'I'm sure it'll be much more fun at the goldfields'. Dunedin, 1865 Charlotte loves to play marbles with her best friend Harry and read about adventures on the high seas. But Charlotte will have to leave school soon and help her mother with the house and the younger children. Charlotte can't imagine anything worse. When it looks like her mother is going to keep her home for good, Charlotte and her new friend Cyril board a Cobb & Co coach and head to Hogburn Gully, where the Otago gold rush is in full swing. But the mining town isn't what Charlotte imagined. Can Charlotte find a fortune in the goldfields? Or will she have to return home to a narrow life of sewing, cooking and looking after her little sisters?

Hene is a Maori girl living in 1840s New Zealand. When her twin brother falls dangerously ill, her parents fear she will also catch the sickness, so they send her away from her home at the pa to the Paihia mission station. Life with the missionaries is difficult. Hene must wear an uncomfortable European dress and learn to sew, which she hates. Meanwhile, across the water in Russell, the world is in turmoil. Hone Heke has cut down the flagpole again and has attacked Korororeka. Hene sees smoke and fire from across the bay; the town is on fire and her best friend from the mission house, Rangi, is trapped there. Hene is the only one who can save her.

STORYLINES NOTABLE BOOK AWARD 2014 'Take me with you to New Zealand!' Ireland to New Zealand, 1874. When ten-year-old Rebecca Kelly is sent to the dreary Derry workhouse she decides that this is not the life for her, so she steals a pony to ride to Belfast. Rebecca is determined to join her brother, who is a sailor on the ship Queen of Nations bound for New Zealand, but this is difficult for a young girl without a penny to her name. Rebecca must become a servant and earn her passage to the new colony. Join Rebecca as she experiences the excitement and fears of life as a nineteenth-century immigrant girl. What was life like so many years ago? Find out through the eyes of a girl who's just like you.

Provides up-to-date profiles on the careers of leading and emerging poets.