Rory Hobble and the Voyage to Haligogen Maximilian Hawker 9781789651256

'This story is full of adventure and heart! A real page turner!' Dani Harmer

'Warm, funny, pacy, endlessly inventive and life-affirming; there are lots of young readers who will identify with Rory' Chris Beckett, Arthur C. Clarke-Award winner

Eleven-year-old Rory Hobble has it tough: he gets upsetting thoughts all the time and they won't go away - 'Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)', the head doctors call it. His mum hasn't been very well for a long while either. Perhaps it's his fault... Maybe that's why she doesn't always feed him; maybe that's why she screams at him. At least Rory has his telescope - gazing at the unchanging stars keeps him calm. But, one night, Rory sees something impossible in the sky: mysterious lights - artificial and definitely not of earthly origin.

When his mum is abducted by the shadowy Whiffetsnatcher, Rory - accompanied by his space-faring, care-experienced social worker, Limmy - travels beyond the Earth, chasing those mysterious lights to the frozen ends of the Solar System. Along the way he must outwit a breakaway human civilisation living on a Martian moon; survive the threat of otherworldly monsters; and learn to speak to alien whales.

But his greatest challenge left Earth with him and it will take all the courage he has not only to overcome his OCD, but to decide whether he wants to rescue an abusive mother if he gets his chance...

Maximilian Hawker works in frontline children's social care in Croydon, where he lives with his wife and two children; he also studies for an MA in Social Work at the University of Greenwich and does work in partnership with the charity OCD Action. He has been a sufferer of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) since he was a child.

In April 2018, his debut novel, Breaking The Foals, was published by Unbound. He has had poetry and short stories - occasionally nominated for awards - appear in publications run by Dog Horn Publishing, Kingston University Press, Arachne Press and Rebel Poetry, among others. He holds an MA by Research in English Literature from Kingston University, where he also studied at undergraduate level, and has previously worked in editing and education.

Twitter: @MaxHawker / Website: www.maximilianhawker.com/

'This story is full of adventure and heart! A real page turner!' Dani Harmer

'Warm, funny, pacy, endlessly inventive and life-affirming; there are lots of young readers who will identify with Rory' Chris Beckett, Arthur C. Clarke-Award winner

'A boy-and-social-worker space-travelling duo... What's not to love?! A truly unique sci-fi adventure, which does not shy away from the difficult realities being faced by some children here on Earth. Uplifting, and at moments so insightful it staggers, it's definitely a story Aniyah from The Star Outside My Window would have picked up' Onjali Q. Rauf, winner of the Blue Peter Book Award 2019 and Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2019