Down to the Sea Again: True Sea Stories for Young New Zealanders

by Tessa Duder

tessa Duder has edited two very successful collections of marine stories for adults, Salt Beneath the Skin and Seduced by the Sea, and has now produced a similar high quality collection of non-fiction for younger children, who also have a bit of saltwater in their veins. In this anthology of stories about the sea written by or about young New Zealanders, material has been gathered from established authors as well as schoolchildren and young adults, with 40 contributors. the collection includes dramatic stories about accidents and capsizings, with ships sinking and famous maritime incidents such as the Wahine Disaster. this is told in two stories from two startling viewpoints - a mother on board the sinking ship and her 12- year-old daughter watching from the shore. Other stories describe swimming escapades and rescues, while yet others describe experiences both common and uncommon - waka training, holiday adventures and misadventures, even finding messages in bottles. Some amusing, some exciting and some very poignant, but all evoke New Zealand's unique relationship with the sea. Ages 10 - 14

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Tessa Duder trained as a journalist, and spent fifteen years rearing four daughters before she turned to writing fiction in her late thirties. Her books include the four Alex novels, Jellybean and Night Race to Kawau, as well as ten titles of non-fiction for both adults and young people. She's also an editor, short story writer, playwright and actor. Born in Auckland in 1940, she's lived most of her life there, except for periods spent in England, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Tessa Duder lives in Auckland, New Zealand, where she writes full time.

Reviews

[Kerri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good but not the best fit for me.

It's turns out I struggle to stay fully engaged throughout stories about fishing and boating. This was readable, and there were a few stories I really enjoyed, but for the most part I just wasn't all that compatible with this.
👙🐟🐬🐠🐙🐡🐚🌊⛵

[Ella Neighbours]

I read this short story book because it was the only one that I could find in my house and i also like the sea so I thought it would be good.
I read three stories from this book which were; Message in a bottle, beach, and sailing with spirit.

Message in a bottle:
I loved this short story because it had my attention the whole way through. It is about a boy who can't get to grips with her mothers death. He goes on a holiday to the beach and after constantly mourning over his mothers death he finds a message in a bottle which reads "someone loves you". I thought this was the perfect ending to the story because it would be really hard losing your mum when you are a kid and this message made him feel better about losing someone he loved dearly.

Beach:
I decided to read this short story because it was one of the shortest, so i assumed it would be really descriptive. I though the story was ok, but it wasn't as i expected. The story is just about a young girl going for a swim at the beach and putting sunblock on. When I first started reading it I though that there was going to be some sort of message or moment that the story would revolve around, but there wasn't. On the other hand, I found I did find it interesting how the story was written in 1st person of the young girl because it was an interesting perspective.

sailing with spirit:
This short story was really cool because it is about the spirit of adventure, which I have heard about and wished I could go on it, as did the main character at the beginning of the story. I mainly like this story because there was always something happening and it made me feel as though I was actually on the spirit of adventure.