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Touchstone
Sixteen-year-old Skye thinks her life sucks. She has no father, her mother is too busy to spend time with her, and her best friend is head over heels in love with a new boyfriend. Skye longs to be part of a real family. So when an invite arrives for her to travel to the remote West Coast of New Zealand to meet her ailing great-grandfather, she's keen to go. She's also determined to find out why her mother is estranged from the rest of the family. But the truth remains elusive and Skye finds herself embroiled in several difficult situations, all played out against a beautiful but threatened landscape. Why is her mother so cruel to her sister, Skye's aunt? What dangerous family secret is her great-grandfather trying to confess? Why is Skye drawn so strongly to her newly-found teenage cousin, Josh? What can she do to stop Josh's eco-warrior protest group being betrayed by a double agent? Skye is pulled in different directions - but the worst problem is her own fear. In the end all she can do is ... run.
203 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 7, 2013
5 people want to read
About the author
Lorraine Orman
11 books22 followersLorraine Orman has written 10 books for children and teenagers, published in both New Zealand and Australia. Her first book for teens, Cross Tides, won the Best First Book Award in the 2005 NZ Post Children's Book Awards. Her most recent books are Haunted, published by Walker Books Australia, and a reprint of an earlier historical book which is now called Here Come the Marines, published by Scholastic NZ - about the US troops coming to NZ in 1943. In 2013 she published her latest teenage novel, called Touchstone, as an e-book (available from Amazon, Smashwords, and online bookstores). Lorraine also reviews NZ children's books for http://kidsbooksnz.blogspot.com, and uses her Goodreads blog to review overseas YA titles.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 16, 2013
This was one of the most gripping Young Adult books I've read in a long time.
The opening scene from long ago was brilliant - what a hook! It showed two adults from the past building up to making mistakes that would reverberate down through the generations.
Then the story fast-forwarded to a modern teenager living with the repercussions. There was a scene where the main protagonist, a teenage girl called Skye, was holding an imagined conversation with her dead father. Having lost my own father in childhood and had many imagined conversations with him since, this scene almost moved me to tears.
The story wound its way to the South Island where we met characters battling massive forces to save a pristine ecology from being ravaged by "Big Money." I could hardly believe it since, although names had been changed, it was clearly the same environmental cause my own young adult daughter suffered and risked her life for, several years ago. She walked the length of the country for months on end to get there, on her own two feet, refusing to use fossil-fuel energy forms of transport. She talked about the cause all the way there, trekking far and wide across country to meet speaking engagements. She was shot at, rained on, abused and starved. She suffered beyond belief but refused to give up, turning herself from a child to an adult in the process. This experience of my daughter, made me feel incredibly close to the story. Yet, I have never met this author in my life.
I could recognise things my daughter had told me, so I knew how well-researched this story really was. The espionage and the betrayal of the cause - something very like it really happened in that valley. The camp, the people there, the weird "greenies" and their love of nature and determination to prevent its destruction by greed. The heartlessness of the powers who would bulldoze a pristine and unique paradise to rip out coal for dirty power.
The characters were real - recognisable teenagers, adult red-necks, warring sisters, an aged dying man. The plot was well-shaped, building to a climax and concluding neatly afterwards. The author nailed the voices of the various narrators. The dialogue was skilfully written and the whole book was professional and perfectly edited.
Highly recommended and likely to increase a reader's appreciation and sympathy for environmental causes.
The opening scene from long ago was brilliant - what a hook! It showed two adults from the past building up to making mistakes that would reverberate down through the generations.
Then the story fast-forwarded to a modern teenager living with the repercussions. There was a scene where the main protagonist, a teenage girl called Skye, was holding an imagined conversation with her dead father. Having lost my own father in childhood and had many imagined conversations with him since, this scene almost moved me to tears.
The story wound its way to the South Island where we met characters battling massive forces to save a pristine ecology from being ravaged by "Big Money." I could hardly believe it since, although names had been changed, it was clearly the same environmental cause my own young adult daughter suffered and risked her life for, several years ago. She walked the length of the country for months on end to get there, on her own two feet, refusing to use fossil-fuel energy forms of transport. She talked about the cause all the way there, trekking far and wide across country to meet speaking engagements. She was shot at, rained on, abused and starved. She suffered beyond belief but refused to give up, turning herself from a child to an adult in the process. This experience of my daughter, made me feel incredibly close to the story. Yet, I have never met this author in my life.
I could recognise things my daughter had told me, so I knew how well-researched this story really was. The espionage and the betrayal of the cause - something very like it really happened in that valley. The camp, the people there, the weird "greenies" and their love of nature and determination to prevent its destruction by greed. The heartlessness of the powers who would bulldoze a pristine and unique paradise to rip out coal for dirty power.
The characters were real - recognisable teenagers, adult red-necks, warring sisters, an aged dying man. The plot was well-shaped, building to a climax and concluding neatly afterwards. The author nailed the voices of the various narrators. The dialogue was skilfully written and the whole book was professional and perfectly edited.
Highly recommended and likely to increase a reader's appreciation and sympathy for environmental causes.
August 26, 2013
There are a lot of secrets in Skye's family and some secrets go way, way back. Now her great-grandfather Archie is dying and her mother agrees to take Skye to see him, all the way from Auckland to Craghead a former mining village on the west coast of the South Island where even the rugged landscape has secrets. There she meets her cousin Josh towards whom she soon feels an attraction but even this fledging relationship can be torn apart by secrets. As Skye negotiates the intricacies of this conflicted family while being entertained by Archie's stories of the family's past, she must go against her natural introvertive nature and do something that will affect the future of her newly discovered family and the environs in which they live. This is an enjoyable read, featuring both historical facts and modern conservation which will appeal to teens and will perhaps encourage them to look for the stories within their own families.
May 5, 2014
I’m well past the age of the two main characters in this YA novel, but that didn’t matter – I still enjoyed reading about them.
Skye and Josh are mid-teens who find themselves landed in the middle of two situations they have to deal with – one personal, the other to do with an environmental group protesting against mining in their area – west coast New Zealand. Both strands are equally convincing and together weave a story that will be well received by the young adults for whom it is primarily intended. But also give it a go if you’re older and are interested in this view of how teenagers think.
In Touchstone, Lorraine Orman proves herself to be a good writer who knows her target readership.
Skye and Josh are mid-teens who find themselves landed in the middle of two situations they have to deal with – one personal, the other to do with an environmental group protesting against mining in their area – west coast New Zealand. Both strands are equally convincing and together weave a story that will be well received by the young adults for whom it is primarily intended. But also give it a go if you’re older and are interested in this view of how teenagers think.
In Touchstone, Lorraine Orman proves herself to be a good writer who knows her target readership.
May 8, 2013
From the author - Touchstone (an e-book) is the natural successor to my two previous printed books for teenage readers, Cross Tides and Hideout. All three books look at teenage issues against a backdrop of interwoven historical and present-day stories. The setting for Touchstone is the remote coal plateau of Buller, on New Zealand's West Coast - now under threat from the establishment of another huge open-cast coal mine in a pristine, untouched valley. This story should appeal to thoughtful teen readers who care about the environment.
September 5, 2013
A good read by a NZ Author - this one is set on NZ's West Coast. Two teens get involved with an environmmental group who are protesting against an open-cast coal mine. I don't usually like books with a message, but I think teens with a social conscience will enjoy this one.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews