Childrens' & Young Adult / Teen Books > New Zealand Childrens' Books > New Zealand Childrens' Fiction

From the award-winning duo of Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop, this is a new book of stories about the daily adventures of the lovable pair - Snake & Lizard. Snake is elegant and calm, and a little self-centred; Lizard is exuberant and irrepressible. With its wisdom, acceptance and good humour, Friends: Snake and Lizard captures the essence of friendship. The stories are beautifully illustrated by Gavin Bishop in the warm and clear colours of the desert. Storylines Notable Junior Fiction 2010.

A new book of stories about the daily adventures of the popular Snake and Lizard. Snake is elegant and calm, and a little self-centred; Lizard is exuberant and irrepressible. Even though they're opposites, they are good friends. With its wisdom, acceptance and good humour, Snake and Lizard captures the essence of friendship. The stories are beautifully illustrated by Gavin Bishop in the warm and clear colours of the desert.

A novel in notes for junior readers, this is a buoyant, light-hearted and mischievous book that will have immense appeal both as a read-aloud and as a read-alone. Stevie and Jolie are a slightly unwitting comedy duo. Jolie is the smart one who does his homework; Stevie is the kid who struggles a bit with maths and spelling and who's always asking, 'What homework?' When things get dull or difficult in Miss Hall's class, the boys start a running series of questions and ludicrous answers through the notes they pass to each other. Th... read more

Winner of the Junior Fiction Category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2010. The strange and diverting story of the Loblolly Boy, a fantasy novel by James Norcliffe involving enchantment, mystery, one garden gnome and a wombat's bottom. To the boy called Red, it seems the most marvellous escape he could wish for: a gift that grants him more freedom than he ever believed possible - the chance to fly, to soar with the gulls, high over the tall brick walls that have imprisoned him for so long. But this gift comes with a terrible... read more

His face was older, different to his framed photograph above the fireplace, and I felt a guilty niggle. It was shameful to forget your own brother’s face when he was fighting with millions of others for world peace.’ It’s war-time and a challenging year lies ahead for Helen. Her brother Harry is fighting in Egypt. Her sister Jess treats her with unreasonable contempt. The cows have to be milked, twice, every day. Dad hasn’t told anyone his heart is wonky and he&Atild... read more

We're back at the ranch with Aunt Effie in this hilarious book - the fourth in the Aunt Effie series. In this story Aunt Effie and her mob of dogs, nieces and nephews are set to descend on the Beehive since it turns out that the Prime Minister is really Aunt Effie's tricky little mother.

Arlo has been invited to SPACE to show his inventions to the clever scientists there, and he thinks he has finally made it. But SPACE is a stranger place than he could have imagined. This is aard-winning Janice Marriott's second outrageously original science fiction novel for 8-13 year-olds.

Sequel to Abby and the Hopplescotch Realm. The Techno Festival has come to Hopplescotch Realm. Inventors and magicians from each of the different realms have all kinds of gadgetry and magic spells on show at the festival - more than you could ever imagine! But there's mystery afoot. Who is the strange Techno Wizard who always cloaks himself, and why does he have such a sinister appearance? Who are the Techno Pirates? Are they trying to ruin the festival, or do they want to frame the Techno Wizard? As usual in Hopplescotch Realm, th... read more

When two boys and two girls goes on holiday to the Southern Alps, they are expecting to have fun exploring in the mountains. But on a hiking trip they come across a wounded man - a man who is being pursued by his would-be killers. What should they do - save themselves and run, or stay and help the victim? Their decision has far-reaching consequences - for themselves, for the mysterious wounded man, and for a visiting American senator. Target For Terror is a gripping story that takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride full of sus... read more

In 1924, thirteen-year-old Dee is living with her mother and aunt: her father died during World War One. Although she misses her father, Dee is happy enough until she is separated from her mother and her aunt, both of whom, falling very ill, have to go to a sanatorium for medical care. Dee is thrust into a Wellington children's Refuge, where an authoritarian Assistant Matron makes her life a misery, and the rules of the institution suffocate Dee's academic ambitions and her self-expression. Soon Dee is shocked to learn that her aun... read more

Harry Wakatipu returns to the Hopuruahine Hut, and – out of the mythical mists... read more

For readers aged 10 to 13: a spellbinding fantasy. The Unquiet creeps between star systems and attacks the earth, swallowing countries. But in a town at the bottom of the world lives a girl with a gift that can help. With her classmate Anaru, Tansy travels far into the heart of the earth. What will they discover there? Can they stem the world’s... read more

Here is the second book in the hilarious and outrageous Aunt Effie series. In this story Aunt Effie, dressed in her green canvas invalid's pyjamas, hibernates all winter leaving her 26 resourceful nieces and nephews to deal with snowstorm and flood, ravening monsters, a barnful of hungry animals and a wild ark-ride over the Vast Untrodden Ureweras. Among the comic cast of cousins are Daisy, whose primness puckers the mouth, Alwyn, who echoes and 'backwardises' the most emphatic statements, and Jack, a junior version of Jack-the... read more

Ozzie and his family get ready for the visit of Uncle Rusty from London. As Ozzie says: Prediction: This forthcoming social event will throw my parents into a state of pre-visitor-tension, and our family will suffer from disharmony. And it does. Mum goes into a frenzy of getting the house tidy (read - Ozzie has to clean his room!), the lawn mowed and the menu prepared. The Brat, Snoops, Ozzie and Dad all suffer. Add to that a huge storm, the fact it's nearly Christmas and a few little Ozzie-disasters and it's chaos. Another hilario... read more

It's the 1930s Depression, and Maggie is growing up without a mother in the little Waikato dairying township of Waharoa. Maggie has to make do with her father's friends, neighbours and an old biddy who should know better but can't help herself. Maggie torments the boy down the road, sets fire to the dunny, helps with half the district to build a haystack, and sees the tragedy of unemployment. Along the way, Maggie makes new friends and receives kindness and help in learning what a girl needs to know.

You know life is tough when you've been put up for sale on the internet, your hair-drier's been sabotaged with a giant weta, your brother is called Monster! The world's greatest trickster, Brewster (aka Monster) creates havoc wherever he goes. Brussels sprouts, mohair jumpers, innocent kittens, veggie gardens, sisters - especially sisters - nothing and no one is safe from Monster's practical jokes. But the time has come to tame the Monster and straighten him out. Are the family, school, tough-love neighbour, and terrifying Aunt Mil... read more

Luke Evan's father cleared out before Luke was born, But using his internet skills, Luke tracks down someone living at a luxurious resort in tropical Queensland who could be his dad. What happens when they finally meet shocks him to the core. How Luke deals with what he finds will change his life.... if he can survive. This is Des Hunt's ninth action packed adventure, set in the Coromandel and Australia. First published February 2010.

Anna is the well behaved and obedient child of professional parents. Her mother Penelope is a leading research scientist and her father a doctor - and she's been raised in a politically correct nonsmoking vegetarian home, with a solid foundation of firmly held beliefs she has inherited from her parents.However, Anna is shaken to the core when she organizes a school trip to her mother's work and discovers that she experiments on live animals. A sheep is being held on the fourth floor away from all the things that make life good for ... read more

This is the true story of the Kiwi war horses of the First World War. The jet-black mare galloped wildly across the scorching white sands, the guns and shells exploding around her with a deafening roar. Her master spurred her on, his legs tightly gripping her heaving sides. With foam-flecked lips and ears laid flat, she thundered on through the flying bullets and choking dust ...Every ANZAC Day we celebrate our heroes, with many books written and stories told about the brave soldiers who fought and died in World War One. Until now ... read more

Life is never easy for Archie Roach. He's not much good at anything, he's got the meanest mum in the universe and now some kid wants him to save his grandad's house. And as if that wasn't enough, a psycho tagger's moved into town and joined Archie's sea-scout pack! Archie will have you in stitches as he deals with life in his own amazing way.