Discovering Bravery: Beyond the Stars. Niamh Sharkey

a haven of the imagination – my love letter to Fighting Words if you like. I hope they will allow me to continue to be a small part of the magic for many years to come. A huge thank you must also go to Roddy Doyle and Sean Love for their help with this book.

      Beyond the Stars would not exist without the superstar writers and illustrators behind this collection – all of whom said yes to contributing without hesitation. Yes, Chris Haughton, it was a little like “herding cats” at times, but very cool and lovely cats! Thanks to the team: Roddy Doyle and Steve Simpson; Derek Landy and Alan Clarke; John Boyne and Paul Howard; Judi Curtin and Chris Judge; Eoin Colfer and Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick; Marita Conlon-McKenna and P. J. Lynch; Michael Scott and Chris Haughton; Gordon Snell and Michael Emberley; Celine Kiernan and Tatyana Feeney; Oisín McGann; Siobhán Parkinson and Olwyn Whelan; and finally, Niamh Sharkey, who illustrated our competition-winner Emma Brade’s story. Mammoth thanks also to Ruth Alltimes, Mary Byrne and their supernova team at HarperCollins Children’s Books for their hard work and support of what is a highly unusual project. And to my wonderful agent, Philippa Milnes-Smith, for her hand-holding and enthusiasm for the book.

      As the Irish writer Oscar Wilde once said: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” With your wonderful work for this collection, you have all reached for the stars, and ‘Beyond’. Together, we have created a glowing universe of space dogs and ice queens, invisible cats and warriors brave.

      Now it is up to you, dear reader, to continue the journey. Read the magical stories within these pages and let your imagination fly.

       Sarah Webb

      

      Competition winner Emma Brade is fourteen and lives in Ormskirk, Lancashire. She loves art, reading, music and writing. She has previously had some poetry published but this is the first time one of her short stories has ever made it into a book. Since Emma wants to be an author when she’s older she was very delighted to have won – though also a little shocked!

      Niamh Sharkey is a picture-book maker based in Dublin. Her books have won numerous awards, including the Mother Goose Award and the CBI/Bisto Book of the Year Award. Her books have also been translated into over twenty languages. Niamh was Ireland’s second Children’s Laureate.

      “Be brave for me. I know you can do it. You just have to believe, that’s all.”

      Ruka opened her eyes. She hung on to her brother’s words, just in case they grew wings and fluttered away from her memory. As she lay in bed, she imagined they were written on the ceiling; stuffed inside the blanket that kept her warm; whispered by the chilly, morning wind. “Be brave for me. I know you can do it.”

      It had been almost a year since Rowan Brown had disappeared. To Ruka, he was more than an older brother; he was her best friend and her only ally. She could still remember his smiling face, the stories he would tell her when she was bored and the warm hugs he would give her whenever she cried. But one day, he went out hunting in the woods and never came back. The whole village had tried looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found.