NZ Author: Joanna Orwin - Out of tune

Goodreads summary: 

Jasmine is out to shock. Electric clothes, electrichair, wired behaviour: anything to get approval from the cool kids at school - and admit it, Jaz - to force her parents to take notice. Preoccupied with their own problems, her parents can't see how Jaz's desire to fit in is spinning her out over the edge. Somtimes - hard to confess to her new friends - the only real support Jaz gets is from Gi-Gi, her great-grandmother. You might say Gi-Gi has a kind of sixth sense. She's given Jaz a diary of their ancestor Maggie, to read aloud during their weekly visits. Maggie, at the same age as Jaz, had to migrate from the Shetland Islands with her family. Where to? Nineteenth-century Stewart Island - a wild, lonely, brutal place, that tested Maggie's spirit sorley. Her diary seems to speak directly to Jaz with dazzling clarity

Maggie and Jaz were born 150 years apart, but they look and act almost as if there were twins. This story covers a year in the lives of both teenage girls and during that time Jaz discovers just how Maggie reacted to challenges, just as she must too. Jaz lives in pre-quake Christchurch, while Maggie sails from distant Shetland close to the Arctic circle, all the way to Stewart Island where the next stop is Antarctica. Out of Tune is a colourful story of two girls, who belong to their own worlds yet have an uncanny connection.


Reviewed by Ruth Williamson.

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