New Zealand

Materials from New Zealand

Twenty-Four Hours

It is seventeen-year-old Ellis’s first night at home after graduating from prep school. By chance he bumps into Jackie Cattle, whom he remembers from grade school. Jackie is a couple of years older than Ellis, a drifter, disreputable, yet with an odd charm and a disarming wit. For the next twenty-four hours, Ellis enters an extraordinary world on the fringe of society that he never knew existed. Jackie introduces him to life at the Land-of-Smiles, a dilapidated motel where nightly a strange collection of local characters gather to drink and talk. Two attractive sisters, Ursa and Leona, the elder studying to be a lawyer, live there. Leona loves and takes care of a baby whose mother stops in only once in a while. Then the baby disappears, and Ellis is thrust into a wild, sometimes almost violent search for the child. This is a stunning novel that grips the reader as it sweeps to its conclusion. Rich characterization, breathtaking action, and an ultimately heartwarming solution distinguish this latest triumph of Margaret Mahy.

The Other Side of Silence

In her brilliant but argumentative family, Hero is different, because she doesn’t speak. Instead, she prefers the silence and solitude she finds climbing the trees high above her neighbors stately old house. But everything changes when Hero starts to do odd jobs for the neighbor — and discovers a shocking secret high up in the tower of the house. “Mahy is a writer who just keeps getting better with every book.”– Kirkus Reviews, pointer review “Mahys exceptional imagination and storytelling prowess will make it difficult for readers to leave this book behind themhers is a tale with staying power.”– Publishers Weekly, starred review New Zealand author Margaret Mahy won the Carnegie Medal for The Changeover and The Haunting. Her most recent novel for Viking is Tingleberries, Tuckertubs, and Telephones.

See Ya, Simon

This funny and poignant novel tells the story of Nathan and his best friend, Simon–two 14-year-old boys with a passion for girls, soccer, weekends, girls, computers, and girls. Although Simon is confined to a wheelchair because of muscular dystrophy, his keen sense of humor and taste for excitement are more than a match for his disability.

The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance

“When three-year-old Jacko is stricken with a baffling illness, his teenage sister Laura, a ‘sensitive,’ is the only one to recognize that demonic possession is the true cause of his malady…. The beautiful characters grow with readers and the style is beautiful but ornate. An extraordinarily rich and sensitive novel.”–School Library Journal, starred review. Winner of the Carnegie Medal; ALA Notable Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adults; School Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Booklist Editor’s Choice.

Memory (Phoenix Award Book)

On the fifth anniversary of his sister’s death, nineteen-year-old Jonny Dart is still troubled by guilt and an imperfect memory of the accident that took hr life. He goes searching for the only other witness to the fatal event, his sister’s best friend. But instead of finding the answers he’s looking for, he finds Sophie — a gentle old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, who teaches him about remembering and about loss.

The Champion

During World War II, Rex, a young New Zealand boy, finds his life irrevocably changed by the arrival of a wounded American soldier, Jackson Coop, an African American private with a hatred for war, who stays with Rex’s family while recuperating.

A Stranger Calls Me Home

Set in New Zealand, this compelling, romantic tale is about three teenagers, Paul, Simon, and Fiona, who are trying to understand their past, their place in the present, and what the future holds for them. “[Deborah Savage’s] story explores some of the most interesting territory of YA fiction: identity and heritage, prejudice and acceptance . . . Her protagonists have the depth, character and complexity that mark a very good writer indeed.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review