Ally Kennen


Ally Kennen is a British author of adventure novels for children and teens. Some of her books have been marketed as thrillers and they may be classed as horror fiction.
She was born in Somerset and grew up on a farm in the Exmoor region of South West England. She studied Archaeology and History at the University of Birmingham.

Writer

Kennen's first book, Beast, was created during a Master of Arts program in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. It was published by Marion Lloyd Books in 2006 and the British librarians named it one of six finalists for the annual Carnegie Medal, which recognises the year's best children's book published in the UK The judges recommended it for readers age 12 and up.
Her fourth book, Sparks, published by Marion Lloyd in 2010, was one of eight books on the longlist for that year's Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The Prize is judged by a panel of children's writers and it annually recognises one new British children's novel by an author who has not won it. The judges recommended Sparks for readers age 9 and over. According to their summary, the adventure novel features three children who decide to follow their deceased grandfather's unusual instructions regarding his funeral. The mission sets them against the adults in the family and against the law.
Two years later Kennen made the Guardian Prize longlist again with Bullet Boys, published by Scholastic in 2012. It had been The Guardian newspaper's "teen book of the month" for March, initiated by Anthony McGowan's review and by Kennen's account, "How I wrote Bullet Boys".

Works

Beast won the 2007 Manchester Book Award.
Berserk won a 2008 North East Teenage Book Award.
Kennen has been nominated for many other annual book awards.