Lorraine Orman
Lorraine Orman has written nine books for children and young adults, as well as numerous short stories. Her books for younger readers are Ratso, Kev and Borax, Furze the Fixer, and Fish Tale. For intermediate ages she wrote two titles in the My Story historical series - Here Come the Marines, and Land of Promise, as well as a story in the Lightning Strikes series called Haunted. For young adults she has written Cross Tides (a NZ Post Awards First Book Award winner) and Hideout. With Tessa Duder, she co-edited an anthology called Out of the Deep and Other Stories From New Zealand and the Pacific. Her latest work is a self-published e-book for young adults called Touchstone - available at major international online bookstores such as Amazon and Smashwords, as well as via the Wheelers e-Platform. Lorraine has reviewed many children's and YA books for Magpies, and also for the blog KidsBooksNZ. She has done numerous stints as a judge of local book awards and writing competitions. She has retired from writing books but is still writing short fiction and doing occasional reviews for KidsBooksNZ. In 2020 she was awarded the Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award for Services to Children's Literature and Literacy.
Genre:
- Children's Fiction
- Young Adult
Skills:
- Reviews
Branch:
Canterbury
Location:
Christchurch
Publications:
Touchstone
Touchstone (self published e-book for young adults) is available in digital form from online retailers such as Amazon, Smashwords, and Wheelers E-platform (for NZ schools and libraries). Teenager Skye is determined to find out the truth about her family history, but when she visits some long-lost relatives on the remote West Coast of New Zealand's South Island she becomes tangled in a dangerous web of lies and deceit. The story has a strong environmental theme focused on coal-mining in pristine conservation areas.
Here Come the Marines: Warkworth, 1943
Published in Scholastic NZ's My New Zealand Story series, this story for readers of around 10 to 14 looks at the effect on a local farming family of the arrival of thousands of American GIs and Marines in the area. 14-year-old Lillian and her older sister Joyce are smitten by these exotic newcomers. But what happens when the troops are sent to fight in the terrible battles of Tarawa?
Land of Promise: The Diary of William Donahue, Gravesend to Wellington, 1839-40
Published in Scholastic NZ's My Story series, this story for readers of 11 to 15 looks at the settlement of Wellington by the New Zealand Company in the mid-19th century. It focuses on young William and his family as they sell up in England, sail on a lengthy and dangerous voyage to New Zealand, and arrive in Port Nicholson only to discover the promised township didn't exist. Life as pioneer settlers was a hard battle against the weather, the lack of supplies and facilities, and the ever-present threat of hostile local Maori. This is one of the few books for young readers focused on New Zealand's early European pioneers.