The Folk Keeper - Franny Billingsley

Corinna Stonewall is fifteen years old and an orphan. She is also Rhysbridge Foundling Home's Folk Keeper - a difficult and dangerous job which consists of looking after and controlling 'the Folk' - spiteful, maverick, savage creatures who live in the cellar and will only be prevented from spoiling the milk, terrifying the livestock and other disruptions by gifts of cream, salt pork and similar luxuries. But there are many questions about Corinna. Who are her parents? Why does her hair grow two inches a night? Why is she always drawn to the sea and long for the sweet taste of fish?

Franny's first novel for Bloomsbury, The Folk Keeper, was awarded many US prizes including Notable Children's Book and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Best Book of the Year (School Library Journal). Franny lives in her home town of Chicago with her husband and two children. She was a children's book buyer for over ten years, but now writes full time.

'The Folk Keeper glows with colours . . . abounds with lovely passages . . . artfully plotted and melodically written'
New York Times