Fiction for Adults:

Is She Still Alive? – scintillating tales for women of a certain age.
(HarperCollins, 2008)
A themed collection of 13 short stories about the experiences of older women, set in New Zealand and Europe.

Novels for young people:

Night Race to Kawau
(Oxford University Press, 1982)
An exciting sailing adventure set in the famous Hauraki Gulf.

Jellybean
(OUP, 1985)
An gentle story about a young girl's passion for music.

The Alex Quartet
Four books charting Alex Archer's progress towards Olympic representation, her Rome experience and its aftermath.

Alex
(OUP, 1987); published as
In Lane Three, Alex Archer
(Houghton Mifflin, USA hardback, 1987 and Bantam paperback, 1991)
Alex wins the crucial race for Olympic nomination.

Alex in Winter
(OUP, 1989)
Alex survives a tough winter of training.

Alessandra - Alex in Rome
(OUP, 1991); published as Alex in Rome (Houghton Mifflin, USA, 1991)
Alex competes in Rome.

Songs for Alex
(OUP, 1992)
Alex after Rome has tough decisions to make.

All six published by Oxford University Press and Penguin Books, in New Zealand, UK, Australia and various European/South African translations. The Alex Quartet is being re-issued as four books in new format by Penguin NZ, April, 2003.

Mercury Beach
(Penguin, 1997)
A comic tale of small-town fund-raising.

The Tiggie Thompson Show
(Penguin, NZ and Australia, 1999)
The first book about Tiggie, from fat girl to TV star.

Hot Mail
A novel in e-mails with William Taylor (Penguin, NZ and Australia, March 2000)
Two unlikely e-mail pals share their lives and find friendship.

Read a background of this book »

Tiggie Thompson, All at Sea
(Penguin, NZ and Australia, 2001)
Tiggie Tompson copes with disappointment and an unwelcome half-brother.

Tiggie Thompson's Longest Journey
(Penguin, NZ and Australia, 2003)
Tiggie comes to grips with playing the tough role of Eliza and finding out where her real ambitions lie, though her family and personal life threaten at times to overwhelm her.

Picture Books:

Carpet of Dreams
(HarperCollins 2006)
Illustrated by award-winning Australian artist Mark Wilson, this fantasy story is Tessa Duder’s first true picture book. It’s about a girl’s discovery of an old carpet in her grandmother’s attic, and the night-time journey it takes her, from modern New Zealand back in time and place, to its 19th century origins in Turkey. The recommended age is 5 or 6 and upwards.

Short Stories:

The Violin
(in The Magpies Said, editor Dorothy Butler, Viking Kestrel, 1981)

Person Overboard
(in Ice Cream and Tabasco Sauce, editor Lydia Weavers, Macmillan, 1990)

Sea-changes
(in Ultimate Sports, edited by Donald R. Gallo, Delacorte Press, 1995)

Not Just a Pretty Face
(in Zig Zag, anthology of short stories edited by William Taylor, Penguin, 1993)

Tuesdays
(in Falling in Love, edited by Tessa Duder, Penguin, 1995)

White Daffodils
(in Crossings, edited by Tessa Duder and Agnes Nieuwenhuizen, Reed Australia, 1995)

A Stroke of Luck
(in The First Time, Vol 1, edited by Charles Montpetit, Hodder Headline, Australia, 1996)

Freddie Bone
(in Personal Best, edited by Tessa Duder and Peter McFarlane, Reed Australia, November, 1997)

Sandboy
(in Small Packages edited by Linda Burgess and Raewyn Bright, Addison Wesley Longman, 2000)

How to Bring Down a Government
(in Morrieson's Motel, Tandem Press and NZ Society of Authors, 2000)

Cindy becomes a star! and Moana’s Secret
(in From The Big Chair, Penguin NZ, 2002, stories first shown on TV3’s The Big Chair)

Too Close to the Wind and other stories
(HarperCollins 2006)
Ten of Tessa Duder’s best short stories for children published during the last 25 years. It includes her very first published fiction: The Violin, published in Dorothy Butler’s classic 1981 anthology The Magpies Said. There’s also a personal favourite Freddy Bone, some stories originally written for TV now revised, and a brand-new novella (or long short story) Too Close to the Wind about a super-confident girl and an under-confident boy who go dinghy sailing, with unexpected outcomes.

‘The Whistle Blower,’ short story in Dare and Double Dare – 30 New Zealand Sporty Stories
(Random House New Zealand, 2006)
Edited by Barbara Else, illustrated by David Elliot .

‘Taking Flight,’ short story in You’re the Best! – stories about friendship
(Kingfisher UK and USA, 2007)
Edited by Belinda Hollyer.

‘Beach Theatre’, an adult short story, appeared in the Detours section of the Herald on Sunday on January 20, 2008.

Anthologies:

Nearly Seventeen
Editor (Penguin, 1993) Anthology of short stories and plays for young women.

Falling in Love
Editor (Penguin, 1995) Anthology of new romantic stories for young adults.

Crossings
Co-editor with Agnes Nieuwenhuizen (Reed Australia, 1995) Australian and New Zealand stories for young adults.

Personal Best
Co-editor with Peter McFarlane (Reed Australia, 1997) Australian and New Zealand stories about sport for young people.

Salt Beneath the Skin - seafaring Kiwis tell their stories
Editor (HarperCollins, 1999)

A Book of Pacific Lullabies, illustrated by Anton Petrov - Editor (HarperCollins [hardback] 2001, [paperback] 2002)

See sample pages from this award winning book »

Seduced by the Sea — more stories from seafaring Kiwis
Editor (HarperCollins, 2002)

Storylines: the anthology
Editor (Scholastic New Zealand, June 2003)
A brilliant collection of new stories, poems, illustrated stories and non-fiction by New Zealand writers and illustrators, edited by Tessa Duder for the Children’s Literature Foundation of New Zealand.

Spirit of Youth
Editor (Scholastic New Zealand, June 2003)
An anthology of contributions and historical pictures paying tribute to the Spirit of Adventure Trust’s thirty years’ service aboard Spirit of Adventure and Spirit of New Zealand to the youth of New Zealand.

Down to the Sea Again
(HarperCollins, 2005)
An anthology of first-person true sea stories for younger readers, featuring young and established New Zealand writers.

‘A Perfect Picnic,’ short story in Out of the Deep – stories from New Zealand and the Pacific
(Reed Publishing in association with Storylines Children’s Literature Trust of New Zealand, 2007).
Edited by Tessa Duder and Lorraine Orman, illustrated by Bruce Potter.

Plays:

The Runaway — one-act play for young actors about Joan of Arc, published in Nearly Seventeen (Penguin, 1993)

The Warrior Virgin
With Martin Baynton, music by Laughton Pattrick. A new play for young actors about Joan of Arc (Reed, 1996)

Non-Fiction:

Kawau - the Governor's Gift
(Bush Press, 1981)

The Book of Auckland
(Oxford University Press, 1985)

Spirit of Adventure: the Story of New Zealand's sail training ship
(Century Hutchinson, 1985) – with Captain Barry Thompson and Clifford Hawkins.

Waitemata - Auckland's Harbour of Sails
(Random Century, 1989)

Journey to Olympia - the story of the Ancient Olympics
(Ashton Scholastic, 1992)

The Making of Alex: the movie
(Ashton Scholastic, 1993)

In Search of Elisa Marchetti — a writer’s search for her Italian family
(Penguin, 2002)
A visit to the Tuscan port of Livorno uncovers family secrets and life-changing decisions.

Margaret Mahy - a writer's life
(HarperCollins, 2005)
The first major portrait of New Zealand's beloved children's author. Features extensive quotes from Mahy's speeches, reviews, commentary on children's literature, as well as previously unpublished poems and representative extracts from her works.

Contributor to:
Through the Looking Glass, recollections of childhood (editor Michael Gifkins, Century Hutchinson, 1989)

Contributor to:
My Father and Me, an anthology of essays on father/daughter relationships (editor, Penny Hansen, Tandem Press, Auckland, 1992)

Contributor to:
The Written World: Youth and Literature (editor Agnes Nieuwenhuizen, D. Thorpe, 1993)

Contributor to:
The New Zealand Herald Guide to Auckland (editor Terry Snow, Penguin, 2002)

Contributor to:
A Passion for Travel
Essay on travelling in Turkey, Safeguarding the Cotton Castles, (editor, Tina Shaw, Tandem Press, 1998)

Educational Readers and Booklets:

Play It Again Sam
(Shortland Publications)

Dragons
(Shortland Publications)

Simply Messing About in Boats
(Shortland Publications)

Restoring Tissot
The story of the restoration of James Tissot's Still on Top, Applications series, (Learning Media, 2001)