Author(s): Elizabeth Pulford

Early Teen

Junior mystery/adventure fiction from talented children's writer weaves in NZ history with contemporary themes: A kid dealing with the boredom of school holidays, discovers outdoor adventure, mystery and unexpected friendship. When 12-year-old Kathleen O'Donnell (known as Cricket) and her parents head to uninhabited Jacob's Island for the whole summer holidays, Cricket fears she is going to be bored out of her mind. No other kids mean no one to play with, and no power means no technology! Instead she discovers a tragic shipwreck tale behind the naming of the island, and that the island is potentially haunted by the ghost of Jacob. Based on a real shipwreck, the Tararua, which claimed the lives of 131 people in 1881.