High Tide

by Anna Mackenzie

Samantha Edmonds signs up for a class camping and hiking trip. She doesn't know the others the very well - and what she thinks she knows turns out not to be true. Do we ever really know someone?
Despite the challenges of group dynamics the group of seven, together with their teacher Mr Collins, soon settle into the routine. Then on day four the unimaginable happens.

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Anna Mackenzie wrote her first book aged 6, but spent a while roaming through other jobs before returning to writing fiction. Now that she has, she can't imagine doing anything else!
Her nine titles have won her seven CLF Notable Book Awards, an NZ Post Honour Award, Sir Julius Vogel Award, White Raven, and more. Her latest title, Evie's War, tells the story of a young New Zealander who works in the medical services in the UK, Belgium and France during WWI.
Anna writes contemporary, historic and speculative fiction for adults and young adults. She lives on a farm in New Zealand.
You can read more about Anna at http://www.annamackenzieauthor.com/

Reviews

[Kori Stevens]

Noice book

[Lucas McIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book didn’t have a very memorable ending, although the middle section was spot on. It really felt real. The images the book made me think about were very clear the entire way through the story, a great description was provided every time, which I know is hard to pull off. The author didn’t try to make a massive plot twist or event that seems crazy or unreal, instead it was one that made me go, “This seems entirely possible.” There isn’t anything that gets dragged out. When the problem happens it is resolved in a sensible amount of time and then something new that makes sense slips in and carries on the story without any hiccups, with the old problem being carefully mentioned here and there. And this happens until the ending, which while not very eventful, makes sense to be there. “But then they couldn’t know any better than the rest of us, what we’d be up against.” This line made me predict pretty much exactly what the event was. But not in a spoiler sort of way of course. The author clearly wanted to feel as realistic as possible, almost like a warning. It’s like the book has warning tape over it saying DON’T DO THIS. It really connects to the real world as I’m sure the author got plenty of reference from real life instances, which I imagine aren’t too uncommon, I have heard of multiple occasions on the news or via friends and relatives where this kind of stuff does happen. So I feel like the overall message is a tie in to the real world, just a reminder, don’t be stupid and end up creating a very bad result.

In conclusion, this book was fun to read and made me think of real life constantly, as it managed to keep such a steady pace that captures real life instances perfectly. The only problems being the fact that the ending was kinda boring. Other than that it was a good story with good characters.

[Olivia D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me think about how easy it is to fall back to our everyday stereotypes. Near the beginning of the book Sam had her guard up pretty high when it came to the others that were coming on the tramp with her. Without really thinking about it she very clearly judged most of them by just what she could see and what she had heard. Throughout the novel as tragic events unfold she begins to see how people have multiple sides to them. Early in the story, relating to Charlotte she says “She's a classic stereotype: long blonde hair, big blue eyes, pretty smile. Frankly she was the last person I expected to be interested, I figured she’d be too worried about breaking a nail.” Near the end of the of the book she says “I guess we’ve all got to know different sides of each other.’’ By saying this the author is helping us feel how easy it is to jump to conclusions about people and sort them by stereotypes before we can even get to know each other. In the beginning Sam does this with almost all her peers, it's not until they had no choice but to rely on each other's help and trust to survive that she realized that that everyone has more to them then what meets the eye. In society, stereotyping people has been so deeply rooted into us as humans that it has become an unconscious process. Society has also been the people to say that stereotypes are ‘terrible and need to be fixed’ although, this can not be entirely true. Stereotypes are a double edged sword and are often used by the sharpest side.

[Ruth Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I enjoyed this book on a level, but not as much as the kids in my class enjoyed me reading it. It is an awesome book of adventure and having to grow up FAST! As a teacher this is most DEF pre read unless you want to explaining to the kids about how a student can have a crush on a teacher. But it exposes kids to the lengths that teachers are willing to go, and to NEVER judge a book by its cover ( as the characters in this book can be deceiving) I found the book almost predictable but the kids lapped up every flaw and character turn around. I found they never predicted the story line and would listen for a good 15 mins! Most def a read to intermediate or middle schoolers.

[Catherine Hade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the book I even did a report on it. I read it like 10 times!!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in high school and i loved it. Actually i read it multiple times i loved it so much.

[leandra🌷 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this at primary school, and I totally enjoyed it. I remember other people in my class reacting to this book