Becoming Grace

A re-imagining of the incredible tale of Grace Darling (Dyslexia-friendly). Award-winning Hilary McKay brings the childhood of Victorian heroine Grace Darling to life in this heartfelt reimagining of her life up to and including the Forfarshire shipwreck. Grace Darling nearly drowned when she was eight years old, leaving her with a fear of boats and the sea. But it’s a fear she has to overcome as the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, living on the Longstone Rock with her parents, four brothers, three sisters and her beloved dog, Happy. Losses at sea bring shadows to an otherwise idyllic childhood, but everything Grace learns growing up on the coast is put to the test in 1838, when The Forfarshire is wrecked on the Harcar Rock, and she has to row out through the storm to the rescue. Particularly suitable for readers aged 9+ with a reading age of 8.

Hilary McKay is the author of The Exiles, the joint winner of the 1992 Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, and The Exiles at Home which won the Smarties Prize in 1995.