Stealing Happy - Softcover

Conaghan, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1526653982 ISBN 13: 9781526653987

Publisher: Bloomsbury YA, 2025

Synopsis

Loan shark Chick Lennon is notorious around Sonny Gilmour's way, and not for anything good.

So when Sonny discovers his mum has borrowed money from Chick to pay the rent, he finds himself in need of the quickest of get-rich-quick schemes.

With the help of best mate Jonah and quiet genius Carolina Swift, he hatches a plot - to pay back what Mum owes using Chick's own ill-gotten gains. It's not a fool-proof plan, and it's not helped by Sonny's Tourette's making him blurt out 'ROB CHICK LENNON!' at the top of his lungs every time things get dicey.

But with his dad suffering from long Covid and his mum already struggling to cope, Sonny knows it's down to him to keep his family out of Chick's clutches ...

An authentic, funny and heartfelt contemporary YA by multi-award-winning author, Brian Conaghan. Perfect for fans of Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Elle McNicoll

About this title

About the Author

Brian Conaghan lives and works in the Scottish town of Coatbridge. He has a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, and worked as a teacher for many years. His novel When Mr Dog Bites was shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Carnegie Medal. The Bombs That Brought Us Together won the 2016 Costa Children's Book Award, The Weight of a Thousand Feathers won the 2018 Irish Book Award for Teen/YA Book of the Year, and We Come Apart, a verse novel co-authored with Carnegie Medal-winner Sarah Crossan, won the 2018 UKLA Book Award. Cardboard Cowboys, Brian's first middle-grade novel, published in 2021 and is full of his trademark heart, humour and crackling dialogue. Swimming on the Moon is his second middle-grade novel.
@ConaghanAuthor

From the Back Cover

Loan shark Chick Lennon is notorious round Sonny Gilmour's way, and not for anything good.



So when Sonny discovers his mum has borrowed money from Chick to pay the rent, he finds himself in need of the quickest of get-rich-quick schemes.



With the help of best mate Jonah and quiet genius Carolina Swift, he hatches a plot - to pay back what Mum owes using Chick's own ill-gotten gains. It's not a fool-proof plan, and it's not helped by Sonny's Tourette's making him blurt out 'ROB CHICK LENNON!' at the top of his lungs every time things get dicey.



But with his dad suffering from long Covid and his mum already struggling to cope, Sonny knows it's down to him to keep his family out of Chick's clutches ...

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1526653982
• ISBN 13: 9781526653987
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304