"The day is long, the world is wide, you’re young and free."

One hot summer morning, Davie steps boldly out of his front door. The world he enters is very familiar – the little Tyneside town that has always been his home – but as the day passes, it becomes ever more mysterious.

A boy has been killed, and Davie thinks he might know who is responsible. He turns away from the gossip and excitement and sets off roaming towards the sunlit hills above the town.

As the day goes on, the real and the imaginary start to merge, and Davie knows that neither he nor his world will ever be the same again.

This an outstanding novel full of warmth and light, from a multi-award-winning author. David Almond says: "I guess it embodies my constant astonishment at being alive in this beautiful, weird, extraordinary world."

The Colour of the Sun was longlisted for the 2019 Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2018.

"Touches of humor, pithy words of Northern common sense, and moments of heightened tension and mystery provide grounding elements in the midst of the reverie…A haunting tale of embracing transformation and finding beauty in an imperfect world"

Kirkus Reviews

"Through economic prose expressing Davie’s memories and keen observations, the book subtly shows the protagonist’s grief over losing his father and childhood innocence. Spanning only one day, it evokes the mysteriousness of life, the power of imagination, and moments when childhood and adulthood intertwine."

Publishers Weekly

"The Colour of the Sun, told in a trance-like present tense, remans brilliantly suspenseful until the end. …[David Almond] is that rare thing – a writer of lucid, mature elegance, who can still see the world through adolescent eyes."

Emily Bearn, The Daily Telegraph

"Oh, bliddy hell. I don’t know what to say! This is the thing with David Almond. You could spend a year picking tiny little details from his stories so that you can highlight how magical they are. Or you could write about the achingly beautiful way he connects our inner selves with the material world so that what he is writing could be a dream, an event, or both. But whatever you do, it feels as though a review takes away all the magic. I say it often but it’s never so true as when I’m saying it about a book by Almond – you really do have to read it for yourself to understand – …"

Jill Murphy, The Bookbag

Published by Hodder Children’s Books: publication date 3rd May 2018; now also available in paperback.

The US edition, The Color of the Sun, was published by Candlewick Press on September 10, 2019, and is also available as an audiobook read by Richard Halverson.