Mosse and Rankin write for World Book Day

Bestselling authors compose stories for struggling readers

Kate Mosse and Ian Rankin are among the authors who have written books for struggling adult readers, it was announced today. The short, simply-written books will be published next spring as part of the Quick Reads initiative, to coincide with World Book Day.

"It's one of the hardest things I've ever done but it's been very, very interesting," Mosse told the Guardian. She explained that writing the book in line with the Quick Reads guidelines, which demand very short sentences and no words longer than two syllables, was an "enormous challenge … it might be called a Quick Read but it's been far from a quick write for me."

Crime author Ian Rankin has also written a new book for Quick Reads: his A Cool Head is the story of a young man Gravy who finds himself caught in the middle of a robbery gone wrong. Other contributors include John Boyne with The Dare, told from the perspective of a 12-year-old boy whose mother hits a child with her car, and a book from the Dragons' Den entrepreneurs about finding success. Jacqueline Wilson has written an introduction for a title about getting your child to read, while Murder Most Famous winner and Coronation Street actress Sherrie Hewson has contributed her debut thriller, The Tannery.

Mosse's The Cave takes place in southwest France, the setting for her multi-million selling novels Labyrinth and Sepulchre. Set in 1928, it tells the story of a young man, Frederick Smith, on holiday in the area. Smith, grieving over the death of his brother in the first world war, is forced off the road during a violent storm. He then meets a mysterious young woman, who tells him about how in 1328 the Cathar villagers of the region were forced to hide from soldiers in a cave.

"For readers of Labyrinth and Sepulchre this is similar territory, but what I wanted to do was make available for emerging readers the sort of fiction I write," Mosse said. "I was inspired by a piece of history I'd read which I'd not been able to use in Labyrinth or Sepulchre. I hadn't completely decided whether Sepulchre would be the end of my writing about southwest France, but this has made me realise that there will probably be a third book in the Languedoc trilogy."

She described the Quick Reads programme as "fantastic and important", and said she had been delighted to be asked to contribute: "The idea of producing a book for adults as part of a literacy programme, rather than saying to them 'here, read a children's book', seems so logical and sensible."

Next year will be the fourth year of Quick Reads, with sales of previous titles now exceeding three quarters of a million copies, according to organisers. The 2009 list is rounded out by a new Doctor Who book The Sontaran Games, Gervase Phinn's All These Lonely People, Catrin Collier's saga Black-Eyed Devils and Reaching for the Stars: How you can make your dreams come true by Lola Jaye. The books are all out on World Book Day on March 5 next year, priced at £1.99.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/18/rankin.mosse.worldbookday
www.theguardian.com
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