THE SEVERED LAND
by Maurice Gee (Penguin Random House, $20)
At the ripe old age of 85, Maurice Gee has certainly earned his retirement. That's what we all thought he was doing when, suddenly this year, he came roaring back with this.. For reasons unknown to Gee, he was haunted by the image of a girl perched in a tree, watching the activities of the people below. She wouldn't let him be, so he wrote her into a book. Fliss is the plucky heroine who lives in the North with The People, a gentle, civilised race. They're separated from the savage and brutal colonisers of the South by a giant, transparent wall that is beginning to crumble. It falls to Fliss to save it by venturing into enemy territory to find The One. Dark, stark, vivid and breathtaking. Vintage Maurice Gee. They say he's gone back into retirement. JR
THE SPAGHETTI GIRAFFE
by Sarah Johnson (Flatbed Press, $18
)It's surely the mark of a skilled writer who can bring to life such a bizarre premise as this book posits. Tiny food animals, formed from kitchen spillages, live under the cooker until they're swept up and banished to the land of In-The-Bin. One of these food animals, the Spaghetti Giraffe, is not like the others. He's carefree and curious about the world; he wants to get out and about. Besides, he can't fit under the cooker very well. He's also concerned about his creator, the wonderfully whimsical and shambolic Mina Cucina, who's fretting about the Bonbon Annual Confectionation and how she's going to avoid coming last — again. Cue food animals to the rescue. Sarah Johnson is the indie author/publisher of The Bold Ship Phenomenal, a Storylines Notable Book and shortlisted for the New Zealand Children's Book Award. The Spaghetti Giraffe is even better. JR
THE ICE SEA PIRATES
by Frida Nilsson (Gecko Press, $25)
From the pen of Swedish writer Frida Nilsson this is already a hit in a bunch of countries. Three cheers for Gecko Press, which brought it to us. When 10-year-old Siri and her little sister, Miki, row out to a little island to pick berries, only Siri returns. Miki has been kidnapped by Whitehead, a notorious pirate so feared by the locals that they don't even give chase. It falls to Siri to rescue her sister. But to get to Whitehead's hideout, she must find her way through a bleak, windswept archipelago before the winter sets in and the sea freezes over. It's a stark, frozen wilderness, infested with wolves and mermaids, rogues and villains. The odds are insurmountable. This book will make you shiver, even if you're reading it on a nice warm beach: exciting, brutal, sad and strange. JR
