It is 1859 in the raw new township of New Plymouth where Hannah Carstairs walks between two worlds. To her English father she is Hannah; to her Maori step-mother she is Hana who speaks Maori but only when Papa or her beloved Aunt Frances aren't around. Soon, Hannah finds that both her worlds are changing. First there are the disturbing hints about her dead mother's past. Then the tensions between the Maori tribes and the settlers boil over into war. Hannah and her twin brother Jamie flee from the fighting. They board a sailing ship and make the long trip to England where they must confront the past.

 

There are 368 pages in this book. This book was published 2006 by Simon & Schuster .

Fleur Beale is the author of I Am Not Esther and Walking Lightly . In 2012 she won the Margaret Mahy Medal for her outstanding contribution to children's writing, and in 2015 she was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature.