The Moonlighters Lee Newbery 9780241493557

Peter Pan meets Oliver Twist in the magical new book by rising star Lee Newbery, author of Waterstones Children's Book of the Month, The Last Firefox.

When ten-year-old Theo runs off from a school trip to London's Natural History Museum and decides to pay his gran a surprise visit, he discovers the surprise is on him - his gran is on holiday and Theo finds himself alone in the big city with nowhere to turn.

Enter Alistair Goodfellow, a mysterious, flamboyant young person with a charismatic twinkle in their eye. Alistair offers Theo a room at the Casablanca Lily - by day, a run-down and unloved hotel; by night, a palace of magical wonders.

Each night, Alistair sends their found family of runaways and ne'er-do-wells, the Moonlighters, out into London in search of lost magical artefacts, gifting them their own magical powers as a reward.

Theo is quickly enthralled, but there is more to Alistair than meets the eye, and soon Theo comes to realize that the items Alistair is hunting could be more dangerous than he'd ever imagined . . .

Lee Newbery lives with his son and dog in a seaside town in West Wales. By day he works for an arts charity, helping people to share their stories through creative writing, painting and participatory arts, and by night he sits down at his laptop to write.

Lee enjoys adventuring, drinking ridiculous amounts of tea, and giving his dog a good cuddle - or a cwtch, as they say in Wales. His first book, The Last Firefox, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize.