Hidden

Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week.

Longlisted for the 2012 CILIP Carnegie Medal.

Shortlisted for the Portsmouth Book Award.

Nominated for the Essex Book Award, Southern Schools Award and Hampshire Book Award.

Junior Library Guild choice (USA).

What would you do for a stranger?

14-year old Alix lives near the beach on Hayling Island. It’s a quiet backwater, far removed from world events such as war, terror and refugees. And Alix has problems of her own.

Her Dad has a new life which doesn’t include her while her Mum is helpless and needy. Then one day on the beach Alix and her school mate Samir pull a drowning man out of the sea. He is an illegal immigrant, desperate not to be deported.
Faced with the most difficult decision of her life, what will Alix do and who can she trust?

Hidden deals with prejudice, judgement, courage and the difficulty of sorting right from wrong in a complex world.

REVIEWS

“This is a book about a serious subject which nonetheless preserves a warmth, comic touch and an optimistic approach. The least likely characters turn out to have hidden, empathetic depths, and the end is a resolution as full of hope as possible. It explores important, sobering topics like torture and the events that drive people to travel across the world to seek refuge, without at any point being bleak'​.” - BookTrust

“A gripping story ... written with clarity and immediacy. This is a book to counter bigotry.” - Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times

“The pace of the narrative carries the reader through the messages about justice and integrity.” - The Observer

‘‘Well written, gritty ... an author who can deal with tough, hard- hitting issues and keep things realistic.” - The Bookbag

“Miriam Halahmy is a truly magnificent author. She makes you think and think.” - Phoebe Ridgway, reader, age 14

RESOURCES & EXTRAS

Hidden has been adapted as a stage play which toured the UK in Autumn 2018. Find out more and watch a video clip.

There’s also lots more to discover, including a series of interviews with Miriam, on the Miriam Halahmy YouTube channel.