200,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿 

Overnight NZ-wide delivery | 📍 Visit our Auckland bookstore • Open 7 days, 8:30am–5pm

Under the Mountain

By Maurice Gee
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.78 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 1,375 ratings, 122 reviews)
Brief Description
Theo and Rachel Matheson, spirited and adventurous eleven-year-old twins, head to Auckland expecting an ordinary fortnight's holiday with their uncle and aunt. Little do they know that their adventure will be anything but ordinary. Upon arrival, they encounter their peculiar neighbours who show a troubling interest... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$1900
Elsewhere:
$2200
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY

Found a better price? Request a price match

When Theo and Rachel Matheson head for Auckland to spend a fortnight with their uncle and aunt, they are prepared for the usual entertainments that the city can provide. But their relatives have curious neighbours who seem to take an unusual interest in the red-haired twins. This children's classic is now a major motion picture event.

Winner of the Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book, this thrilling children's novel is an enduring classic.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Theo and Rachel Matheson, spirited and adventurous eleven-year-old twins, head to Auckland expecting an ordinary fortnight's holiday with their uncle and aunt. Little do they know that their adventure will be anything but ordinary. Upon arrival, they encounter their peculiar neighbours who show a troubling interest in the redheaded siblings. This curiosity is further amplified when the twins meet the enigmatic Mr Jones. Their meeting heralds the beginning of an extraordinary and perilous journey neither of them could have anticipated.

Beneath Auckland's dormant volcanic craters, ancient, colossal creatures are awakening from an enchanted slumber that has lasted thousands of years. These fearsome giants possess a single, terrifying goal: the annihilation of the world. As the creatures stir, time becomes a critical factor. Theo and Rachel discover they have been chosen to confront this monstrous threat, despite knowing full well that their capabilities are as limited and fallible as any other children their age.

Under the Mountain, a children's classic by the award-winning Maurice Gee, enthrallingly blends supernatural elements with the trials of youth. The narrative subtly addresses themes of courage, family bonds, and the perennial struggle between good and evil. The twins’ journey is a captivating tale of bravery and resilience, underscoring that even the most unlikely heroes can rise to the challenge.

This timeless adventure has enchanted readers for generations and has been reimagined as a major motion picture, bringing Maurice Gee's vivid imagination and compelling characters to an even broader audience. An essential read for young adventurers and fantasy enthusiasts alike, Under the Mountain promises a thrilling escape into a world where myths awake and heroes are born.

Rediscover this classic tale today and join Theo and Rachel on their gripping quest beneath Auckland’s volcanos, where the stakes couldn’t be higher, and every moment is fraught with danger and excitement.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780143305019

Publisher: Penguin Group (NZ)

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 23 November 2009

Country: New Zealand

Imprint: Puffin

Edition: 2nd Media tie-in

Audience: Children, Teenage

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 174g

Pages: 192

Collections

Adventure Seekers Best Sellers at Book Hero Best Selling Books Children's Books Children's Fiction Children’s, Teenage and Educational In Stock Books In stock Children's Books In Stock Kid's Books Maurice Gee New Zealand and Australia Published New Zealand Children's Books New Zealand Published Penguin Books Young Adult Young Adult Mystery & Thriller

About the Author

Maurice Gee has long been considered one of New Zealand's finest writers. He has written more than thirty books for adults and young adults and has won numerous literary awards, including the UK's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, the Wattie Award, the Deutz Medal for Fiction, the New Zealand Fiction Award and the New Zealand Children's Book of the Year Award. In 2003 he received an inaugural New Zealand Icon Award and in 2004 he received a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. Maurice Gee's novels include The Plumb Trilogy, Going West, Prowlers, Live Bodies and The Scornful Moon. He has also written a number of much-loved children's novels, including Under the Mountain, The O Trilogy and The Salt Trilogy. Maurice lives in Nelson, in New Zealand's South Island, with his wife Margareta, and has two daughters and a son.

Also by Maurice Gee

View all
  • Halfmen Of O
    Susan had always been a bit odd, never quite fitting in and often puzzling those around her, especially her cousin Nick. However, their worlds are turned upside down when a mysterious mark appears on Susan's wrist, drawing them together into an unimaginable adventure. Despite their differences, the two cousins find themselves summoned to the magical and perilous land of O,...
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2200
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Plumb
    This classic has been released in the Popular Penguin format to mark 50 years of publishing in New Zealand. The format reaches further back to 1935, when Allen Lane founded Penguin Books with a clear vision: 'We believed in the existence of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it.' Regarded as...
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    $1500
    Elsewhere:
    $1599
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Fire-Raiser
    He let the matchstick burn, knowing the power in his hand... flame filled the inside of his head. It ran along his arteries. It licked around his bones. Kitty Wix is knocked over as a strange loping figure is seen fleeing the burning stables. But who is the fire-raiser and why is he creating such terror? Kitty has her own...
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    $2200
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Severed Land
    "A masterclass in plotting and elegant writing with turns of phrase that are genius" - Napier Courier The Severed Land by Maurice Gee is a gripping, page-turning fantasy adventure that immerses readers in a perilous quest through a divided world. The story begins high in the branches of a towering tree, where a young girl named Fliss watches as soldiers...
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    $2200
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • New Release
    Plumb
    Maurice Gee's signature novel bound in a beautifully crafted, clothbound hardback edition for the Penguin Modern Aotearoa Classics series A stunning foil-stamped hardback cover makes this edition of Maurice Gee's classic novel a must have for any serious collector's library. Long regarded as one of the finest novels ever written by a New Zealander, and introducing one of its most...
    By Maurice Gee
    Hardback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Motherstone: The O Trilogy Volume 3
    In the riveting conclusion to Maurice Gee's acclaimed O Trilogy, Motherstone: The O Trilogy Volume 3 plunges readers back into the enchanting yet perilous world of O. For siblings Susan and Nick, it seems their tumultuous adventure has reached its end as they prepare to leave the mystical realm and return to Earth. However, their journey is far from over....
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Creeks and Kitchens
    Widely regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest fiction writers, Maurice Gee has written virtually no non-fiction. The exceptions are the two exquisite childhood reminiscences combined here into a memoir. Gee's description of childhood and family life in West Auckland offers illuminating insights into some of the creative forces that have driven his writing.
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Live Bodies
    As a young man in Vienna in the 1930s, Josef Mandl was a member of underground left-wing groups battling the Nazis. In New Zealand during the Second World War, Mandl is judged a communist agitator and interned on Somes Island along with several other Germans and Italians. Josef makes two unsuccessful attempts to escape, and in the process discovers Wellington...
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Blindsight
    Widely acclaimed when first published, Maurice Gee's Blindsight is now regarded as one of the master's finest novels and one of the best novels published in New Zealand in the past couple of decades. Reviewer Dennis Welch suggests it may be Gee's best work of fiction since the highly regarded Plumb. Gee's complex but knowing portrait of siblings who were...
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Scornful Moon
    A reprint of Maurice Gee's latest novel about politics and personal secrets. It is set in 1930s Wellington. Joint runner-up of the Deutz Medal for Fiction at the 2004 Montana Book Awards. Wellington, 1935. James Tinling, a former cabinet minister, plans a political comeback, although a brash newcomer stands in his way. James has methods of dealing with people who...
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Crime Story
    Worlds separate Brent Rosser from Ulla Peet, but a burglary gone wrong brings them into a confrontation that will change their lives—and end one of them, or perhaps both. There are many crimes in this chilling novel—brutal murder, corporate fraud, domestic violence, and spiritual bankruptcy. Through the chance meetings of the Peet and Rosser families, Crime Story asks questions about...
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Champion
    What do you answer when people say, 'Who was the most important person you've ever known?'... It was Jackson Coop. He changed my life - Jackson and the things that happened in those two weeks. It is summer 1943 in a small New Zealand town, and a wounded American soldier is coming to stay with 12-year-old Rex and his family....
    By Maurice Gee
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Browse lists from our team

The Latest at Book Hero

View all

More from Children's Books

View all
  • New Release
    Gruffalo Granny
    The brand new Gruffalo picture book from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. The Gruffalo said to his daughter one day, "Your Gruffalo Granny is coming to stay." Return to the deep dark wood with the first new Gruffalo story in over 20 years, and meet Gruffalo Granny as she visits the Gruffalo family. This fresh and exciting new Gruffalo adventure...
    By Julia Donaldson
    Hardback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Sprinkle in Time: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #15)
    New Release
    A Sprinkle in Time: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #15)
    In the newest saga, our anti-hero, Grandpa, alters the fabric of time and space. Is his evil the necessary soil for Dog Man and friends to grow and bloom? Can we all step up to be the change? It's the saga of the century—Dog Man: A Sprinkle in Time!
    By Dav Pilkey
    Hardback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Fight or Flight: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (21)
    When the going gets tough, what’s a wimpy kid to do? In Fight or Flight, Greg Heffley faces his biggest challenge yet as he becomes a target for the school bully. Luckily for Greg, his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, takes karate, so at least Greg’s got someone in his corner. But an unexpected twist makes Greg realize he’s facing an uphill...
    By Jeff Kinney
    Paperback
    $1699
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Detective Beans Colouring Club
    New Release
    Detective Beans Colouring Club
    Help Detective Beans solve the case of the missing colours! Join the Colouring Club now! Join the Detective Beans Colouring Club! Inside you'll find 40 removable colouring pages featuring scenes from all over Cat Town. Filled with all the characters you know and love from the Detective Beans graphic novels like Biscuits, Beans' mum, Mr Brickle, Bear, Detective Baby Bird...
    By Li Chen
    Paperback
    $1799
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Sixth Faction
    Beatrice Prior stands on the brink of a decision every person in her world must make: five factions, five futures, five lives. She has a plan: she's going to make the bravest choice, and leave Abnegation behind to join Dauntless, even though it means leaving her family behind. But when tragedy strikes at her Choosing Ceremony, everything changes—her world, her...
    By Veronica Roth
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Naturals: Dangerous Impulses Book 5
    The Naturals are BACK! No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes delivers the highly anticipated new installment in her beloved Naturals Series. Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI's Naturals program at seventeen because she had an incredible ability to read people. Since then, Cassie, fellow profiler Dean, emotion‐reader Michael, lie‐detector Lia, and statistical genius Sloane have caught serial...
    By Jennifer Lynn Barnes
    Paperback
    $2199
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    All of Us
    A new heart-wrenching, well-researched historical novel for middle-grade readers. 'The weirdest thing,' continues Tove, 'is that I don't feel any different to the rest of you.' 'That's because you're not!' snaps Birgitte. 'You're Danish.' 'So why do the Nazis hate me and not you?' When twelve-year-old Viggo and his friends Finn, Tove, Birgitte and Konrad start writing rude letters to...
    By Katrina Nannestad
    Hardback
    $2599
    Elsewhere:
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Star Path
    New Release
    The Star Path
    A young whale searches for the whale rider's heir and a teenager takes an epic voyage to Antarctica with a fleet of waka hourua to claim his lost inheritance, in this breathtaking return to the world of global hit The Whale Rider, over thirty years on. From the internationally acclaimed author of The Whale Rider comes a novel about the...
    By Witi Ihimaera Smiler
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Wahine
    New Release
    Wahine
    From a majestic mermaid to a clay woman, the creator of glaciers to the mother of gardening, discover powerful wahine and how their stories shaped the world around us. Wahine introduces readers to twelve purakau of brave, bold, and inspiring women of Aotearoa. A beautifully illustrated collection that will delight the whole whanau, from award-winning illustrator Isobel Joy Te Aho-White....
    By Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
    Hardback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Lottie Brooks’s Twelve Disasters of Christmas
    From hilarious MEGA bestselling author, Katie Kirby, comes a new story collection from the world of Lottie Brooks! But this time... it's not about Lottie! From hilarious MEGA bestselling author, Katie Kirby, comes a new story collection from the world of Lottie Brooks! And it's CHRISTMAS! In The Completely Chaotic Christmas of Lottie Brooks we spent the holiday season with...
    By Katie Kirby
    Paperback
    $1799
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Matihe! Achoo! Matihe! Achoo!
    New Release
    Matihe! Achoo!
    What happens when a grumpy tupua has to sneeze? Matihe! Achoo! is a bilingual story about the tupua Mataoho and his connection to the volcanoes of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. It comes with an action song to engage young readers! He pūrākau e pā ana ki a Mataoho me ngā puia o Takamaki Makaurau. He tupua pukukino a Mataoho e noho...
    By Qiane Matata-Sipu
    Paperback
    $1899
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Sweet As Looky Book
    New Release
    The Sweet As Looky Book
    Can you find all the chocolate fish? Is it possible for kiwi to fly? Can you spot the difference? See Aotearoa New Zealand through the eyes of award-winning artist Donovan Bixley in The Sweet As Looky Book. Use your finest skills to seek out pirates in the Bay of Islands and birds in Rakiura Stewart Island. Get in a car...
    By Donovan Bixley
    Hardback
    $2299
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 190,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.