A prolific author, Barbados-born Londoner Malorie Blackman has recently become the first black British writer to have her book sales pass the one million mark. She is one of the United Kingdom’s leading authors of literature for children and young adults.

A graduate of Goldsmith’s-University of London, Blackman books include Noughts and Crosses, Cloud Busting, Hacker, Thief, Boys Don’t Cry, Pig-Heart Boy, A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E., and the forthcoming Deadly Dare (2012). Hacker and Thief won the Young Telegraph/Fully Booked Award. She is the first author to have won it twice and she is the only black writer whose work is included in the top 100 of the nation’s favorite books in the BBC’s The Big Read. Her Noughts and Crosses was adapted for the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company, making Blackman the first black British woman with that honor.

Itzcaribbean.com states: “Her brilliant trilogy Noughts and Crosses set in a world where racial roles are reversed. A dramatic tale of love and social politics, with the white people as the underclass. Sephy, a privileged black ‘Cross’ girl, falls in love with a poor white ‘Nought’ boy, Callum. It is reminiscent of a satirical Romeo and Juliet, exploring the social consequences in this reversed reality. Her writing is sometimes shocking, yet full of compassion, depth and social understanding, offering a positive message to all those that read her work. Her book sales have been steadily increasing, and she is leading the way for more black British writers.”

Description of Noughts and Crosses (by Jackie Kay): Like Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story, Noughts and Crosses is a thought-provoking and challenging work.  In a world where “black and white are right and wrong,” Malorie Blackman forces us to think about race in a totally different and unusual way. The star-crossed love affair between a Nought and a Cross is a compelling modern tragedy. Noughts and Crosses is a moving, disturbing, sometimes distressing, novel. By turning the world upside down, Malorie Blackman makes her readers see things even more clearly.

Description of Deadly Dare: Deadly Dare includes three gripping mysteries—Deadly Dare (On the night Ricky does his dare and enters the deserted warehouse, he disappears. What really happened to Ricky – and how much does new girl Angela know?); Computer Ghost (There’s nothing unusual about getting emails from your dad . . . unless he died a few months ago. Theo, Ricky and Angela help Jade find out what’s going on); and Lie Detectives (Theo, Ricky and Angela need to uncover the truth about top inventor, Darius Marriott, after he comes to give a talk at school and collapses.)

For full reviews, see http://www.itzcaribbean.com/books-writers-malorie-blackman.php, http://www.longlongtimeago.com/llta_bookreviews_noughts_and_crosses.html  and http://teenagefiction.wordpress.com/2006/12/21/noughts-and-crosses-by-malorie-blackman/

See more on her work at http://www.amazon.co.uk/malorie-blackman-Books/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3AMalorie%20Blackman&page=1

See more information (and author’s photo) at http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=1160