Caught in a tunnel collapse, Liam and Imogen have to use all their wits to survive in this gripping novel for readers eight years and up. When you stood deep inside the tunnel, you could hear the mountain groaning overhead. That's what Liam Geary's father had told him, anyway. It sounded stupid, till you stood inside a big tunnel; felt those billions of tonnes pressing in from above and the sides; heard water dripping from ceilings, or even trickling like something's blood behind the concrete walls; sensed the blackness that lay beyond the TBM's blazing lights as it ground its slow way through the stone ahead. Then you knew that a major tunnel like the Puketapu was a place of power, somehow; that darkness and danger lurked all around. When Liam dares his classmate Imogen to come on a forbidden tour of the railway tunnel being drilled through a nearby mountain, he hopes she'll quit protesting about it damaging the environment — his dad is an engineer...

The bells stopped, so suddenly that their sound quivered in the air. For the first time in an hour, the loudspeakers spoke, but this time the words were different. 'We are about to abandon ship. All passengers proceed immediately to the starboard side. We are about to abandon ship.' � Stuart and his twin sister Sandra are coming home to Wellington on the ferry. Stuart knows he'll enjoy the trip - he's a good sailor. But it's April 1968 and the ship is the Wahine. � As the tragic events unwind Stuart and Sandra must�battle to stay alive. � A vivid and compelling picture of the Wahine's last hours.

Follow the fortunes of two families - their triumphs and disasters, losses and discoveries - in this enthralling novel by a bestselling author. A family boards a ship bound for New Zealand. What will they find there? Tests lie ahead - war, earthquakes, protest marches, brushes with death. And so do some thrilling discoveries . . . Master storyteller David Hill traces the fortunes of two New Zealand families, through seven generations and over 130 years of fast-flowing change, in this exciting and richly rewarding novel for intermediate readers.

Simon is a typical teenager – in every way except one. Simon likes girls, weekends and enjoys mucking about and playing practical jokes. But what s different is that Simon has muscular dystrophy – he is in a wheelchair and doesn t have long to live. See Ya, Simon is told by Simon's best friend, Nathan. Funny, moving and devastatingly honest, it tells of their last year together.Winner of the Times Educational Supplement Nasen Award, the Silver Pen Award and the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book, See Ya, Simon has been published in the USA, UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, China, Japan and Slovenia.

In 1959 David Hill's mother—a poor single parent living in England—reluctantly decided to send her sons to Fairbridge Farm School in New South Wales where, she was led to believe, they would have a good education and a better life. David was lucky—his mother was able to follow him out to Australia—but for most children the reality was shockingly different. From 1938 to 1974 thousands of parents were persuaded to sign over legal guardianship of their children to Fairbridge to solve the problem of child poverty in Britain while populating the colony. Now many of those children have decided to speak out. Physical and sexual abuse was not uncommon. Loneliness was rife. Food was often inedible. The standard of education was appalling. Here, for the first time, is the story of the lives of the Fairbridge children, from the bizarre luxury of the voyage out to Australia to the harsh reality of the first days there; from the crushing daily routine to stolen moments of freedom and the struggle that defined life after leaving the school. This remarkable book is both a tribute to the children who were betrayed by an ideal that went terribly awry and a compelling account of an extraordinary episode in Australian-British History.

Never before or since has there been an experiment quite as bold as this. Set against the backdrop of Georgian England with its peculiar mix of elegance, prosperity, progress and squalor, the story of the First Fleet is one of courage, of short-sightedness, of tragedy but above all of extraordinary resilience. It is also, of course, the story of the very first European Australians, reluctant pioneers who travelled into the unknown - the vast majority against their will - in order to form a colony by order of the King's government. Separated from loved ones and travelling in cramped conditions for the months-long journey to Botany Bay, they suffered the most unbearable hardship on arrival on Australian land where a near-famine dictated that rations be cut to the bone. But why was the settlement of New South Wales proposed in the first place? Who were the main players in a story that changed the world and ultimately forged the Australian nation? How did the initial skirmishes...