Juno of Taris (31 page)

I am Juno, daughter of Taris. I have a story to tell. It is of the last days of Taris, and of what went before. I tell it to honour those who created Taris, those who worked to keep it viable, and those who strove so hard to keep the dream of it alive. I tell it to remember and to understand.

Fleur Beale was born in Inglewood, Taranaki, New Zealand. She has written 28 books for children and young adults and been published in New Zealand, the US, the UK and Australia. Her first stories were written for the children’s radio programme
Grandpa’s Place
. Her first book was a picture book for young children, and she began writing for teenagers in 1993.

Fleur has won and been nominated for numerous awards for her writing. Her young adult novel
I Am
Not Esther
received an Honour Award in the 1999 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards. A former teacher, Fleur was inspired to write
I Am Not Esther
when one of her students was beaten and expelled from his family for going against their religious beliefs. In 1999 Fleur was granted the Dunedin College of Education Children’s Writing Fellowship and left teaching to write full time.

Her young adult novel
The Transformation of Minna
Hargreaves
was nominated for the 2008 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards and
A Respectable Girl
was nominated for the 2007 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards. Fleur also won the 2007 Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book for her first novel for children,
Slide the Corner
.

Juno of Taris
is Fleur’s twelfth novel for young adults. She currently lives in Wellington.

I Am Not Esther

Further Back Than Zero

Playing to Win

Deadly Prospect

Red Dog in Bandit Country: A True Story as told by Bill
Redding to Fleur Beale

Lucky for Some

Lacey and the Drama Queens

My Story: A New Song in the Land – The Writings of
Atapo, Paihia, c. 1840

A Respectable Girl

My Life of Crime

The Transformation of Minna Hargreaves