Synopses & Reviews
Escaping from his violent stepfather, twelve-year-old Sipho heads for Johannesburg, where he has heard that gangs of children live on the streets. Surviving hunger and bitter-cold winter nights is hard'but learning when to trust in the ‘new' South Africa proves even more difficult.
No Turning Back appeared on the short list of both the Guardian and Smarties book prizes on the United Kingdom.
About the Author
Beverly Naidoo grew up in South Africa under the apartheid system. An active resister to apartheid, she lived in her home country until departing to study at the University of York in England. There she began writing in exile and in 1985 published her first children's book, the award-winning
Journey to Jo'burg, which was dedicated to her nanny's two daughters who died from diptheria because only white people were inoculated at the time.
Journey To Jo'burg was banned in South Africa until 1991.
Beverly Naidoo has taught primary and secondary school in London and worked as an Advisor for English and Cultural Diversity in Dorset. She has a Ph.D. in exploring issues of racism with young people through literature and works tirelessly to promote children's entitlement to grow up free from racism and injustice. Her newest novel is The Other Side Of Truth, for which she won an Arts Council of England Writer's Award in 1999 for work-in-progress as well as the Smarties Silver Medal in 2000 and the Library Association's prestigious Carnegie Medal.