Dogfights, bombing missions, explosions, a touch of romance and capture - a pacey, suspense-filled novel for young adults.
David Hill is a prolific and highly regarded New Zealand writer,
playwright, poet, columnist and critic. Best known for his highly
popular and award-winning body of work for young people, ranging
from picture books to teenage fiction, his novels have been
published all around the world and translated into several
languages, and his short stories and plays for young people have
been broadcast here and overseas.
Born in Napier, New Zealand, David studied at Victoria University
of Wellington and became a high-school teacher, teaching both in
New Zealand and the UK. In 1982 he became a full-time writer and
his first novel for teenagers, See Ya, Simon (1992), about a boy
with muscular dystrophy, was shortlisted for major awards in New
Zealand and the UK and won the 1994 Times Educational Supplement
Award for Special Needs. An enduringly popular novel used as a
class text in high schools all over New Zealand, in 2002 it was
awarded the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved
Book.
David has published more than 40 titles over the past three
decades. His recent middle-grade novels include My Brother's War
(2012), which in 2013 won the Junior Fiction Award and the
Children's Choice Junior Fiction Award in the New Zealand Post Book
Awards for Children and Young Adults, the LIANZA Librarian's Choice
Award and was listed as a Storylines Notable Junior Fiction book, a
White Raven and an IBBY Honour book. This was followed by novels
Brave Company (2014) - also a Storylines Notable Junior Fiction
book; The Deadly Sky (2015); Enemy Camp (2016), which won the 2016
HELL Children's Choice Award for Junior Fiction; Flight Path
(2017), a Storylines Notable Book; and Finding (May 2018).
David is also the author of a number of critically acclaimed
picture books with illustrator Phoebe Morris. First to the Top
(2015) is their bestselling story of the life of Sir Edmund
Hillary, which won the 2016 Children's Choice Award for non-fiction
and was a 2016 Storylines Notable Picture Book. Speed King (2016),
about the world-record-breaking achievements of Burt Munro, and Sky
High (2017), recounting the life of the daring aviator Jean Batten,
were both presented with Storylines Notable Picture Book awards.
Hero of the Sea- Sir Peter Blake's Mighty Ocean Quests was
published in 2018 and Dinosaur Hunter- Joan Wiffen's Awesome Fossil
Discoveries was published in 2019.
In 2004 David was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
and in 2005 he was awarded the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal,
acknowledging his significant contribution to children's literature
in New Zealand.
In November 2021 David was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for
Literary Achievement - Fiction in recognition of his outstanding
contribution to New Zealand Literature.
He lives in New Plymouth with his wife Beth, and juggles his many
writing projects with numerous school visits, leading professional
development for teachers, mentoring new and emerging writers and
tutoring creative writing.
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