portrayed. I wanted to show through Standish how a dyslexic person thinks and perceives the world. Bad spelling is not what dyslexia is; its only a tiny part of it. Hector is not dyslexic in any way, and hes very clever, but he lacks Standishs imagination and vision, and hes aware of that. Standish knows he sees things differently from most people, but he doesnt know he has the immense courage in him to do what he does. My grandfather, who fought in the First World War, told me that many men who spoke like lions about what they were going to do turned into shaking jelly, frozen when the order arrived to go over the parapet. Those who had been fearful that they wouldnt be able to do it, shaking beforehand, turned out to be unbelievably brave when the order came. My grandfather said you never know until youre there whether you can do it. I want that to be very much the case with Standish.
Photo by Max Knight

As someone who grew up with dyslexia, in what ways does Standishs story mirror your own? Very much so in the sense of being overlooked, misunderstood by the school system the students and the teachers and suffering from bullying and being thought of as stupid. In my case, the nickname was Silly Sally. Standish is very canny, as hes worked out that to look bright in Zone 7 would be a mistake. Hes clever to have survived as long as he has. I think this reflects what happens to lots of dyslexic people; they manage to hide it away at school and through life. Standish lives in his head when hes at school, and that is something I also did to survive. I told myself huge, complicated stories when I couldnt read or write (which, in turn, helped me to become a writer). The difference is that Standishs story comes to a reality that hes faced with, a brutal one he cannot escape. I have been much luckier. What are some of the key components of the Motherland? Where did you get your inspiration for this type of dystopian universe? I did a lot of research on the Second World War for a book I was writing called The Double Shadow. I became fascinated with the what if? histories I found. What if things had been different? Winston Churchill was hit by a car on Fifth Avenue in New York. What if he hadnt survived? Or what if Hitler hadnt survived when he was hit by a car driven by Englishman John Scott-Ellis? This planted the seed for writing an alternative history a fable if you like. The Motherland is essentially any tyrannical dictatorship the reader chooses to make it. It doesnt, in my humble opinion, take long for any political system to turn oppressive. The essence of it is that it is fueled by fear, by the regimes using divisions, zones, work camps, surveillance, and propaganda so that it becomes a place where people are too scared to ask questions. What do you hope readers will learn by accompanying Standish on his journey to the other side of the wall? I never really want anyone to learn anything from my books. If they do, that is wonderful. Im not out to preach; Im out to tell a good story, a story that asks questions, and I hope that it becomes an engine for more questions. It would be fantastic if Standish helped people to look at dyslexia in a different light. That is something I hope this book can achieve in some way. But really I just want it to encourage people to ask more questions, to remember that we need to be vigilant about democracy, not complacent about it, because it is so easy to destroy it. The question is king; the answer is just an engine for another question.

Illustration 2012 by Julian Crouch