Thirteen year old Ben Costas finds himself alone when his mother goes on holiday with the ‘axe murderer’ and his uncle, an eccentric eco-protester, disappears. Add to the mix a bossy runaway called Ange, two tenacious thugs, and a geriatric ‘greenie’. Ben’s struggles to reunite with Uncle Rick at an anti-logging protest culminate in a scary race to expose political corruption and save the native forest from exploitation.

There are two central themes to the story: Ben’s journey to self-esteem despite (or maybe because of) his dyslexia; and the crime of native logging.

"Kids need to know they can make a difference…"

The Author

Critical Acclaim

David Bellamy: "Great book! Like Ben and Ange, a new generation is answering the cries of a sick planet and doing what they can to protect it from the vested interests of short-term profiteering. Time to shout STOP from the highest rimu tree to the depths of the ocean. Every voice counts."

Paula Book (award winning author): "Ben is a delightful main character who thankfully doesn’t have an answer to everything, Superman like – but struggles with each obstacle and makes a tremendous effort to problem solve. Usually he succeeds. When he doesn’t, he berates himself, because at heart he still thinks he’s a dummy. The reader can see through this, though, so the message is cleverly delivered – we can be our own worst enemy. Have faith!."

Mandy Hager’s first book Tom’s Story won an honour award in the 1986 Aim Cildren’s Book Awards.

From her work with children with learning difficulties Mandy understands the importance of fastpaced, high interest books. Her aim in writing run for the trees, besides creating an exciting story to promote conservati0on awareness, is to provide reluctant readers with a role model they can both relate and aspire to. She urges "if theyan’t read it themselves, read it to them! Kids need to know they can make a difference in the world, and that you don’t have to be an academic successs to be a hero!"

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