The little plane has been flying across the sea for eight hours.
Huge black clouds surround it. Rain pours in. Wind slams. The aircraft is tossed around like a leaf.
The pilot stares into the darkness. How much fuel is left? Is she flying in the right direction? How long till she reaches land?
In 1934, Jean Batten set a world record for the fastest flight from England to Australia. Just two years later, she made the first-ever solo flight from England to New Zealand. Jean's fearless determination and flying skills helped her survive storms and crashes, as she crossed great oceans and lonely deserts in her tiny plane.
This gripping true story with its dazzling illustrations is the third from the award-winning creators of the picture books First to the Top and Speed King.
About the Author
David Hill is a prolific and highly regarded New Zealand writer, playwright, poet, columnist and critic. Best known for his highly popular and award-winning body of work for young people, ranging from picture books to teenage fiction, his novels have been published all around the world and translated into several languages, and his short stories and plays for young people have been broadcast here and overseas.
Born in Napier, New Zealand, David studied at Victoria University of Wellington and became a high-school teacher, teaching both in New Zealand and the UK. In 1982 he became a full-time writer and his first novel for teenagers, See Ya, Simon (1992), about a boy with muscular dystrophy, was shortlisted for major awards in New Zealand and the UK and won the 1994 Times Educational Supplement Award for Special Needs. An enduringly popular novel used as a class text in high schools all over New Zealand, in 2002 it was awarded the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book.
David has published more than 40 titles over the past three decades. His most recent junior novels include My Brother's War (2012), which in 2013 won the Junior Fiction Award and the Children's Choice Junior Fiction Award in the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, the LIANZA Librarian's Choice Award and was listed as a Storylines Notable Junior Fiction book, a White Raven and an IBBY Honour book. This was followed by novels Brave Company (2014) – also a Storylines Notable Junior Fiction book; The Deadly Sky (2015); and Enemy Camp (2016), about an incident which took place at the Featherston Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in 1943. It won the 2016 HELL Children’s Choice Award for Junior Fiction.
David is also the author of a number of critically acclaimed picture books. These include First to the Top (2015), an account of the life of Sir Edmund Hillary which won the 2016 HELL Children's Choice Award for non-fiction and was a 2016 Storylines Notable Picture Book, and Speed King (2016), about the world-record-breaking achievements of Burt Munro and was a 2017 Storylines Notable Picture Book; both of which are illustrated by Phoebe Morris.
In 2004 David was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2005 he was awarded the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, acknowledging his significant contribution to children's literature in New Zealand.
He lives in New Plymouth with his wife Beth, and juggles his many writing projects with numerous school visits, leading professional development for teachers, mentoring new and emerging writers and tutoring creative writing.
About the Illustrator
As a child, Phoebe Morris always dreamed of becoming a zoo keeper and working with animals. However, persistent allergies meant that she ended up drawing them instead. As an adult, Phoebe now spends her time drawing a range of things – either on paper, or on her custom PC named 'the Millennium Falcon'.
In 2015 Phoebe collaborated with author David Hill on the acclaimed picture-book biography of Sir Edmund Hillary, First to the Top. Unanimously praised for the quality of the illustrations, it was named a 2016 Storylines Notable Picture Book. In a review for the NZ Listener, Ann Packer wrote, 'Wellingtonian Phoebe Morris makes a stunning debut as an illustrator . . . From the arresting cover, through cameos of his younger life to haunting, other-worldly mountainscapes, Morris's style gives the old story a cool new edge.'
A second title with David Hill, Speed King, about Burt Munro and his legendary world-record-breaking Indian motorcycle, was published in August 2016.
Phoebe is also the illustrator of the Frankie Potts junior fiction series by Juliet Jacka.
