Henry is a very particular sort of pig, who believes there’s ‘a place for everything and everything in its place.’ But when he looks out the window, he’s troubled. The farm is a mess! How will anybody find anything? Henry comes up with a plan. He’ll draw a map! Follow Henry and his friends through the farm as he draws the map. Will this sort everything out?
Henry’s Map is a very funny picture book that’s full of surprises. I started reading it thinking it was going to be a pretty straight-forward story, but David Elliot had me laughing out loud as the story took an unexpected turn. It’s so much fun to read aloud, because you naturally speed-up the second part of the story as the animals are all rushing around.
The animals all have quite unique personalities so you can’t help but do different voices for each one. Henry the very organised pig is a cute wee guy who kids will love. He proudly clutches his map and shows it off to the other animals on the farm, but he gets quite flustered when he thinks that it’s all wrong.
David’s illustrations are superb and his characters are very animated. The sheep are bursting with energy, the chickens are all in a flap, and the horse is galloping full-pelt down the hill. One moment they full of delight and the next they’re full of worry.
Grab a copy of Henry’s Map by one of our most talented author/illustrators, David Elliot.
When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .
Rachael King’s Red Rocks was my favourite for the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. Although it didn’t win the award, it’s a winning book in my opinion. As part of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Festival in Canterbury we gave away copies of Red Rocks to children at every school we visited.
As children, Logan’s grandfather and his sister Mavis spotted a beautiful and unusual bird in the kowhai tree outside their house: it was a huia, which was believed to be extinct. In an attempt to photograph it they tracked it deep into the Manawatu Gorge. This was a dangerous journey, made even more so when the Carson boys got wind of their mission and decided to try and find the bird first so they could shoot it and sell its highly valuable feathers. More than 60 years later, 11-year-old Logan has returned to the Manawatu with Grandpop and a scientist to try to solve the mystery of what happened to the huia all those years ago. Can the group rely on Grandpop’s version of events, and find the huia’s final resting place? Will the huia still be there, and will its DNA still be valuable for scientific research into NZ’s native fauna? Not if the Carsons have anything to do with it.
Jamie Reign was born twelve years ago, on the first day of the Chinese Year of the Dragon. This supposedly auspicious start in life hasn’t been much use to him, living a loveless existence with his abusive father, Hector, on a salvage boat. Jamie’s mother Mayling died on the day he was born. When Jamie inadvertently summons some fiery orbs from the air to tackle some local bullies, he doesn’t understand that he has tapped into The Way, the universal energy source, and in doing so he sets off a chain of events with unforeseen consequences. Whisked away by the mysterious Mr Fan to the Chia Wu, a school for students with special abilities, Jamie is taken under the wing of the legendary Kung Fu Master Wu. It is believed by Master Wu and his staff that Jamie is the Last Spirit Warrior, and as such his life’s purpose is to right the dreadful wrongs (climatic and political) taking place in the world. But not everyone believes so – and Jamie himself has doubts. What use is a Spirit Warrior who is hopeless at Kung Fu?
Callum thought things would be better after he and his friends defeated the evil Lester Smythe, but his world has just begun to crumble
When the Langur monkey troop rises to power on the dusty streets of Calcutta, it is at a price. A brutal massacre drives the Rhesus troop out of the place they called home and forces them to embark on a dangerous journey. But one Langur monkey, Mico, is prepared to stand up to the tyrannical Langur regime and fight for truth, friendship and love. As Mico uncovers the secrets and lies at the heart of the corrupt Langur leadership, he quickly realizes he is playing a dangerous game. And when monkeys turn on each other, there can be no survivors
Years after a violent war destroyed much of the world, Kaspar has grown up in a society based on peace and harmony.
Tim’s diary charts the arrival of his mysterious Great Aunt Emma, an old lady who appears grinning on his doorstep and decides to stay. Nicknamed ‘Grinny’ for her constant eerie smile and mindless chatter, at first their aunt seems to be strange but harmless. But when Tim and his sister Beth make a horrifying discovery about their visitor, they realise that the safety of the entire planet is in jeopardy, and the silent invasion has already started.
Where can you find shelter in a city of the damned?
My Best Friends Are Books 