Ursa

Author(s): Tina Shaw

Young Adult | Read our reviews! | Adventure | Dystopia, Science Fiction and Fantasy | Aotearoa New Zealand

This alternate history coming-of-age YA is the Winner of the 2018 Storylines Tessa Duder Award.


“An inferior people, that’s what the Director called us at the beginning of his reign, but still useful.” There are two peoples living in the city of Ursa: the Cerels and the Travesters. Travesters move freely and enjoy a fine quality of life. Cerel men are kept in wild camps and the women are no longer allowed to have children. The Director presides over all with an iron fist.


Fifteen-year-old Leho can’t remember a time when Cerels lived without fear in Ursa. His parents once tried to organise an uprising – his mother was blinded, and his father was taken away. But now his world is changing. Revolution is coming. People will die. Will Leho be able to save his family?

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STELLA'S REVIEW:


Fast-paced, exciting and moving, Tina Shaw’s  Ursa opens with Leho watching the Black Marks burning books. In the city of Ursa, there are two peoples - the Cerals and the Travesters. One works for the other; one has the resources while the other has the left-overs; one has choices while the other has none. Leho is a Ceral and a canny one at that - able to keep in the shadows, to wander the city unnoticed if he is constantly alert. What happened to make Ursa this way? And why is it getting worse for the Cerals? Is the idea of a promised new land too good to be true? In Tina Shaw’s teen novel we are introduced to a great cast of characters: Leho and his family - his grandmother who holds them all together through iron will, his mother who has been blinded by a sadistic officer of the Black Marks, his older sister who is secretly defiant, and his older brother working in the dangerous factory and plotting even more dangerous endeavours of a revolutionary nature. No one seems to take much notice of Leho, but he’s determined to prove his worth. Not only is he setting out to play his part in overthrowing the system, but he also has a greater secret - a new-found friendship with an unusual Travestor girl, Emee, who he is curiously drawn to. Will there be a time when a Ceral boy and Travestor girl can be friends? Shaw writes with great pace and lively descriptions of the disparate halves of the city, hooking the reader in. Through Leho’s eyes, we discover more about the world he lives in as he begins to understand more about the history of Ursa and the people's desires and needs. He begins to understand his older siblings and the difficulties they endure, and he begins to see the Travesters not as one oppressor but as people with diverse viewpoints. But he also sees increasing hardship and brutality as he is more engaged with an adult world through his work at the Director’s garden, a job he creates to get closer to the heart of control - dangerously close.  And he is not the only one courting danger: revolution is coming. Can he save his family and his friends? What can one unnoticed boy achieve against the Black Marks, against the Director, against a system that is unfair? This is a coming-of-age story that has heart and hope. An increasingly important reminder of regimes that denigrate groups of people through control of resources, with borders and power for the benefit of a chosen few, in a time where nationalism and populist movements are on the rise. Excellent teen reading with its great story-telling and character development, and with an underlying message to rise up against oppression.


{STELLA}


Product Information

Finalist - Young Adult Fiction Award for the 2020 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults

Tina Shaw is a novelist, short story writer and editor, and has written for both adults and children.  She has received many awards including the Berlin author residency. Her first novel Birdie was widely praised. She has also self-published City of Reeds, Dreams of America, edited A Passion for Travel, and later wrote The Black Madonna, Paradise and Fluff Helps Out. Some of her titles have been published in Pearson's Nitty Gritty and Mainsails series aimed to encourage reading. About Griffen's Heart was a Storylines Notable book and a LIANZA shortlisted title in 2010.  The Children's Pond was shortlisted for the 2015 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.

General Fields

  • : 9781760651244
  • : Walker Books Australia Pty, Limited
  • : Walker Books Australia
  • : 0.266
  • : June 2018
  • : ---length:- '21'width:- '13.5'units:- Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Tina Shaw
  • : Paperback
  • : 1904
  • : English
  • : 823.2
  • : 299