Susan Brocker

It’ll be over by Christmas... Young Billy Bowman and his mate Jack get caught up in the excitement when war is declared in August 1914 and leave their jobs on the farm to rush off and enlist in the Mounted Rifles—because the war would probably be over by Christmas. We follow their journey from the Awapuni training camp to more...

This story is based on the true experiences of a remarkable horse called Bess, one of 10,000 NZ horses sent overseas to battle in World War One. Tragically, at the end of the war, the horses could not return to New Zealand due to quarantine laws and a shortage of ships. Luckily for Bess, her master battled to have her...

Caged is a heart-wrenching story about Sam, a 14-year-old girl from a struggling homeless family, who is already involved in petty crime. Sam must face her own fears and her sense of what is right to defy a dangerous drug criminal and rescue starving dogs and their pups from an inhumane backyard breeder.

Bullied at school about his stutter, and feeling ignored at home by his mum, stepdad and stepsister, Thomas takes off to the beach with the family dog, Lucy. The dog begins barking outside a cave. Bold enough to investigate, Thomas finds an injured dragon. He is frightened at first, but something about the dragon’s eye reassures him and invites him...

The collie dog slipped silently through the starlit night. She could smell sheep in the valley, hundreds of them. She knew what she had to do, and she had to do it quickly and quietly. This is the tale of New Zealand’s most notorious sheep-stealer and his loyal working dog. More than 160 years ago, James Mackenzie and his black-and-white...

Tomboy the Headstrong Horse recounts the real-life 1866 journey of Caroline and Nicolas Chevalier, who crossed New Zealand’s rugged Southern Alps on horseback, accompanied by the spirited and wilful horse, Tomboy. While Nicolas documented their travels in his art, Caroline kept a journal. The story follows Caroline as she navigates treacherous rivers, dense forests, and muddy trails, forming an unbreakable...

This is the heart-warming tale of Pelorus Jack the Dolphin Guide, a rare white Risso’s dolphin who delighted passengers over 100 years ago as he guided steamships through the rough waters of French Pass into the calm waters of the Marlborough Sounds. Passengers from around the world, even royalty, came to see him, and it is believed he became the...

Sniff, sniff, sniff went the brown puppy. Back and forth, back and forth. Watson is training to be a conservation dog, and there is a special species in danger. Some itty-bitty fish—Inanga, or whitebait as you may know them—need saving. In this story about a real-life dog, you’ll learn about how detector dogs like Watson are trained for a role...

Night was falling, dark and dank. The dog stood beside the wreckage, gazing up at the sky. Slowly a large red moon rose over the mountain, flooding the snow in bloody light. Ice lifted her muzzle to the moon and howled, long and sad. When Zac chooses the rescue dog with the startling ice-blue eyes, little does he know the...

This is the tale of Mrs Chippy, a tomcat who was a loyal and loved companion to the crew on Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 expedition to the Antarctic aboard the Endurance. The cat proved to be a great rat-catcher, and the crew felt he was their lucky charm. The ship’s carpenter, Chippy McNeish, is buried in Karori Cemetery in Wellington, and...