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  • Published: 21 August 2013
  • ISBN: 9780143307570
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $22.00

Brave Company




Set on a New Zealand Navy frigate during the Korean War, Boy Seaman Russell Purchas is determined to prove he can be brave when it comes to battle with the Communists. But he is about to find that courage isn't just about being a conquering hero...

Featured on the New Zealand Listener's 50 best children's books 2013
 
Something in the water, a hundred yards or so away. Russell jerked the binoculars back, trying to find it again. He had to be sure; mustn't make a fool of himself. Where was it? Then he saw it through the lenses once more.His voice rang along the deck.
'Mine! Bearing 290 degrees. 100 yards. Mine!'
 
Sixteen-year-old Boy Seaman Russell Purchas is stationed on HMNZS Taupo, which has just entered hostile waters off the coast of Korea. It's 1951, and his ship is part of the United Nations force fighting in the Korean War. Russell is determined to prove himself against the communists - not just because he wants to be brave, but because he wants to escape the shadow of his Uncle Trevor, killed in World War II. Everyone thinks Trevor was a hero, but Russell knows the shameful truth.
But can Russell keep himself together when the shells start falling? And does he really know what courage means?
A gripping novel about the Korean War for 9-12 year olds.

  • Published: 21 August 2013
  • ISBN: 9780143307570
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $22.00

About the author

David Hill

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 50 titles over four decades. His middle-grade novels include My Brother's War (2012), which won the Junior Fiction Award and the Children's Choice Junior Fiction Award in the 2013 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); Enemy Camp (2016), which won the 2016 HELL Children’s Choice Award for Junior Fiction; Flight Path (2017), a Storylines Notable Book; Finding (May 2018), Highly Commended in the New Zealand Heritage Book Awards 2018; and Coastwatcher (2021).

Below (2022) won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2023. Described as 'a white-knuckle survival story set in a catastrophic tunnel collapse', the judges commended the way 'it trusts its young readers to handle big environmental ideas and come to their own conclusions'.


David is also the author of a number of critically acclaimed picture books with illustrator Phoebe Morris. First to the Top (2015) is their bestselling story of the life of Sir Edmund Hillary, which won the 2016 Children's Choice Award for non-fiction and was a 2016 Storylines Notable Picture Book. Speed King (2016), about the world-record-breaking achievements of Burt Munro, and Sky High (2017), recounting the life of the daring aviator Jean Batten, were both presented with Storylines Notable Picture Book awards. Hero of the Sea: Sir Peter Blake's Mighty Ocean Quests was published in 2018 and Dinosaur Hunter: Joan Wiffen's Awesome Fossil Discoveries was published in 2019.

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.

In November 2021 David was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement - Fiction in recognition of his outstanding contribution to New Zealand Literature.

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.

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Praise for Brave Company

'Brave Company is a well-detailed and convincing seaman's view of the Korean War, which also provides an incentive for further reading. Above all, the reader (and Russell) is assisted towards developing a more caring and less judgemental approach to people and their conflicts.'

PRH, PRH

Trevor Agnew, Magpies

PRH, PRH

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Teachers' notes