Their task is to map a rail route through an uncharted wilderness.They overcome the many obstacles posed by nature-bears, bees, bats, river crossings, cliff falls, impossible weather-but can they survive the treachery of their competitors?This is a fast-paced and charming novel. Its children are brave and competent but not always right. Its world is magical enough to be intriguing but close enough to our own to keep the reader on firm ground.

    When Hannah discovers that Shadrach has been sold to a dog food factory, she decides to mount a heroic rescue and enlist the help of her two younger brothers.From the beginning, their plans go seriously wrong. By the time they've argued with the repulsive Wuff Stuff man, hidden Shadrach in a church and in a caravan, and floated him on a mussel barge, they're in desperate need of rescuing themselves.

    But then, it is Ma who is the cause of the most troubling question of all, the one Frankie can never bring himself to ask. When a new girl arrives at school — a daring free spirit with unavoidable questions of her own — Frankie’s carefully guarded world begins to unravel, leading him to a painful confrontation with the ultimate 10 p.m. question. Deftly told with humor, poignancy, and an endearing cast of characters, The 10 P.M. Question will touch everyone who has ever felt set apart.

    And his football strip. And his school blazer. But being super-sized height-wise has its advantages: he's the only eleven-year-old to ever ride the G-force defying Cosmic rollercoaster - or be offered the chance to drive a Porsche. Long-legged Liam makes a giant leap for boy-kind by competing with a group of adults for the chance to go into space. Is Liam the best boy for the job? Sometimes being big isn't all about being a grown-up.

    The empty eye sockets were scary enough . . .Matt Logan isn't looking forward to spending the school holidays with his grandmother and her new husband. He has to fly to Rotorua, where he doesn't know anybody, and he's a bit wary of his new step-grandfather. All Matt knows is that he's Maori and a bus driver.Along with his worries, Matt packs his pride and joy - a homemade metal detector, because, you never know, he might find something interesting.What he finds is Juzza, who lives over the back fence and wants to join a local gang. When the boys unearth a handcuffed skeleton, a chain of events begins to coil around them. together they are thrown into a deadly search for treasure when the local gang boss decides to exploit their find for himself.

    While vacationing with relatives in Auckland, twins Theo and Rachel discover that they are endowed with special powers to oppose mysterious giant creatures that are determined to destroy the world.

    The star is Virgo - a young Zodiac goddess on a mission. But the pair accidentally release Thanatos, a wicked death daemon imprisoned beneath Stonehenge, and must then turn to the old Olympian gods for help. After centuries of cushy retirement on earth, are Zeus and his crew up to the task of saving the world - and solving Elliot's problems too?

    The first novel of a 'thriller' trilogy.Nicky is asked to read some of her work aloud in class. She dreads it-and, just as she starts-she finds herself elsewhere. Transported. For Nicky is one of a select few people who can will themselves away not just in mind, but in body. She has the gift of teleportation. It's a rare, genetic ability, and a sinister, anonymous group called the Project want to use her 'gift' for their own ends. Nicky finds herself whisked off to a nameless desert site. Here, she and four other teenagers, who are also 'travellers', are educated and trained for search and rescue missions. As these missions grow more frightening, more perilous, the five start to form closer friendships. Yet it is only when they realise that the Project wants them to breed more travellers like themselves, that Nicky, Paul and the others, find the impetus to form an escape plan. In a stark, direct style, Thieves pulls you right in to this strange, sinister world of gifted young adults exploited by an anonymous group. This novel is above all a thriller. It comments on much that is surreal in our own supposedly ordinary times. A remarkable and original debut and the first in a trilogy that includes Anywhere But Here (2008) and Real Life (2009) .". . . the best teenage science fiction novel I have read this century." Trevor Agnew, Magpies"My teenager read it almost in one sitting (getting up at 5am to continue)." Tania Roxborogh, Otago Daily Times"Not many debut novels make it onto the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards shortlists, but Thieves, by Ella West, fully deserves its place." Tessa Duder, the Australian Women's Weekly"As readers we are in the same predicament as the five teens and we are left to grapple with the sort of questions and interesting possibilities raised by novels such as Slaughterhouse 5 and more particularly The Time Travellers Wife." Steve Langley in English in Aotearoa

    What does "spudvetch" mean? Why do Mr Kidd's eyes flicker with fluorescent blue light when Charlie says spudvetch to him? A high-powered adventure can end only with a Boom!

    Her name is changed to the biblical Esther, and she is forced to follow the severe set of social codes of the order. Soon, Esther begins to lose her own identity.

    But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic.

    None of us spoke. It was a grey day with drizzle in the air, the great sad cranes bowing to the ship from the docks as we steamed past. That is all I remember of England! When orphaned Arthur Hobhouse is shipped to Australia after WW II he loses his sister, his country and everything he knows. The coming years will test him to his limits, as he endures mistreatment, neglect and forced labour in the Australian outback. But Arthur is also saved, again and again, by his love of the sea. And when he meets a nurse whose father owns a boat-building business, all the pieces of his broken life come together. Now, at the end of his life, Arthur has built a special boat for his daughter Allie, whose love of the sea is as strong and as vital as her father's. Now Allie has a boat that will take her to England solo, across the world's roughest seas, in search of her father's long-lost sister! Will the threads of Arthur's life finally come together?

    Only a few of the teenagers survive; they find their phones don’t work, there’s no food, and they’ve only got their wits to keep them alive. There’s also something strange happening here. Why are the teenagers having nosebleeds and behaving erratically, and why is the rescue effort slow to arrive? To make it out, they have to discover what’s really going on and who or what is behind it all.

    It uncovers the slow maturing of love and trust between two loners in a hard world.

    He’s completely alone — or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird, and gives him a stick that can make fire.Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She’s certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, that all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship’s parrot, until other survivors arrive to take refuge on the island. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things (including how to milk a pig, and why spitting in beer is a good thing), and start to forge a new nation.Encompassing themes of death and nationhood, Terry Pratchett’s new novel is, as can be expected, extremely funny, witty and wise. Mau’s ancestors have something to teach us all. Mau just wishes they would shut up about it and let him get on with saving everyone’s lives!