Young Adult Fiction

Lights Over Emerald Creek by Shelley Davidow.
Hague Publishing (eBook, 2014)

Lucy Wright, sixteen and a paraplegic after a recent car accident that took her mother’s life, lives in Queensland on a 10,000 acre farm with her father. When Lucy investigates strange lights over the creek at the bottom of the property, she discovers a mystery that links the lights to the science of cymatics and Scotland’s ancient Rosslyn Chapel. But beyond the chapel is an even larger mystery. One that links the music the chapel contains to Norway’s mysterious Hessdalen lights, and beyond that to Saturn and to the stars. Lucy’s discoveries catapult her into a parallel universe connected to our own by means of resonance and sound, where a newly emerging world trembles on the edge of disaster. As realities divide, her mission in this new world is revealed and she finds herself part of a love story that will span the galaxy. Read more…

Spirit of the Mountain by Shelley Davidow
Steiner Books (Paperback, 2009)

The hot South-African summer is getting to Emily. She escapes to her Uncle Tim’s farm where she meets green-eyed Joey and can relax. But Emily has an eating disorder, and each day she slips further away from those around her. Only Anna can help her-Anna the healer, the herbalist, who possesses the wisdom of ancient customs and traditions. Anna offers Emily knowledge of a world she could scarcely imagine.
Read More…

“A fine, strong, delicate story of a girl in mortal danger, who is saved because she brings herself to ask help from powers she does not understand. Emily lives in South Africa, but the voice in her diary is utterly recognizable half the world away-funny and agonizingly true.”
Ursula K. LeGuin, author of The Earthsea Cycle

In the Shadow of Inyangani by Shelley Davidow
MacMillan Education (Paperback, 2003)

Shortlisted for Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa

If you go up Mount Inyangani, never look directly an animal’s eyes. On that mountain, you might see things. – Jasper, age 17, Nyanga Village, Zimbabwe. Based on true stories about people who have vanished while climbing Mount Inyangani in the past, this fable-like novella follows young Lomu, who defies the wisdom of the village elders and the apparent wishes of the mountain spirits and sets out on his own adventure to find a lost tourist. In doing so, he becomes the unwitting hero in an impossible quest. 
Read More…

“A fine, strong, delicate story of a girl in mortal danger, who is saved because she brings herself to ask help from powers she does not understand. Emily lives in South Africa, but the voice in her diary is utterly recognizable half the world away-funny and agonizingly true.”
Ursula K. LeGuin, author of The Earthsea Cycle

FreeFalling by Shelley Davidow
Maskew Miller Longman (Paperback,1995)

Winner of Maskew Miller Longman Young Africa Award

Big Christopher, small Shelley. Like the tiny curly shell I’d found on the beach long ago. I could only see up the spiral to a certain place. I broke the shell with a stone, but then the spiral was gone. I saw that Christopher was big and small, and I was only small. How could I be like him? This is a story about two friends growing up in the Cape and experiencing a magical childhood – and the reality of a divided society. As time passes, their friendship deepens into love. Read more…