Ahoy! Cuba Press, 2026ISBN 9781991150899 The story behind the story Many different strands converged to create this book. Of course there is the Shakespeare Festival! (You can read more about the Shakespeare Festival here.) But there are other themes as well. I was thinking about things like loss and grief, blended families, how to cope…
Oratia, 2026Series: The NZ Series (Part 9)ISBN 978-1-99-004298-0 Wild Life: An Animal History of Aotearoa tells the story of the fascinating creatures that live here, or have done in the past and are now extinct. How and when did they arrive here? What is unique about our species, how have they adapted over time and what…
Oratia, 2023Series: The NZ Series (Part 7)ISBN 978-1-99-004239-3 New Zealand Migration tells the story of who came here, how, why and when. As historian Michael King said, “In a country inhabited for a mere one thousand years, everybody is an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant.” We all have our own family stories of…
Ahoy! Cuba Press, 2023ISBN 9781991150844 Runner-up, NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize 2022Winner, Young Adult Fiction Award, NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2023 Longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2023Storylines list of notable books for 2023Aotearoa books of the year for 2023 (The Spinoff) Best children’s and YA books books for…
Norwood House Press, 2022(with André Ngāpō, consultant)Series: Voices from around the world: Pacific IslandsISBN 978-1-68404-813-7 This title is part of a series of non-fiction, 48-page children’s books about Pacific nations. The others in the series are about Fiji, Sāmoa, Tonga and Hawai’i, all written by people from those islands. Each book is crammed full of…
Oratia Books, 2022Illustrated by Burak AkbayISBN 978-1-99-004215-7 The Water Bottle is a picture book set in two countries (Turkey and New Zealand) and two time frames (1915 and today). I hope it’s a story about how today’s young people can build friendships with others who may at first seem “different”, and learn how to look…
Scholastic, 2022 (My New Zealand Story) ISBN 978-1-775-43760-4 “Being in quarantine sounds like being in prison,” I said, shivering. Lily nodded. “A bit like that. Except that the prison is your own home.” It might sound familiar today, but this is New Zealand in 1936-37. The disease is infantile paralysis, or polio, and nobody knows…
Pipi Press, 2021ISBN 9780473579579Highly commended, Storylines list of notable books for 2022 This book is a sequel to The Telegram (Pipi Press, 2019) – but you can also read it on its own. It is set in the same town and contains many of the same characters, as well as lots of new ones. January…
Scholastic, 2021Illustrated by Kieran RynhartISBN 9781775433842Shortlisted for the Children’s and Young Adults Book Awards 2021Storylines list of notable books for 2021 A beautiful story centred around the statue of a World War One soldier. The statue describes his own memories of the war, as well as what he has seen from his pedestal as the…
New Holland, 2020ISBN 9781869665395 Dogs have played a central role in the lives of New Zealanders. Whether working farm dogs, police dogs, loyal companions, mascots, little heroes or fictional dogs, they have become a special part of our culture. Our Incredible Dogs: The Stories behind the Statues looks at the dogs that have been memorialised…
Pipi Press, 2020ISBN 978-0-473-52170-7 A deadly disease is sweeping the world and nobody knows how to stop it. Movie theatres and swimming pools are shut and schools are closed. People are discouraged from gathering in large groups at the beach. Twelve-year-old Tom Mitchell can’t even see his best friend Charlie. He wonders when the lockdown…
Pipi Press, 2020ISBN: 978-0-473-52171-4Previous edition named in Storylines list of notable books (2007) Nicholas wants to find one thing that he’s really good at. His friends are all good at something. His annoying next-door neighbour Ruby claims to be good at lots of things. And then there’s Oliver Billington, who always wins everything. Perhaps he’s…
Pipi Press, 2019ISBN 978047346282Shortlisted for the Children’s and Young Adults Book Awards 2019Fiction Special Mention, NZ Heritage Book Awards 2019Storylines list of notable books for 2020 Fourteen-year-old Beatrice Thomas lives with her widowed mother and younger sister, Tilly, in a small New Zealand town overshadowed by the events of World War One. Many of the…
New Holland, 2019ISBN 9781869664992 Where is Antarctica? Who was the first to discover it? What was the Race to the South Pole? Why did it take so long for women to be allowed to go to Antarctica? How do you get there, and how is it different from the rest of the world? How cold…
New Holland, 2018ISBN 9781869664787Shortlisted for the Children’s and Young Adults Book Awards 2018Storylines list of notable books for 2019Rev ed: White Cloud Books (an imprint of Upstart Press), 2023ISBN 9781990003936 The New Zealand Wars is a fascinating look at a part of New Zealand’s history and culture that many people feel they don’t know enough…
New Holland, 2016ISBN 9781869664411Storylines list of notable books for 2016 At the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month each year, we remember the end of the First World War. This book commemorates the day when fighting stopped in Europe on 11 November 1918. It covers the final months, weeks and days…
New Holland, 2015ISBN 9781869664213Shortlisted for Children’s choice awards, NZ Post Book Awards 2015Storylines list of notable books for 2016 Aimed at younger readers but providing an excellent resource for the whole family, this book looks at the rich history behind Waitangi Day, universally recognised as New Zealand’s national day. It reviews the historic events behind…
Scholastic, 2014ISBN 9781775431664Storylines list of notable books for 2015 The Auckland Harbour Bridge is under construction. Simon likes watching the bridge being built, and talking to his uncle and his mates about what’s happening on site. Meanwhile, Simon’s best friend Marty is obsessed with the Space Race and his younger sister Jo can’t stop worrying…
New Holland, 2014Illustrated by Bob KerrISBN 9781869664114 The three young soldiers in the story are best friends from school, and they leave New Zealand together to go and fight at Gallipoli. Landing first in Egypt, they travel by ship to Anzac Cove and dig into trenches to fight the Turkish troops holding the peninsula. Conditions…
New Holland, 2013ISBN 9781869663803Shortlisted for the NZ Post Book Awards 2014Shortlisted for the Lianza Book Awards 2014Storylines list of notable books for 2014Rev ed: White Cloud Books (an imprint of Upstart Press), 2023ISBN 9781990003943 The New Zealand Story, what it is and why it matters.The 25th of April is a very special day for New…
Scholastic, 2013ISBN 9781775431473Storylines list of notable books for 2014 For Frances and her family, living on a lighthouse, the war is both far away and scarily close. There are rumours of submarines in the Pacific. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, taken Singapore and bombed Darwin, so what’s to stop them invading New Zealand next?…
ISBN 9781869439705Scholastic, 2010Storylines list of notable books for 2011 Harriet Jasmine Emerald Florence Mabey McDonald (Harry for short) wonders if an imagination is something fast, like a cheetah – in which case it’s not your fault if it runs away with you, because you couldn’t stop it. Or is it something little, like a celebrity’s handbag…
Gilt Edge Publishing, 2006ISBN 187740425X In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill established a secret organisation “to set Europe ablaze!” Discover how the work of British secret agents changed the course of World War Two. Excerpt The SOE (Special Operations Executive) designed and built a whole range of gadgets for their secret agents to use…
Illustrated by Alice BellScholastic, 2004ISBN: 978-1-86943-604-9 In this sequel to The Lost Watch, Henry finds himself in another awkward situation. Last time he took Dad’s new watch to school when he knew he shouldn’t. This time the school is to have a day where all the students are allowed to bring their wheels to school,…
Illustrated by Alice BellScholastic, 2003ISBN: 978-1-86943-566-0 It’s Dad’s birthday but Henry doesn’t have enough money for a present and he’s too old to give Dad one of his own drawings. Mum’s suggestion of one whole squabble-free day doesn’t appeal, so she lends him enough money to buy a ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ pen. Mum’s present to…
Pipi Press is the name of my own imprint, for books I publish myself, and the logo was designed by my daughter Charlotte. When I was choosing a name to publish under, I was learning te reo through Te Ataarangi, and Pipi was my te reo name for those classes. I also like the connection…
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