James Russell’s previous books, The Dragon Brothers trilogy and the Dragon Defenders books, were rollicking adventure yarns packed with dragons and danger, digital tech and nature skills, bad guys and good kids who, against incredible odds, always came out on top.

This heady mix saw Russell become a best-selling hybrid author – one whose books are published by both traditional and indie publishers – with publication in a dozen countries and translation into six languages. Now he’s back with a new series, Children of the Rush, and it’s so good that it won a Storylines Notable Book Award before it was officially released.

In 1861, as gold fever sweeps New Zealand, otherwise sensible adults have gone mad as they flock in their thousands to places like Gabriel’s Gully to toil away in search of “the colour” and hopefully make a fortune.  It was hard scrabble work, the living never easy, fortunes seldom made and spirits often broken.

Children of the Rush introduces two plucky youngsters, Atarangi and Michael, who are caught up in the tumult and, like the kids in Dragon Brothers/Defenders, have to grow up fast. They’re two very different characters but each has a remarkable and magical talent which makes them a formidable duo as they face lawlessness, greed and cruelty.

The pace is different to the Dragon Brothers/Defenders books, perhaps reflecting the fact that this is historical fiction – but it’s still shot through with elements of magic – and it makes for equally compulsive reading as Russell sets the scene and slowly builds the tension. There are many points during the book when things take a turn for the worse and you’re wondering whether Atarangi and Michael’s luck is about to run out but Russell builds to a bigger climax, hinted at throughout, when the duo comes face to face with a cut-throat gang stalking the goldfields, preying upon the desperate and the innocent. 

Turn a blind eye or fight back? 

It makes for a satisfying story where the characters are well developed and the chaos of 1860s, on the Otago goldfields, is well described for middle grade readers aged 8 – 13.  Russell seamlessly incorporates te reo and te ao Māori elements as well as flagging how difficult life was for those miners who came from China hoping to strike it lucky.  It gives more of a contemporary feel to what is well written and researched historical fiction.  The ending did feel a little too ‘happily ever after’ for the time the story takes place in, but further adventure isn’t far away with book two coming next year. I’ll look forward to it.

Reviewed by Dionne Christian