Dappled Annie and the Tigrish
Mary McCallum
Gecko Press
Pub. 2014
July 06, 2021
If you love adventurous children’s fiction you need to read this book.
Written by Mary McCallum and illustrated by Annie Hayward, Dappled Annie and the Tigrish is an interesting book full of adventures and mystery. From talking hedges to a flying tigrish, this book is full of surprises.
Nine year old Annie goes on an adventure looking for Mr and Mrs Hedge who are looking for the nest that was blown away when the tigrish leapt past. Annie goes to a variety of places and has a range of adventures from flying over the land to tramping through the forest. Read more
Red Edge
Des Hunt
Scholastic
Pub. 2020
July 05, 2021
Twelve-year-old Cassi Whelan and her dad have just moved into a house on the edge of the Red Zone in Christchurch, an area that had been left to be reclaimed by nature after two deadly earthquakes struck nine years before. The Red Zone is abandoned and appears to be a ghost town, and was the part of Christchurch that would never be built on again – so they said.
There are no people, no cars, no man-made noise; nothing.
Fortunately, this suits Cassi perfectly. Every day, she runs through the deserted streets and meets nobody as she pushes her body as much as she can without breaking. Read more
Make a Hard Fist
Tina Shaw
OneTree House
Pub. 2019
July 05, 2021
Make a Hard Fist by Tina Shaw is an amazing, spooky story. I had shivers going up my spine as I got deeper into the book.
This book is about a young girl called Lizzie but she starts getting these letters. At first, she thinks it’s her friends sending them, but as more arrive, she realises she might just have a stalker.
I think the author’s aim is to warn people that stalking should not be seen as a joke and to be more careful.
I can relate quite a lot to Lizzie. Read more
Saving Thandi
Kate Richards
Green Room Press
Pub. 2019
July 05, 2021
Saving Thandi is the beautiful sequel to Kate Richards’ Trainsurfer. It is a story that takes you on an adventure with the setting being an African savanna and the cold sea.
It is about Jabu who meets Thandi, a baby rhino whose mother was killed by poachers. Poachers are now trying to kill Thandi, but Jabu prevents this and while doing so uncovers a black market for poached rhino horns. Through this journey, Thandi and Jabu form an even stronger bond since their first meeting in Trainsurfer. Read more
Nancy Business
R.W.R. McDonald
Allan & Unwin
Pub. 2021
July 02, 2021
Nancy Business is R.W.R. McDonald’s second book, written in 2021 and published by Allen & Unwin, which takes us back to Riverstone, a small town just outside of Dunedin in New Zealand’s South Island. (Editor’s note: Read Ashika’s review of The Nancys)
Uncle Pike and Devon are back from Australia and they have bought number 4 Ronsdale Place, and are ready to renovate their holiday home. Tippy is on her holiday break and has been roped into becoming Devon’s P.A, helping them to finish off the house. Read more
Time to Remember
Janna Ruth
Pub. 2021
June 29, 2021
Time to Remember by Janna Ruth is a classic story about not judging a book by its cover.
The book is set in modern-day Christchurch and it was a real breath of fresh air for me to be reading something I could closely relate to. Usually, I tend to read books set in America or Europe and I don’t have that chance to form a close connection with the story itself.
I really enjoyed how the author connected past events such as the Christchurch earthquakes to more modern ones such as the coronavirus pandemic. Read more
Heartsblood (Children of the Furnace Book 3)
Brin Murray
The Copy Press
Pub. 2020
June 29, 2021
Heartsblood is the third book in the Children Of The Furnace series by Brin Murray. It is about some teenagers in a society where one country, Sekkerland, is still brutal, with children being taken away to a military camp where they are trained, beaten and even tortured. There, the sight of women is not common. The other country commonly mentioned, Southern Land, is an altogether more modern society with technology, big TV screens, and the like… but still the more upper class citizens have greater privilege. Read more
Fire’s Caress
Lani Wendt Young
OneTree House
Pub. 2021
June 29, 2021
“Protection can become a prison, Keahi.”
Fire’s Caress by Lani Wendt Young is a riveting story told from the perspective of a woman named Teuila who is garnering attention in the art world with her works that seem to each tell their own story.
Marc Gold is a man who arrives to the island after vanishing inexplicably for a few days. The billionaire is seemingly enthralled by Teuila and her art, wanting her to work for him. But beneath his generous exterior is a vicious beast waiting to erupt. Read more
Don’t Fade. Breathe Easy.
TNT Trilogy (book 3)
Sarah Delany
Self-published 2021
June 29, 2021
Don’t Fade. Breathe Easy. by Sarah Delany is the third book in the TNT Trilogy series. I have read the first two of these books and I can easily say that this was a beautiful way to end the series. The TNT Trilogy is the best New Zealand-written book series that I have ever read.
As with the first two books, Don’t Fade. Breathe Easy. is continuing on the story of Tate and Tamsyn. These two characters have been through everything together; Tamsyn’s attempts to fade out of the world unnoticed and the death of Tate’s twin. Read more
The Pōrangi Boy
Shilo Kino
Huia
Pub. 2020
June 28, 2021
The Pōrangi Boy’s blurb is deceiving. Shilo Kino’s novel, a finalist in this year’s NZ Book Awards, has so many more intricate and nuanced elements than just, ‘is it crazy to believe in taniwha?’ Here, the taniwha in residence is a metaphor for so much more. This book bridges a literature gap in New Zealand young adult novels.
The Pōrangi Boy is somewhere between a traditional European writing of an archetypal ‘journey’, and the abstract ideas, shown through a literal abstract novel structure, that Kino uses to showcase the Māori perspective. Read more
