Nine Girls | Stacy Gregg

They dug a hole and they put the box filled with gold inside it. To keep it safe until they could return, one of them placed a tapu on it. A tapu so that anyone who tried to touch the gold would die. Titch is determined to find the gold buried somewhere on her family's land. It might be cursed but that won't put her off. Then an unexpected encounter with a creature from the river reveals secrets lying beneath its surface . . .

As Titch uncovers the truth about the hidden treasure, she learns about her own heritage - and what it's like to feel like an outsider in your own world. A story about growing up in a time of social unrest in early 1980s New Zealand, Nine Girls is a page-turning adventure.

In Nine Girls Stacy Gregg masterfully weaves comedy, fantasy and history together in a profound exploration of the complexity of identity in Aotearoa New Zealand through the experiences of a young Māori girl finding her place in the world. Historical events are woven into the fabric of the story, grounding her personal journey in a broader socio-political context. Vivid characters animate a fast-paced, eventful narrative with plot twists and emotional highs and lows. This book celebrates Māori identity, pays tribute to Aotearoa’s rich history, and testifies to the power of storytelling. Nine Girls is a taonga for readers of all ages, resonating long after the final page is turned. -- Judges from the NZYCA

Stacy Gregg (Ngati Mahuta/Ngati Pukeko/Ngati Maru) grew up in Ngaruawahia, the small but culturally significant town where Nine Girls is set. Her essay about Ngaruawahia, The Maoris From The Town Side of the River won the Voyager national journalism award in 2023. Nine Girls explores similar themes to her essay in a novel for middle-grade readers, set in the tumultuous period of social upheaval in New Zealand in the late seventies and early eighties. Stacy has previously published 32 middle-grade fiction novels with HarperCollins UK and remains HarperCollins NZ's third best-selling children's author of all-time after David Walliams and Dr Seuss. Her Pony Club Secrets series (totalling 13 books) sold over 1.5 million copies globally in English alone and later became the CBBC TV series Mystic which ran for three seasons. Her first standalone in 2013, The Princess and the Foal, was based on the true life story of Princess Haya of Jordan and written with the blessing of HRH. Stacy travelled to the royal palaces and stables of Jordan for research and since then has travelled extensively to research all her standalone titles, including journeys to Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Russia and Iceland.Eight times a finalist in the NZ Children's book awards, a consecutive three-time winner of the NZ Book Awards Children's Choice Award, Stacy is also the two-time winner of TV's WhatNow Children's Choice Award for middle-grade fiction.