THE GIRL WHO CHASED OTTERS
A sensitive tale of friendship, young love and acceptance set in the southern suburbs of Cape Town.
A keen observer of human behaviour, Nathan has never cared about fitting in, but when Olivia asks for his help becoming popular, he can’t refuse. But as she is swept into a world of gossip and bullying, they must both question what they really want. A story about friendship and falling in love.
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SEA STAR SUMMER
All sixteen-year-old Naomi wants to do over December is read books and avoid other people. Jeffreys Bay promises the perfect drama-free holiday. But when she encounters the strange and imaginative Elize on the beach, everything changes.
Elize, however, isn’t the first to notice the awkward, red-haired newcomer and soon Naomi finds herself caught between a blue-eyed local surfer and Elize’s dark and mysterious brother.
But what if Naomi is drawn to someone altogether different…
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MINE
M.E.R. Prize for Best Youth Novel in 2019. South African Literary Award for Best Youth Novel in 2019. Exclusive Books HomeBru 2018.
Mine is the roller coaster love story of Finlay September and Kayla Murphy, two young people trying to make sense of their lives in the mother city. In each other they find that all-for-nothing love they’ve been searching for – but also a sense of belonging.
Rap artist Fin is on the road to fame, but inside he feels like an impostor about to get caught out. Skater girl Kayla believes she’s not good enough to be in a healthy, normal relationship.
Neither feel like they belong anywhere. When they meet, an intense romance develops, until the ghosts from their past emerge to break them apart.
This is a story about teenagers at their destructive worst, all in the name of love. Mine delves into the darker side of the city’s damaged youth, where sex and drugs is commonplace. It also touches on the taboo subject of teen sexuality, and explores the reasons why girls sometimes say ‘yes’ when they mean ‘no’ and the reasons they find themselves in those situations.
This contemporary novel is set in Cape Town readers will know and recognise.
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SHARP EDGES
M.E.R. Prize for Best Youth Novel in 2014
For seventeenth birthday, Demi Crowley invites her five closest friends to join her at a music festival for a party to end all parties. But what was supposed to be the night of their lives soon becomes a nightmare none of them will ever forget.
Sharp Edges is a topsy-turvy tale of love, loss and friendship that will stay with you long after the final page has been turned, and leave you questioning what you really know about your friends.
Who killed Demi Crowley?
Also available in Afrikaans as Skerwe.
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DARK POPPY’S DEMISE
M.E.R. Prize for Best Youth Novel in 2012
All Jenna wants is for someone to notice her, but all everybody sees is a gawky teenager with an overactive imagination. But she leads a double life. As Dark Poppy, she can be herself. Her online friends see her for who she truly is: a sensitive, creative young woman with a talent for photography. When she receives a friend request from Robert Rose on Facebook, she doesn’t hesitate to start up a friendship.
But then, why shouldn’t she? He’s the hottest guy she’s ever seen; with emerald green eyes that seem to stare right through the computer screen…
FUSE
Kendall Mullins hates high school, almost as much as he hates the situation at home, but that all changes when Craig Baumgarten joins his class. Craig makes life at Percy Fitzpatrick High almost bearable, until the bullies set their sights on the new best friends and Craig hatches a plan to fight back with devastating consequences. As Kendall is drawn in deeper he finds himself in a situation he can’t escape and its up to his brother Justin to protect him. The Mullins brothers flee the suburbs as they attempt to outrun the law and the wrath of their father, but the streets of Cape Town are rough, and they have to come up with a new plan to survive.
Fuse was short-listed for the Percy Fitzpatrick Prize for youth literature in 2010 and was an IBBY Honour Book in 2012.
THE GOBLET CLUB
Winner of the M.E.R prize for best youth novel and the You/Huisgenoot I am a Writer Competition
The Goblet Club is a Gothic story with distinctly South African features set in a mysterious boarding school somewhere on the South African Platteland. When Mark is sent to St Matthew’s College for Boys, it is one more punishment for years of bad behaviour. The school has a reputation for knocking boys like him into shape, run with an iron fist by the sinister headmaster, Mr Crabtree. As soon as he arrives, Mark enters a sinister world of questions: what is Mr Crabtree’s secret, and why does he have a miserable sixteen-year-old secretary? Are his new friends who they say they are? Mark sets out to find answers with his friends, Trent, Vlad and Francis. Together, they are the Goblet Club, dedicated to the study of poisons. They begin to use their potions to rid the school of a plague of rats, but as Mark is drawn deeper in, their thoughts turn to murder…
An intriguing odyssey into a mind of machiavellian delinquency. – John van de Ruit, author of Spud
Sally Partridge 