The Loblolly Boy
By (Author) James Norcliffe
A&U Children's
A&U Children
1st September 2009
Australia
Children
Fiction
823.92
Winner of Esther Glen Award 2010 (New Zealand)
228
Width 128mm, Height 198mm
216g
The loblolly boy has the gift of flight. He is invisible to most people, apart from the Sensitives; he is much coveted by the sinister Collectors; and he has the power to Exchange - to swap identities with others. But the children who choose to Exchange - often to escape very miserable lives - soon realise that to become one of these magical, Peter Pan-like creatures brings complications and dangers they never anticipated.
This is an intriguing and unusual book, part fairy-tale, part social comment. Books for Keeps
James Norcliffe is a Christchurch-based, award-winning poet with six collections published, and five novels for young adults. The Assassin of Gleam won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for the best New Zealand fantasy novel of 2006, and was shortlisted for the Esther Glen Award. James teaches in Lincoln University's Foundation Studies department, and lives with his wife Joan Melvyn and an ungrateful cat called Pinky Bones in Church Bay, on Lyttelton Harbour.