Graeme Lay: The Pearl of One Foot Island

This is the final book in the One Foot Island trilogy about Tuaine Takamoa, a teenage girl from the Cook Islands. However, the author provides sufficient background information in the first chapter to allow this book to be read as a "stand alone" novel.

Now aged 17, Tuaine has grown into a beautiful woman with a talent for dancing and a determination to succeed. Her boyfriend, Adam, has been sent to university in Melbourne by his parents who disapprove of their relationship. To add to Tuaine's problems, a new minister is putting pressure on her to join his fundamentalist church, while a death in her own family coincides with some devastating news about her past.

Tuaine is an appealing heroine who finds herself dealing with adult dilemmas. Lay writes with both sensitivity and insight about the lives of modern teenagers.

Publisher: Puffin

Price: $18.99

Age: 14-plus

Recommended by: Dorothy Vinicombe