Kids into books: Night Race to Kawau

Author: Tessa Duder

Publisher: Puffin Books, $12.95

Age Group: 8-12 years


"Don't let Mum see you or if she does, just tell her you are going for a run, which is perfectly true. I've got to get my own bag packed otherwise I'd come with you. I take it you're keen to go on the race then? It'll mean getting home promptly from school and helping your Mum with the bags and the dinghy and things..."

But Sam, her sandshoes hastily tied, was already half-way down the stairs and through the wide hall, tiptoeing past her parents' room.

She caught a glimpse of her mother in the big double bed sipping tea with her eyes still shut.

Once out the back door, she ran quickly past the three houses which stood between the Starr homestead and the beach, then turned onto the coarse sand which crunched noisily as her feet sank into it.

The tide was nearly full, so she decided ti would be easier to run along the concrete path under the pohutukawa trees back from the beach.

Even at this hour, Sam was by no means the first on the beach. Three old ladies in flowery swimsuits were breaststroking sedately a few metres off shore, and
along the firm wet sand where the water lapped ran several joggers, muscular brown young men and thin scrawny older ones, their chests gleaming with sweat.

Sam was glad she had chosen to run along the fenceline, keeping her distance from all those male bodies, even if it meant the extra concentration of keeping
her rhythm on a route that went up and down several sets of shallow steps.

At east she wouldn't have to say good morning.