MY BOOKS
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THE CHOICE BETWEEN US
The Choice Between Us is the award-winning book of the 2020 M.E.R Prize for the best English or Afrikaans youth novel
A story of two girls living in Johannesburg. Two acts of betrayal, set more than fifty years apart. Jenna, a troubled teenager, is packing up her Aunt C-C’s Johannesburg house. She prises open a locked drawer and finds an old letter addressed to her aunt. One word stands out: MURDERER. As Jenna discovers the clues which reveal the secret her aunt has kept hidden all her life, she is forced to confront her own shameful act of betrayal.
The Choice Between Us was published by Tafelberg in May 2019
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The Reject
Juliet Seven is waiting on a seacraft offshore from war-torn Mangeria, hoping that her beloved Nicolas will soon join her. Instead, the boat is pirated by a Reject boy stinking of rot and oil. A storm rises and they are swept away. They reach a new land, but all is not what it seems in this perfect place of refuge. Juliet is desperate to escape. Since the day of her birth, the blind tellers of Mangeria have prophesied that Juliet is ‘The One’. What will she have to do to fulfil her destiny?
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Snitch2 – A Year of Relative Madness
Ben Smith has the perfect family, but in the sixteenth year of his life, everything changes. Ben’s world is pulled inside out, his love-life turned upside down. Three things happen: A truck collides with a bus. A plane lands in Dubai, one passenger short. There is a vicious dog fight. Ben’s family circle suddenly grows by one, then by two and then by another. The sum of all these new family members should be three, right? Except everyone knows that two plus one relatives don’t make three, they make trouble. It’s a year of relative madness.
Snitch2 was published by Tafelberg in May 2018.
Check out the YouTube video.
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Snitch
Snitch is the award-winning book of the 2017 M.E.R Prize for the best English or Afrikaans youth novel. And you can check out the YouTube video.
High schools are jungles. And there are rules for surviving. All teenagers need to know these rules. They’re pretty simple: never let your mom drive you to school in her dressing-gown. Never let her comment on your Facebook page. Never let her choose your clothes. Especially not your underwear.Common sense, right? Thirteen-year-old Ben Smith, flying under the radar at St David’s, a rugby-worshipping school, knew all the rules. His mom knew them, too. That’s why he trusted her to be cool.But then Ben broke the most important rule of all: never tell your mom stuff. First, he spilled the beans, then she did. And all hell broke loose. Ben wasn’t Ben, Benno, Ben-dude anymore. He was the rat, the weasel, the sneak. He was Snitch.
Snitch was published by Tafelberg in May 2016.
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The Mark
The Mark is the award-winning book of the English Academy’s 2016 Percy FitzPatrick Prize for Youth Literature.
In the future, the world has flipped. Ravaged by the Conflagration, this is a harsh place where the sun beats down, people’s lives are run by a heartless elite and law is brutally enforced. A mark at the base of the spine controls each person’s destiny. The Machine decides what work you will do and who your life partner will be. Juliet Seven – “Ettie” – will soon turn 15 and her life as a drudge will begin, her fate-mate mate will be chosen. Like everyone else, her future is marked by the numbers on her spine. But Ettie decides to challenge her destiny. And in so doing, she fulfils the prophecy that was spoken of before she even existed.
The Mark was published by Tafelberg in September 2014.
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Melly, Fatty and Me
Melly, Fatty and Me is the award-winning book of the English Academy’s 2012 Percy FitzPatrick Prize for Youth Literature.
April-May February is back for another year at Trinity College, and she still hasn’t changed her socks. Sebastian, aka Edward, aka the boy with the lime-green eyes, is still drop-dead gorgeous and totally bad news. But then Fatty turns up, a giant of a boy who eats lamb stew sandwiches and cries when no one’s looking. And he’s best friends with Sebastian.
Melly, Fatty and Me was first published by Penguin in South Africa in September 2011. It was published in the UK by Hot Key Publishers as 100 Days of April-May in 2013.
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Melly, Mrs Ho and Me
When April-May February wins a bursary to a posh school – Trinity College – she has no idea that she is about to meet her nemesis – the uptight, rule-obsessed Mrs Ho. Suddenly the future looks bleak – homework must be handed in on time, proper school uniform must be worn, vampire novels must not be read in class – that is, unless April-May can find a way to stop Mrs Ho in her tracks. So begins a power-struggle that will see Trinity College become a battleground and suck in the people April-May loves the most – her permanently horrified father, Fluffy, and her new best friend, the mouth-breather Melly.
Melly, Mrs Ho and Me was first published by Penguin in South Africa in September 2010. It was published in the UK by Hot Key Publishers as A Month with April-May in 2013.
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Pops and the Nearly Dead
When Randolph Goodenough’s neglectful parents relocate to Bangkok, he is unceremoniously dumped with his grandfather, Pops, at Nelson Mandela Gardens Retirement Village in Port Elizabeth. However, what looks certain to be three months of interminable boredom with a bunch of nearly dead people, turns out to be far more interesting than Randolph could ever have imagined. The novel explores the lonely and often frightening business of growing old, seen through the compassionate eyes of a teenager. It also celebrates the agonies of a young boy negotiating his way through being in love for the first time.
Pops and The Nearly Dead was published by Penguin in March 2010.
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The Club
To outsiders, St Patrick’s High School in Johannesburg is a model of excellence, producing well-balanced young adults equipped to claim their inheritance as the new leaders of the fledgling democracy. But behind this façade lies a dark secret: the school is dominated by ‘The Club’, a powerful group of senior students who have adopted the values of the business and political elite of a post-Mandela South Africa. Bright, privileged and utterly ruthless, they manipulate the school for their own gain, their antics invisible behind the polished exterior of the exclusive institution. Senior member Mammuso Mazibuko is hot favourite to become the next chairman of The Club. But when her naive younger brother Jacob attracts the attention of a brutish fellow Club member, Mammuso is drawn into a sinister and increasingly desperate battle of wits to protect him.
The Club was published by Jonathan Ball Publishers in September 2008.
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Cornelia Button and the Globe of Gamagion
Cornelia Button’s dream is to be a famous singer, but she can’t sing for toffee. Her sister Maude is furious about the birth of her baby brother and wants to be a gypsy princess so that she can cast spells and make him disappear. And their friend, Zwelabo Maluleke, wants to be a brave hero like his mysterious, absent father. Cornelia’s Aunty Hilda tells Cornelia she can be anything she wants to be if she can imagine it. The secret to realising their dreams is their father’s globe, which has special qualities. So the children spin Mr Button’s globe which opens the doorway to the Kingdom of Gamagion. Everything is perfect until Gamagion comes under attack from the Master of Evil, Darko Drogbarl. Cornelia is tasked by the King of Gamagion to find the weapon to destroy this monster and bring peace to the divided Kingdom.
Cornelia Button and the Globe of Gamagion was published by Jacana in South Africa in April 2008.
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The Summer of Toffie and Grummer
Roll on holiday from hell! Forced to spend the summer holiday with her recently widowed grandmother while her deadbeat mom goes into rehab, Beatrice Wellbeloved knows the only way to get her granny (Grummer) off her back is to find her a new husband. But when Beatrice enlists the category-one loser Toffie’s help in her project, she discovers that all is not what is seems and the best laid plans can go wrong.
The Summer of Toffie and Grummer was first published by Oxford University Press in South Africa in February 2008 and was shortlisted for the English Academy’s 2010 Percy FitzPatrick prize for Youth Literature. It was published in the UK by Hot Key Publishers as I Heart Beat in 2014.
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