9 0 1 00

9 781 509 801 12 1

ISBN 978-1-5098-0112-1

UK £9.99

That’s one seven-letter word I wish didn’t exist. Fifty points extra or not.

Scrabble genius Finlay McIntosh is a different lad to the one his mother left behind. One day she was there, the next she was gone.

And his dad won’t even mention her name. All Finlay has to remember her by is a bag of

letter tiles and an empty journal. Then a chance remark by a mysterious new

player he meets online changes everything. Has he stumbled on to a major clue that could

help him find his missing mother? Finlay will do whatever it takes to find out the truth. But can he find his voice . . .

before it’s too late?

Kim Slater honed her storytelling skills as a child, writing macabre tales specially designed to scare her younger brother! Taking her literary inspiration from

everyday life, Kim’s debut novel, Smart, has won four regional prizes and been

shortlisted for over sixteen regional and national awards, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Federation

of Children’s Book Groups Prize.Smart was also longlisted for the 2015

Carnegie Medal. Kim lives in Nottingham with her husband and has one grown-up daughter.

A Seven-Letter Word is Kim’s second novel for Macmillan Children’s Books.

www.kimslater.com

Cover illustration by Helen Crawford-White

The word

migh

b

is still importan

Have you read the award-winning

I have

th

voice — befo

clog up in my mouth,

t what I have to say

o find out who’s telling

truth. I need to find my

e it’s too late.

From the author of Smart - ‘A remarkable first novel’ Guardian