What’s Apple and Rain about?

When Apple’s mother returns after 11 years of absence, Apple feels whole again. She will have an answer to her burning question – why did you go? And she will have someone who understands what it means to be a teenager – unlike Nana. But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she left, her mother’s homecoming is bitter sweet, and Apple wonders who is really looking after whom. It’s only when Apple meets someone more lost than she is, that she begins to see things as they really are.

Now watch this!

Find out more about Sarah Crossan and Apple and Rain

An interview with Sarah Crossan
Read an extract of Apple and Rain
Sarah Crossan on why poetry belongs to us all

And now… write your review!

The Guardian young critics competition is for all young readers to share their views on any of the longlisted books. Anyone aged 18 or under can enter by writing a review of no more than 500 words of one of the books longlisted for the prize. Individuals or school/library classes/bookgroups can enter and there are great prizes to be won including all the longlisted books and being invited to the books party of the year, the Guardian children’s fiction prize award ceremony in November. You can find out more and enter the competition here.

You can find out more about all the authors on the Guardian children’s fiction prize book club page links and info will be added as they go live, one author a week for eight weeks!