The Mennyms

Sylvia Waugh's extraordinary debut novel about the Mennyms, a family of life-sized rag dolls, won the 1994 Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award

Sylvia Waugh lives in Gateshead. She taught English at a local school for many years but has now given up teaching to devote her time to writing. She has three grown up children and two grandsons.

From the outside, 5 Brocklehurst Grove looks like an ordinary house - the windows are always clean, and the garden well tended. And from the inside, to hear the voices of the inhabitants, the Mennym family, you would think they were a perfectly ordinary family, too. But you'd be wrong, for the Mennyms are far from ordinary. The whole family shares an astonishing secret behind which it's hidden for forty years; a secret to which nobody has ever come close - until perhaps, now. When a letter arrives from Australia, the whole family is plunged into fear that now, for the first time, their secret is about to be exposed . . . 
 
Sylvia Waugh's extraordinary debut novel about the Mennyms, a family of life-sized rag dolls, won the 1994 Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

Mennyms In The Wilderness

The follow-up to Sylvia Waugh's award-winning debut, The Mennyms.

The Mennyms are faced with a crisis when plans to build a motorway straight through their home are announced. They've successfully survived living on Brocklehurst Road for forty years, carefully keeping the secret of their rag doll identity under wraps. But news of the motorway forces them to confront a cruel ultimatum: they can be destroyed with the house, or they can move out into the countryside. Either way the consequences will be devastating . . .

Mennyms Under Siege

The third story in Sylvia Waugh's award-winning Mennyms sequence.

The best of the books to date . . . remarkable

Pilbeam, the Mennyms' eternal teenager, is in a rebellious mood. Staying inside all the time is driving her crazy and she's fed up with leading the sheltered life vital for the survival of the Mennyms. One fateful night, Pilbeam throws caution to the wind and goes out to the theatre - and in doing so threatens her own safety and the very existence of her whole, rag doll family. . .

Mennyms Alone

The penultimate story in the award-winning MENNYMS sequence about a life-size family of rag dolls.

The Mennym family faces its most awesome struggle yet when the family patriarch, Sir Magnus, predicts the unthinkable - that their world is about to end. Suddenly it's all change and the simple, hermit-like life of the rag doll family is galvanised into action as they prepare for their fate. Is Sir Magnus's astonishing prediction of doom just the pessimism of old age - or is this really the end of the line for the Mennyms?

Mennyms Alive

The final chapter in Sylvia Waugh's beloved and acclaimed sequence about a family of rag dolls, the Mennyms.

The Mennyms have always lived in danger, ever since their maker, Kate Henshaw, instilled in them an indomitable life force, a life force that has carried them through many perils. But now with shocking suddeness, that life force has abandoned them all except for Soobie - the sole survivor. As the blue Mennym he's always been a bit special, and it's amazing he's come this far when others have perished . . . but are Soobie's problems just beginning?

Who Goes Home?

The final gripping novel in the Ormingat Trilogy. Someone needs to return to the peaceful planet of Ormingat, but who? Steven? Matthew and Alison? Jacob . . . ?

Like Patrick in Space Race and Matthew and Alison in Earthborn, Steven is a visitor from Ormingat, living on Earth with his family for a designated number of years. But Steven is not merely an observer, he is an arranger, a facilitator with the power to direct attention away from any Ormingatriga who needs protection. When his earthly son Jacob is born with a fatal immune deficiency, Steven requests help from Ormingat in order to save his life and as a result the boy survives, but grows up surrounded by a protective shield without friends. When Steven is forced to tell Jacob of his identity and involve him in his work, Jacob resents his father's imposition. Then comes the debacle of the Derwents' accident and Nesta's flight from home, which both bring undesired publicity and the danger of detection to the Ormingat aliens. Steven, summoned to return early to the mother planet, does not want to go. If he returns he must abandon his earth wife, Lydia. And where does all this leave unhappy Jacob who makes contact not only with Mrs Dalrymple but also Nesta's family in York? A strong conclusion to the trilogy, uniting the plots from the earlier books - with a surprising and dramatic finale.

Earthborn

The keeping-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat sequel to Space Race

The Gwynns, a pleasant American couple, have lived outside York for the past fourteen years. Nesta, their only child, was born there and attends the local school. They seem ordinary enough and comfortable in their leafy suburb. But they have an astonishing secret unknown even to Nesta. One evening when she sees her father diminish and disappear into a stone lily pad in the garden pond, Nesta has to be told what she really is. Her parents are visitors from the planet Ormingat, sent to Earth to investigate life there. Now they have been ordered to return home. Nesta can`t take it all in, refuses to accept that she is not earthborn and finally runs away with the help of her best school mate, Amy.

Space Race

For almost as long as he can remember, Tom has lived happily in Belthorp. When his father breaks the unbelievable news that their family come from the planet Ormingat and must go back there, Tom is devastated. Apart from the wrench of leaving home, insuperable difficulties stand in their way as they try to reach their return ship.

Sylvia Waugh

From the outside, 5 Brocklehurst Grove looks like an ordinary house - the windows are always clean, and the garden well tended. And from the inside, to hear the voices of the inhabitants, the Mennym family, you would think they were a perfectly ordinary family, too. But you'd be wrong, for the Mennyms are far from ordinary. The whole family shares an astonishing secret behind which it's hidden for forty years; a secret to which nobody has ever come close - until perhaps, now. When a letter arrives from Australia, the whole family is plunged into fear that, for the first time, their secret is about to be exposed . . .

Sylvia Waugh

Praise for The Mennyms

An extraordinary book - a classic

A wise and witty book

A remarkable achievement

An extraordinary book - a classic

A wise and witty book

A remarkable achievement

An extraordinary book - a classic

A wise and witty book

A remarkable achievement

Books by Sylvia Waugh

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