> Skip to content
  • Published: 21 August 2013
  • ISBN: 9781742539447
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 96

New Zealand Girl: Hene and the Burning Harbour



What was life like many years ago? Book two in the New Zealand Girl series.

Hene is a Maori girl living in 1840s New Zealand. When her twin brother falls dangerously ill, her parents fear she will also catch the sickness, so they send her away from her home at the pa to the Paihia mission station. Life with the missionaries is difficult. Hene must wear an uncomfortable European dress and learn to sew, which she hates.

Meanwhile, across the water in Russell, the world is in turmoil. Hone Heke has cut down the flagpole again and has attacked Korororeka. Hene sees smoke and fire from across the bay; the town is on fire and her best friend from the mission house, Rangi, is trapped there. Hene is the only one who can save her.

  • Published: 21 August 2013
  • ISBN: 9781742539447
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 96

About the author

Paula Morris

Paula Morris, of Ngati Wai and English descent, was born in Auckland. Her first novel, Queen of Beauty (2002), won the NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book of Fiction at the 2003 Montana Book Awards and the Adam Foundation Prize. She has published three other novels, Hibiscus Coast (2005), Trendy But Casual (2007) and Rangatira (2011), which was the winner of the Fiction Award at the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards and the Nga Kupu Ora Maori Book Awards. She has also published the short-story collection Forbidden Cities (2008), edited The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories (2009) and has published three young adult novels in the United States.

Paula holds degrees from four universities, including the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has worked in London and New York, first as a publicist and marketing executive in the record business, and later as a branding consultant and advertising copywriter. Since 2003 she has taught creative writing at universities in the US, the UK and currently at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Also by Paula Morris

See all