Movies Showing Nowhere

by Yorick Goldewijk, Laura Watkinson (Translator)

Overview

A prizewinning middle grade fantasy adventure about memories, loss and time travel.

2024 The Times Children's Book of the Year

‘Strikingly original…A sensational book…The final, emotional twist is like a kick in the solar plexus…but in a good way’—The Guardian

On the day Cato came into the world, her mother left it. Cato's dad has been a mere shadow of a person ever since, and Cato has given up reaching out to him. When she finds a mysterious card from an abandoned movie theatre and discovers it has reopened, Cato decides to go take a look. There appears to be something strange about the cinema. The movies showing there are no ordinary movies and somehow the cinema seems to be in connection with the past...
Looking for adventure and the truth about her mother, Cato is swept into a dangerous journey through time and memories, straight to a place deep within her heart. A place she had always managed to keep locked away. And then she faces a choice that will change her life, and that of her father, forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782694106
Publisher:	Pushkin Press Limited
Publication date:	10/01/2024
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Yorick Goldewijk is a Dutch author and illustrator, as well as a musician who writes music for films, television and computer games. Movies Showing Nowhere won the Golden Pencil Prize for the best Dutch children's book of the year and was shortlisted for the Flemish Boon Literature Prize.


Laura Watkinson is a full-time, prize-winning translator from Dutch, Italian and German. She lives in Amsterdam.

Editorial Reviews

"A novel that left me sobbing hot tears. In a good way."
—The Times (UK)

From the Publisher

2024-08-03
An inquisitive, offbeat, angry girl becomes a time-travel assistant in this translated Dutch import.

Cate’s mum died in childbirth 12 years ago, leaving Cate with a father who retreats into his own world, leaving her at the mercy of their overbearing, critical neighbor, Cornelia, who cleans for them and tries to get Cate to suppress her feelings. After discovering a mysterious business card her father left on their piano, Cate finds her way to a movie theater that promises “Movies Showing Nowhere!” There, Cate meets the strangely familiar Mrs. Kano, who offers her a job. But this theater doesn’t show traditional films—it gives patrons the chance to venture back to specific moments in their pasts. As Cate becomes a time-mate, accompanying visitors on their trips, she affirms her desire to remain forever curious while learning to sympathize with the people in her own life—and perhaps be kinder to herself, too. Small details threaded throughout the story join together in an ever-expanding interconnected web to deliver a clever tear-jerker of an ending. Cate’s strong sense of justice and her fear of becoming cowardly or dull combine with the pain she feels from not knowing her mother to create a compelling, prickly veneer that explains why she lashes out at times and rings true to a preteen’s growing understanding of the world. All named characters are coded white. Lacet’s poignant art enhances the work.

Quirky, original, and cathartic.(Science fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews