Trainsurfer
Kate S Richards
Green Room House
Pub. 2018

March 8, 2022

Trainsurfer by Kate S Richards is historical fiction set in South Africa. It follows the journey of young Jabu as his life takes an unexpected turn. It starts with Jabu experiencing a heart wrenching tragedy. His instinct is to run. To escape the pain and grief, his journey brings him to a train station where he meets some unsavoury characters, who invite him to join them on their adventures. Jabu will experience further grief, as his journey continues. Through segregation and racism, will Jabu achieve his happily ever after?  Read more

Nikau’s Escape
Kate S Richards
Green Room House
Pub. 2020

March 02, 2022

‘The day his father walked out of prison was the best and the worst in a series of grey days, all stacked up in an outsider’s life.’

From that first sentence, I was hooked, and continued to be hooked until the very last words of Nikau’s Escape by Kate S Richards.

Jabu and his friend Kyle visit New Zealand, and are captivated by Pania and her country, Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud. They join Pania, her brother Nikau and their friends on a winter adventure – on a mountain that is about to erupt.  Read more

Call me Madeleine
Kate S Richards
Green Room House
Pub: 2021

February 01, 2022

“Climate change is upon us, it seems…”

Call me Madeleine is a beautiful book written by Kate S Richards. Her novels are commonly based on adventure and serious topics.

Call me Madeleine is about climate change. Madeleine is a student who wants to make a difference while battling family drama and her romantic life. The story is set in the future, where there are driverless buses and electric cars. Her parents don’t understand her alarm about the burning planet but do support her ideas and plans for how she might help the environment.  Read more

Trainsurfer
Kate S Richards
Green Room House
pub. 2018

February 10, 2021

Trainsurfer by Kate Richards is the story of Jabu, a young black boy in the 1980s, who flees the hospital in Johannesburg when he’s orphaned following the death of his mother.

He’s shown how to trainsurf by a group of schoolboys as a way to get to his home in Soweto. It was cool when Jabu just stood straight up on top of the train to trainsurf, when usually people go onto their hands and knees first. After witnessing a horrible accident that happened to another trainsurfer, Jabu is so scared that he decides to use a different mode of transport to make his way to his aunt in Durban.  Read more