by Hill, David
He stayed like that for a while, gazing and half-seeing. 1974, he told himself. Quite a year. An American President had resigned. And a fourteen-year-old New Zealand boy had lived through an atomic explosion.
The seatbelt chimes sounded. A New Zealand accent – it sounded quite strange after all the others he’d heard – announced that they would shortly be landing at Auckland. As they began their final descent towards where his dad was waiting, Darryl turned to his mother.
‘Mum?’ he asked. ‘Mum. Can you give me an address so I can write to Alicia?’
Historical Note
The Second World War ended just days after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
The bombs’ terrible power made many countries decide to develop their own nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union (Russia and its attached states), the US, Great Britain, France and others began holding tests, exploding weapons in remote parts of the world.
France exploded its bombs on small Pacific Ocean islands that it owned. Very soon, there were protests from people and groups who were alarmed by the dangers of the blasts and radioactivity. New Zealand protested at the United Nations. A Greenpeace ship tried to sail to Mururoa in 1973, but was seized by the French navy. In the same year, the New Zealand government sent two warships, Otago and Canterbury, to the same area, to show its opposition to nuclear tests in the Pacific.
In 1974, France announced that no more bombs would be exploded above ground. However, it continued with underground nuclear tests until 1996, and New Zealand maintained its opposition throughout that time. The Greenpeace movement also organised more anti-nuclear protests. In 1985 its ship, the Rainbow Warrior, was in Auckland, preparing to sail to the Pacific, when French frogmen (combat divers) secretly laid explosive charges and sank it. One crew member was drowned.
New Zealand is now officially nuclear-free. Since 1996, France has used super-computer programmes to ‘test’ its nuclear weapons.
My Brother’s War
My Dear Mother,
Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve joined the Army!
Don’t be angry at me, Mother dear. I know you were glad when I wasn’t chosen in the ballot. But some of my friends were, and since they will be fighting for King and Country, I want to do the same.
It’s New Zealand, 1914, and the biggest war the world has known has just broken out in Europe.
William eagerly enlists for the army but his younger brother, Edmund, is a conscientious objector and refuses to fight. While William trains to be a soldier, Edmund is arrested.
Both brothers will end up on the bloody battlefields of France, but their journeys there are very different. And what they experience at the front line will challenge the beliefs that led them there.
Winner of the Best Junior Fiction and Children’s Choice Junior Fiction awards, New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2013.
Brave Company
Something in the water, a hundred yards or so away.
Russell jerked the binoculars back, trying to find it again.
He had to be sure; mustn’t make a fool of himself.
Where was it? Then he saw it through the lenses once more.
His voice rang along the deck.
‘Mine! Bearing 290 degrees. 100 yards. Mine!’
Sixteen-year-old Boy Seaman Russell Purchas is stationed on HMNZS Taupo, which has just entered hostile waters off the coast of Korea. It’s 1951, and his ship is part of the United Nations force fighting in the Korean War. Russell is determined to prove himself against the communists – not just because he wants to be brave, but because he wants to escape the shadow of his Uncle Trevor, killed in World War II. Everyone thinks Trevor was a hero, but Russell knows the shameful truth.
But can Russell keep himself together when the shells start falling? And does he really know what courage means.
See Ya, Simon
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. Winner of the Silver Plume Award (Germany). A Kirkus Notable Book (USA).
Coming Back
… my right foot slipped on the accelerator. The engine revved, and the car shot forward. For half a second my eyes met Ash’s. He was staring past me, through the windscreen. He began to yell something. Somehow I knew what it was. I wrenched my head round, foot stabbing for the brake. And there was the girl, right in front of us.
Tara is heading home. Ryan is driving his mates. Neither of them is paying attention. The tragedy that follows changes many lives.
Finalist New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards 2005. White Ravens List 2005 Special Mention.
THE BEGINNING
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Published by Puffin Books, 2014
Copyright © David Hill, 2014
The right of David Hill to be identified as the author of this work in terms of section 96 of the Copyright Act 1994 is hereby asserted.
Maps by Sarah Healey
Cover images by iStockphoto.com, except background explosion by Dreamstime
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ISBN: 978-1-743-48608-5
