This alternate history coming-of-age YA is the Winner of the 2018 Storylines Tessa Duder Award."An inferior people, that's what the Director called us at the beginning of his reign, but still useful."There are two peoples living in the city of Ursa: the Cerels and the Travesters. Travesters move freely and enjoy a fine quality of life. Cerel men are kept in wild camps and the women are no longer allowed to have children. The Director presides over all with an iron fist. Fifteen-year-old Leho can't remember a time when Cerels lived without fear in Ursa. His parents once tried to organise an uprising – his mother was blinded, and his father was taken away. But now his world is changing. Revolution is coming. People will die. Will Leho be able to save his family?

Maxine has been losing things lately. Her car in the shopping centre carpark. Important work files—and her job as a result. Her marbles? 'Mild cognitive impairment', according to the doctor. Time for a nursing home, according to her daughter, Rose. Rose has her own troubles with memory: a recurring vision of a locked cupboard, claustrophobic panic. Something in the shadows. Something to do with the old family house in Kutarere. Back in that house by the beach, Maxine and Rose try to find their bearings. But they can't move forward without dealing with the past—and the past has a few more surprises in store.Full of suspense and heartbreak, A House Built on Sand is a haunting novel about family secrets, the hazards of memory and ghosts that linger.Tina Shaw is the author of novels for adults and younger readers. She is a former recipient of the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship and the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency,...

Maxine has been losing things lately. Her car in the shopping centre carpark. Important work files—and her job as a result. Her marbles? 'Mild cognitive impairment', according to the doctor. Time for a nursing home, according to her daughter, Rose. Rose has her own troubles with memory: a recurring vision of a locked cupboard, claustrophobic panic. Something in the shadows. Something to do with the old family house in Kutarere. Back in that house by the beach, Maxine and Rose try to find their bearings. But they can't move forward without dealing with the past—and the past has a few more surprises in store.Full of suspense and heartbreak, A House Built on Sand is a haunting novel about family secrets, the hazards of memory and ghosts that linger.Tina Shaw is the author of novels for adults and younger readers. She is a former recipient of the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship and the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency,...

Told in smart, nifty prose by a veteran writer, this YA story is gentle with tough moments, and has real heart-appeal for 12 to 15-year-olds.James Griffen is sixteen, with a bad heart. He's on the hospital waiting list for a valve replacement. Meanwhile his physical activities are seriously curtailed so he gets about on his dead father's Vespa - his lifeline. He's a nerd. In contrast, his younger brother Ryan is tough and worldly-wise with a smart mouth. Reflective, funny, self-deprecating, James falls for the hottest chick' in school - who's also the unlikeliest catch. Roxy is more like Ryan: cool, streetwise and angry. James is loyal in his affections and in spite of the thrashing his heart gets in the pursuit, he and Roxy form an odd bond. There's a street-fighting crisis, a near-death, and James finally gets his operation. A romantic, contemporary, urban story with great tension that will apepal to girls and boys.