A neurodivergent girl campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different.
Ever since Ms. Murphy told us about the witch trials that happened centuries ago right here in Juniper, I can't stop thinking about them. Those people weren't magic. They were like me. Different like me.
I'm autistic. I see things that others do not. I hear sounds that they can ignore. And sometimes I feel things all at once. I think about the witches, with no one to speak for them. Not everyone in our small town understands. But if I keep trying, maybe someone will. I won't let the witches be forgotten. Because there is more to their story. Just like there is more to mine.
Born: Edinburgh, The United Kingdom
Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Children's
"Hey, I'm Elle. I'm Scottish, autistic and an author/screenwriter who is really bad at logging her reading choices.
I write about autistic girls finding out who they are and what makes them happy, because I'm an autistic girl trying to find out who she is and what makes her happy."
I don't read reviews, as they are for readers, but I'm grateful to any and everyone who engages with my work, on the page or on the screen. My Young Adult Romance debut is called Some Like It Cold in it will be published on the 3rd of October. Official professional shiz below:"
Elle McNicoll is a bestselling and award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her debut, A Kind of Spark, won the Blue Peter Book Award and the Overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, as well as Blackwell’s Book of 2020. She is a four time Carnegie nominated author, and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Awards 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Branford Boase Award 2020 and The Little Rebels Award 2020 and 2021. She was also honoured in the US with the Schneider Award, 2022.
Her second Middle Grade novel, Show Us Who You Are, was Blackwell’s Book of the Month and one of The Bookseller’s Best Books of 2021. Her first fantasy middle grade, Like a Charm, was nominated for Best Children’s Book for Older Readers in the first ever Week Junior Book Awards, and was highly praised in the New York Times.
Her debut novel, A Kind of Spark, has also been adapted for television, which debuted on UK and US screens on the 2nd of April, 2023. It is Emmy nominated and won Best Children’s Programme at the Broadcast Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards in London, 2024 and is now streaming in many territories around the globe. A second season is currently airing on CBBC.
Her debut Middle Grade was named as one of the greatest children’s books of all time, coming in at number 75, and she is twice nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
Her YA debut, Some Like It Cold, will be published on October 1st (US) and October 3rd (UK). She is an advocate for better representation of neurodiversity in publishing, as an autistic and dyspraxic novelist, and currently lives in North London.