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Copper Top by Coral Atkinson

Aisling Lynch, nicknamed Copper Top left Ireland in the 1860’s when her father died, to come to New Zealand and look for her brother and his friend. Tim and Rory had come to Hokitika searching for gold, but by the time Aisling arrived, they had moved on. In Hokitika, she met a woman who called herself Pearl and happened to be going to the same town as Tim and Rory were last seen, she also offers Aisling a job there, which Aisling takes despite it seeming a bit seedy and dishonest.

When she realised how the men were being swindled by the owner of the hotel where she worked, Aisling wanted to leave but found that she had been conned too, into signing a contract that forced her to work there for at least six months. She also knew she couldn’t work a minute longer so even with the thought that she would be on the run from the police, she runs away, but she has a companion, a dog named nugget.

While on the run, Aisling helps a woman who had just been bushwhacked while taking her gold to town and she remembers two Irish musicians and miners. Could Aisling finally have a solid lead to where Tim and Rory are? Will Aisling also find a way of making an honest living?

In this junior fiction novel, Coral Atkinson shows readers what it must have been like for those who came to try their luck in the goldfields of the West Coast during the gold-rush. It is a world of mostly men and transient populations that move from settlement to settlement in search for gold. It is also a place where some rogues try their best to relieve the miners of their hard earned money. Into this world enters fifteen year old Aisling, straight from Ireland, without knowing anything about life in New Zealand and in search not only for her brother but also the man she loves. She encounters all sorts of characters that would have been typical to the coast in the 1860’s. Teachers’ resources are also available for this book at www.dancingtuatara.co.nz/coppertop 

RRP $20.00
Published by Dancing Tuatara
Distributed by Greene Phoenix Marketing

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