Our first 10-Year Book Giveaway — Kura Toa: Warrior School, by Tim Tipene (2009)

Kura Toa: Warrior School  – Tim Tipene

The first giveaway to celebrate our 10 years of books is the first title Oratia published back in mid-2009: Tim Tipene’s Kura Toa: Warrior School. 

Haki, the hero of this young adult novel, is a high-school student who’s been going off the rails. With the guidance of his tribe, Haki finds his identity and grows into a warrior in defence of their land.

Click here to view the book.

Kura Toa had been previously published but was out of print when Tim agreed to us taking it on. Oratia committed to our authors to try and keep their books in print, and we’ve managed thanks in part to short-run digital printers in New Zealand. In fact the giveaway copy of Kura Toa is hot off the press from YourBooks in Wellington — the latest print run has just reached the Northcote warehouse of Publishers Distribution Ltd, our awesome distributors.

To be in to win a copy of Kura Toa: Warrior School go to our Fb Page.

Prize available to New Zealand residents only.

Competition closes on Monday 3 June, and winner announced on Tuesday 4 June.

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Out on the Water at the Blake Regatta

Torbay Sailing Club hosted another fantastic two days of sailing for the Sir Peter Blake Regatta over the past weekend. Click here for the Blake Regatta site

Tessa Duder with renowned sailor and MC, Mark Orams

Tessa Duder attended the prizegiving on the Sunday afternoon, where she joined MC Professor Mark Orams to give away two signed copies of Out on the Water: Twelve Tales of the Sea to the young girl and boy sailors who had travelled the furthest to take part in the sailing.

This young winner had travelled from the Bay of Islands

Out on the Water includes a story based on a young Peter Blake sailing with his brother, and another about a girl's first Optimist regatta - something familiar to all the Green Fleet sailors on the weekend.

It was beautiful 'out on the water' at the Blake Regatta - well done to all the participants and the hard-working organisers

Out on the Water launches this Thursday 6 November

Monday, 3 November 2014

Out on the Water

Twelve Tales of the Sea

 

Tessa Duder; illustrated by Bruce Potter

New collection evokes the adventure of sailing and the sea for younger readers

Renowned children’s author Tessa Duder and illustrator Bruce Potter have combined to produce a stirring collection of twelve stories about kids out on the water around New Zealand.

The stories in Out on the Water range from a girl’s experience of her first Optimist regatta to a boy learning the ropes on a tall ship from Sydney to Auckland in the 1880s.

Each story features a full-page line drawing, and weaves into the text a rich thread of sailing words and knowledge (helped by a glossary of language of the sea).

This is Tessa Duder’s first fiction for young adults in over ten years. Her most recent young adult non-fiction is The Story of Sir Peter Blake – and one of the new stories is a fictionalised account of Peter Blake and brother Tony on an after-school sail across Waitemata Harbour.

In the book’s introduction, Tessa writes how the book answers the request from a grandson for stories about children going sailing. “So here are twelve stories about young people having a wide range of experiences on the water – inshore as crew or skipper, or as crew on offshore voyages.”

Tessa, who lives on Auckland’s North Shore, is a keen sailor with a long-standing commitment to the sport in New Zealand, from tutoring Optimist sailors to her work for the Spirit of Adventure Trust.

Out on the Water will be launched in Takapuna, Auckland this Thursday 6 November. Bruce, who lives in Alexandra, will also be available for media, and will be in Wellington during this week.

Publication Date: 6 November 2014  |  ISBN: 978-1-877514-75-3  |  RRP $29.99

Paperback, 234 x 153 mm, 152 pages b&w with line drawings

Tessa Duder

Bruce Potter