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  • Published: 15 August 2014
  • ISBN: 9781775530800
  • Imprint: RHNZ Children’s ebooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 126

And Did Those Feet ...



Adventure, danger and mystery from the award-winning Ted Dawe.

Adventure, danger and mystery from the award-winning Ted Dawe.

‘The year mum died and Dad went mad I was packed off to a farm for a while.’ The first sentence sets the scene for this tender and dramatic story.

But this is no ordinary farm: our narrator’s Aunt Lorna, Uncle Frank and five cousins belong to the Jerusalem League, a William Blake cult. Their house is unusual, in that the rooms are hexagons – six-sided – as are the doors and windows, the dinner table and plates. And you guessed it; they’re bee-keepers.

Our young narrator takes us through his initiation to farm life: chores and more chores, which he doesn’t mind really, starting a new school and coping with the local bully, Noel Cudby, finding the perfect place: a swimming hole hidden in the bush, and making friends with Pimpernickle, the resident pig. It’s here with Pimpernickle when we become aware of his loneliness: ‘That pig is sure smart. I reckon he can tell my moods. When I’m feeling depressed, which is quite often to tell the truth, he comes over and stands next to me real close.’

But when our storyteller goes off to school camp things turn from wet to wetter. Noah’s flood is served up with a good serving of wind: the river rises and floods and the sorry lot of wet kids and a few parents are forced to head for higher ground. How will they cross the river and reach safe ground? Just what happens when they’re rescued? A tender story told with humour and insight.

  • Published: 15 August 2014
  • ISBN: 9781775530800
  • Imprint: RHNZ Children’s ebooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 126

About the author

Ted Dawe

Ted Dawe, who has had a long career as a teacher, stunned readers with his impressive first novel, Thunder Road – winner of the Best First Book Award and Senior Fiction category of the coveted
New Zealand Post Childrens and Young Adults Book Awards. His subsequent YA novel K Road was published to warm reviews.

Into the River won the supreme Margaret Mahy book of the year award at the 2013 NZ Post Children's Book Awards.

Ted lives in Auckland, New Zealand, where he teaches English to foreign students.

Also by Ted Dawe

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Awards & recognition

Storylines Notable Junior Fiction Award

Awarded  •  2007  •  Storylines Notable Junior Fiction