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Touchstone by Lorraine Orman
Skye lives with her mother in Auckland and has no contact with other relatives until she's invited to visit her grandfather before he passes away. Josh lives with his mother, her partner and grandfather in a remote West Coast mining town. When Skye and Josh meet it is an instant attraction that turns out more fatal than they realise. While together they are drawn into an explosive situation that requires both of them to step outside their comfort zone. What is the family secret that is keeping two sisters apart, and will Skye and Josh’s friendship survive its repercussions.
My critique group heard Lorraine read out an early version of this story over a year ago. We couldn't wait for Lorraine to finish it so we could find out what happens to the two main characters (and find out the big secret).
Lorraine has written a thrilling story using two protagonists’ voices to tell the story. She skilfully blends historical and present day time settings to reveal the family secrets. Lorraine explores several issues in the story: troubled mother-daughter relationship, teenagers with low self-esteem, the damage that lies cause, and conservation of wilderness versus mining and development. What matters most to a teenager reading it, though, is that it is a hard-to-put-down book once you begin reading and both boys and girls will enjoy it. (I read it in two sittings - finishing it at 1am.) Highly recommended for 10-14 year olds, senior Primary, Intermediate and Year 9 and 10s.
This e-book is available for $4.99 (US) from online retailers such as Smashwords (at http://smashwords.com/books/view/304013) and Amazon (at http://www.amazon.com/Touchstone-ebook/dp/B00CE04M62/) There is a free secondary-level Teachers’ Resource Kit at Lorraine’s website http://www.story-go-round.net.nz/pdf/touchstone_teachersresourcekit.pdf Author’s Bio: Lorraine Orman has previously published four print books for junior readers and two for teenage readers, as well as numerous short stories. Cross Tides (winner of the NZ Post Best First Book Award in 2005) and Hideout are the natural predecessors to Touchstone. In all three books Lorraine blends a historical story with a present-day one. The idea for the setting of Touchstone came from Lorraine’s in-laws, some of whom were Buller coalmining families.
Melinda Szymanik’s compelling story A Winter’s Day in 1939,published in print form in March 2013, will be available as an ebook from ANZAC Day, 25 April 2013.
The ebook’s release date follows hot on the heels of the book’s Wellington launch at The Children’s Bookshop on Saturday 13 April. The ebook will be available initially for Amazon Kindle http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CHKOQYCand can be purchased for $9.99.
This debut ebook marks the beginning stages of a move to release more new Scholastic New Zealand novels in electronic form.
About the book
A Winter’s Day in 1939 is a harrowing, compelling story of courage and hope, based on the author’s own father’s journey across Europe during World War Two.
Taken from their home in Poland, forced to leave their country, put to work in Russian labour camps, frozen and starved, 12-year-old Adam and his family doubt that they will ever make it out alive.
Even if they were to get away, they might freeze to death, or starve, or the bears might get them.
For the Polish refugees, the whole of the USSR becomes a prison from which there is seemingly no escape.
Recommended age: 10+ years
About the author
Melinda Szymanik is the author of the picture books Clever Moo and The Were-Nana, which won the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards Children’s Choice Award in 2009. Melinda has written two other novels, Jack the Viking (Scholastic, 2008) and The Half Life of Ryan Davis (Pear Jam, 2011). She has also had three picture books published with Duck Creek Press, and published a teen chapter e-book earlier this year. Melinda has a Masters in Zoology, has nearly finished her Diploma in Children's Literature, and writes full-time in Auckland.
Young Adult Novel
The Nature of Ash by Mandy Hager, Random House NZ
This excellent author has followed up her successful futuristic trilogy with an exciting, fast-moving thriller for teens, also set in a future New Zealand. But the timeframe of this novel isn’t as distant as the one in the trilogy – it’s a New Zealand very recognisable to our current generations, with a few nasty political developments thrown in. Ashley’s life turns to chaos when his father (a trade unionist) is killed by a bomb. He has to take responsibility for his younger brother Mikey, who has Downs Syndrome, and also for his grandmother who has dementia and lives in a rest-home. To add to his confusion, he discovers that his long-lost mother is still alive, but caught up in a terrorist group called Muru. Ash sets off to locate and confront his mother at the Muru secret hideaway, along with Mikey and two other teen friends. Their expedition ends in disaster and they only just escape with their lives. Further developments reveal that Ash and his friends are being used as pawns in a game controlled by much more powerful players. The plot races on relentlessly, the characters are believable, and the New Zealand of a few decades from now is chillingly credible. I couldn’t put the book down. Recommended for teens, especially boys.Teacher notes here and read an extract here ISBN 978 1 86979 903 8 RRP $19.99 PbJunior NovelRed Rocks by Rachael King, Random House New Zealand
Having lived in Wellington, I am familiar with the coastline where Rachael set this story, and must congratulate her for using the landscape so well to create the wild and slightly threatening atmosphere. I also admired her initiative in creating a New Zealand version of the old selkie legend. The story is interesting and mysterious – and extremely well-written. Jake enjoys wandering the wind-swept beaches and rocks, but his life changes dramatically when he discovers a sealskin hidden in a rocky cleft and ta
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