Hodder Literature

2 total works

The Hunted

by Alex Shearer

Published 7 January 2005

Children are very precious . . . because they are so rare.

In a future world where people live to be 150, humans have paid the price for their longer lives – the cost being their fertility. Children have become a commodity: they are bought and sold, won and lost, and worst of all, are hunted by the ‘kiddernappers’ keen to make a quick buck on a big sale.

When Deet wins Tarrin in a card game he rents him out to childless couples. They pay for Tarrin to play in their houses, and they pretend he's their child for an hour or two. But as Tarrin gets older, Deet is keen to secure his future, and his interest in ‘The Peter Pan’ operation grows. By having ‘The Peter Pan’, Tarrin would stay a boy forever. He would grow old inside the body of a young boy.

While Tarrin faces a difficult dilemma, someone is watching him. Someone who has plans of his own.

The Great Switcheroonie

by Alex Shearer

Published 14 April 2005

Hodder Literature: an exciting series of literature titles for Key Stage 3 for whole class use. Bill Harris could not be more different from Benny Spinks, the son of a famous footballer and his pop singer wife. Bill knows nothing about football, is never picked for teams and on one occasion scores 6 own goals in a 7-0 defeat. Then, one day, a freak hair-drying incident turns Bill into a Benny Spinks double. Bill is offered look-alike work and so comes to meet Benny. The boys like one another instantly and hatch a plan to swap lives for a day. Confusion follows when both Bill and Benny are kidnapped by rival gangs. However, the boys manage to trick the kidnappers (through a cunning plan involving peanut butter) and each returns to his own life, having learnt something very important about himself. >