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Twelve-year-old Frankie Parsons has a head full of questions. Only Ma takes him seriously, but unfortunately she is the cause of the most worrying question of all, the one Frankie can never bring himself to ask. Then a new girl arrives at school with questions of her own, questions that make Frankie's carefully controlled world begin to unravel . . .
A touching, playful story about family, forgetfulness and friendship. Every Saturday Perry and her father visit her gran, Honora Lee, at the Santa Lucia retirement home. But Gran never remembers them. ('Who is that man?' she asks Perry, when Perry's father leaves the room.) Like Perry, Honora Lee is 'unconventional'; she is also sharp, outspoken, and full of surprises. So when Perry discovers that Honora Lee has an avid interest in the alphabet, she decides that together they will compile an ABC of life at Santa Lucia. Of course Honora Lee's 'ACB' is entrancingly unpredictable and disorderly, so it's up to Perry to take the reins. Beautifully illustrated throughout, THE ACB is an uplifting, moving and poetic story about the patience, acceptance and understanding of the very old and the very young. A unique, refreshing and resonant story perfect to share with those you care for, which celebrates being different and will delight readers of all ages.
Meet filmmaker Barney Kettle, who liked to invent stories but found a real one under his nose. Barney Kettle knew he would be a very famous film director one day, he just didn’t know when that day would arrive. He was already an actual director – he’d made four fifteen-minute films – but so far only his schoolmates and the residents of the High Street had viewed them. Global fame was a little way off. It would come, though. Barney was certain about that ... So begins the manuscript written from the hospital bed of an unnamed man. He has written it over many months as he recovers from serious injuries sustained in a city-wide catastrophe. He has written so he can remember the street w...
Annual 2 contains all-new material for 9- to- 13-year-olds. The result is a highly original, contemporary take on the much-loved annuals of the past - all in one beautiful package. Alongside familiar names publishing for children - Gavin Mouldey, Sarah Johnson, Ben Galbraith, Barry Faville, Giselle Clarkson, and Gregory O'Brien - you'll find the unexpected, including a new song by Bic Runga, a small-town mystery by Paul Thomas, and a classic New Zealand comic illustrated by new talent Henry Christian Slane. Smart and packed with content, a book for the whole family.
A new school year: nits, crushes, maths lessons, and rainy-day lunchtimes. But what happens when you send a bunch of poets to school? They loiter in corners and see between the lines. They notice the school bus is missing, there are hungry piranhas in the gym, that someone's painted everything blue.In Skinny Dip!, the makers of the best-selling Annuals bring you over thirty poems for young readers from all the New Zealand writers we love: Sam Duckor-Jones, essa may ranapiri, Bill Manhire, Anahera Gildea, Amy McDaid, Kotuku Nuttall, Ben Brown, Ashleigh Young, Rata Gordon, Dinah Hawken, Oscar Upperton, James Brown, Victor Rodger, Tim Upperton, Lynley Edmeades, Freya Daly Sadgrove, Renee Liang and Nick Ascroft. Edited by two of New Zealand's most astute and experienced champions of great books for young readers, and with stylish illustrations by Amy van Luijk, this witty collection gives young readers in years 7 to 10 and their teachers and whanau a crash-course in the range of poetic forms while having a whole lot of reading fun.
Just about everyone is in a club, except Lolly. Since her cat is called Laughing Stock, he won't help her qualify to join the Kitten Club, and only boys can be in the Harry Potter Club and Lolly is just not interested in the Barbie Club! Suggested level: primary, intermediate.
The Gecko Annual features a dictionary of odd words that come in handy on car trips, a sophisticated 'spot the similarity', a found poem from school newsletters, a maths-nerd's memoir full of tricky logic puzzles, comics that embrace other worlds, a very unlucky zebra, and top-class fiction that spans Christchurch Botanic Gardens in the 19th century, the loss of a brother, a Kiwi beach holiday and a Fontanian boarding school. This is a book for readers who are hungry for sophisticated, wide-ranging, and challenging content. It aims to revitalize the reading experience for this age group and create lifetime readers.
There was an old man who lived on the edge of the world and he had a horse called Sydney Bridge Upside Down. He was a scar-faced old man and his horse was a slow-moving bag of bones, and I start with this man and his horse because they were there for all the terrible happenings up the coast that summer, always somewhere around. The terrible happenings take place at the abandoned meatworks in Calliope Bay, a forbidden and dangerous place, where the cries of animals being slaughtered can be heard in the wind. It’s a place where Harry Baird finds himself drawn, a place where accidents happen. A place where people die. Sydney Bridge Upside Down is the great unread New Zealand novel—a gothic thriller, a coming-of-age story and a sinister family tragedy.
We should have a new sign,’ said Lizard. ‘Exactly what I was thinking!’ cried Snake. ‘A huge sign at the entrance of our burrow! Snake and Lizard, Helper and Helper. Big help one egg. Little help one beetle.’ Lizard said in a small squeak, ‘Lizard and Snake.’ ‘What?’ He lifted his chin in defiance. ‘Lizard and Snake! Lizard and Snake!’ ‘My dear friend, we can’t have that. Creatures are used to Snake and Lizard. They’ll think Lizard and Snake is a new partnership.’
Cat Stuart has experienced a tragedy in her family life and doesn't realize the impact that it has had on her thinking until another tragedy brings her whole world down around her again__