Carnegie medal 2010 shortlist

Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains is a carefully researched historical novel. As the American Revolutionary War begins, 13-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, find themselves the property of New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel Photograph: PR Photograph: guardian.co.uk A prequel to his Mortal Engines quartet, which describes a frightening future world where cities literally swallow each other. Fever Crumb is set a generation earlier, when cities are just beginning to devour each other. Is the mystery of Fever, adoped daughter of Dr Crumb, the key to the secret that lies at the heart of London? Read Frank Cottrell Boyce's review Photograph: PR Photograph: guardian.co.uk In Terry Pratchett's Nation, Mau, a young South Sea islander, returns from a rite-of-passage to find his whole society ripped away by a tidal wave. In its place has been left Daphne, a very correct young English girl; and the two negotiate a series of major misunderstandings as they struggle to understand each other. Read Frank Cottrell Boyce's review Photograph: PR Photograph: guardian.co.uk Set in an austere settlement north of the Arctic Circle, Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick follows the newly orphaned Sig, as he attempts to find a way of defending himself against a murderous giant while remaining true to his mother's pacifist religion. Read Mary Hoffman's review Photograph: PR Photograph: guardian.co.uk Julie Hearn's Rowan the Strange is set in Kent, soon after the outbreak of the second world war. Rowan, or "Ro", has been committed to a lunatic asylum aged just 13 after a period of disturbed behaviour. He finds himself the patient of Dr von Metzer, who is carrying out pioneering tests with a technology for which he has high hopes: electro-convulsive therapy. Read Philip Ardagh's review Photograph: PR Photograph: guardian.co.uk The Ask and the Answer is the second volume of Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy, following the Guardian children's fiction prize winner The Knife of Never Letting Go. This volume returns to the story of Todd and Viola, living at the mercy of the ruthless Mayor Prentiss and his army. A resistance group led by healer Mistress Coyle, The Ask, plot a war between the sexes, leaving Todd and Viola pulled in painfully opposing directions Photograph: PR Photograph: guardian.co.uk Helen Grant's debut novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, is seen through the eyes of precociously perceptive 10-year-old Pia, who observes the damage wrought by a small community's rumour mill as she sets out to find out what has happened to her eponymous classmate Read Laura Wilson's review Photograph: PR Photograph: guardian.co.uk Neil Gaiman's spooky tale of a boy who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his parents and sister are murdered by a serial killer, has already won America's major children's fiction prize, the Newbery medal, as well taking the Locus young adult award, the Booktrust teenage prize and the Hugo best novel prize. It also appears on the Carnegie's sister prize, the Kate Greenaway medal for illustration – the first time a book has made both shortlists for 30 years. Read Patrick Ness's review here Photograph: PR Photograph: guardian.co.uk