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  • Published: 16 July 2019
  • ISBN: 9781760892555
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $21.00

New City




A new city offers a new life - but what kind of life will Isabella and her friends find?

Isabella and her friends are nervous about what they’ll find in the New City. It’s inland and it’s dry – far from the flooded city they’ve just left. Will their lives here be as luxurious and carefree as Xavier says? In fact, bleak, uncertain times have brought darkness and danger to New City.

The city has been divided in two: the citizens who have, and those who the ruling Major General says have come to steal from them – the refugees who have fled the rising waters, who are imprisoned in a camp on the edge of the city.

The kids of Grimsdon once faced sea monsters and evil harbour lords, but now they face new threats. From freakish weather events that whip up with little warning to the fierce misinformation that swirls around the city to the theft of their freedom, now they face the prison-like restrictions and control of the New City.

Unlike the refugees, they’re heralded as heroes. But what does the Major General really want from them?

  • Published: 16 July 2019
  • ISBN: 9781760892555
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $21.00

About the author

Deborah Abela

After training as a teacher, Deb travelled to Africa where she was harassed by monkeys, caught in a desert sandstorm and thrown in jail . . . twice! She’s worked as a child wrangler and a rides operator at Luna Park, but her first real job was as writer/producer of a national children’s TV show at Network TEN. She has since become an internationally published and awarded author of 28 books including her cranky climate change trilogy, Grimsdon, New City and Final Storm. Her family’s survival in WW2 and migration to Australia inspired Teresa A New Australian. The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee and The Most Marvellous Spelling Bee Mystery were inspired by her fantabulous Grade 4 teacher, Ms Gray. She’s also written picture books: Wolfie, An Unlikely Hero and the 2021 CBCA Notable, Bear in Space. The Book of Wondrous Possibilities is her love letter to books, booksellers, librarians and readers. Deb’s won awards for her work but mostly hopes to be as brave as her characters. She’s a proud ambassador for the charities, Room to Read and Books in Homes. www.deborahabela.com

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Praise for New City

With lots of close shaves, terrifying weather episodes, a secret guerrilla group and riveting episodes of flying on reconnaissance missions with mechanical wings, this is an exciting story for mid-upper primary readers.

Chloe Mauger, Magpies

Awards & recognition

Reading and Enjoying Australian Literature (R.E.A.L.)

Shortlisted  •  2023  •  Fiction for Older Readers