Secrets at Red Rocks

(Paperback)

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When a boy finds a sealskin in a cave, he unlocks an ancient spell that tips him into a terrifying adventure...an award-winning novel for tweens that inspired the Sky NZ Originals TV series! Selkie mythology meets Wellington's rugged, windswept south coast in this spine-tingling adventure novel, which won the 2013 Esther Glen Medal for Junior Fiction. Now a Sky New Zealand Originals TV series. Jessie stared at him, hard. 'It is not a story. It is real. Jake, if you have stolen a sealskin, then whoever it belongs to will be stuck in human form.' Jake was surprised to see tears form in her eyes. 'You must put it back.' 'But that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!' said Jake. 'Jake!' Jessie shouted. 'You must put it back.' Jake has taken a sealskin from Red Rocks and hidden it under his bed, unlocking an ancient spell that threatens to destroy his family. Can he put things right, before it's too late In Secrets at Red Rocks, the mysterious Celtic myth of the selkies - seal people - meets Aotearoa New Zealand's wild southern landscape and an ordinary boy is thrown into a terrifying adventure tinged with ancient magic. With its beautiful writing and eerie atmosphere, middle-grade readers will be thrilled and moved by this captivating story by the author of The Grimmelings. Previously published as Red Rocks.

Author Bio

Rachael King is a writer, reviewer, former literary festival director and ex-bass player living in tautahi Christchurch. She's the author of two standalone novels for children- Red Rocks, which won the Esther Glen Medal in 2013 and The Grimmelings, published in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. It topped the bestselling NZ junior fiction list in 2024, was shortlisted for the NZBACYA and won a Storylines Notable Junior Fiction Award. Rachael is publishing the first book in a junior chapter book series, Violet and the Velvets, in 2025. Her two novels for adult readers, The Sound of Butterflies and Magpie Hall, were published in nine languages altogether. Rachael received a Waitangi Day Honour Award in 2020 from the New Zealand Society of Authors for her work at WORD Christchurch bringing Behrouz Boochani to New Zealand. In 2023 she was named Best Reviewer at the Voyager New Zealand Media Awards.