Pip McLeod faced up to some tough challenges in the award-winning Juggling with Mandarins but that wasn't the end of the story. At 14 Pip's life is finally his own. His domineering dad is focusing his ambitions on big brother Nick, and as for Pip's climbing - his passion in life - he's going one way up. Even his love life's finally sorted: he hasn't got one. Beneath the tranquil surface currents are stirring, but Pip is wrapped up in his own emotions, oblivious to the new forces undermining everything he believes indestructible. When Pip heads into the wilderness with Dad on the traditional McLeod first hunting trip he faces a dramatic choice and discovers what it means to confront issues of life and death and, threatened by the ultimate loss, learns what matters most of all. V. M. JONES lives in Christchurch with her husband and two sons. Her first two novels, Buddy and Juggling with Mandarins, have each won NZ Post Junior Fiction awards, and her fantasy adventure series The Karazan Quartet has been published internationally and translated into five languages.

Accolades

Shortlisted for New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards: Senior Fiction 2007.