Kate De Goldi

Struggling with a quirky family and perpetual anxiety, talented 12-year-old Frankie finds numerous sources of stress while considering whether to ask his mother about an unspoken question and guarding against a free-spirited newcomer at school.

The 10 P.m. Question

Gregory O'Brien

Moving, charming novel from much-loved, international-award-winning children's author Kate de Goldi, author of the 10pm question. Beautifully packaged and illustrated throughout with drawings by Greg O'Brien. Perry's mother and father are busy people a they're impatient, they're tired, they get cross easily. And they think that only children, like Perry, should be kept busy. On Saturday mornings Perry and her father visit her gran, Honora Lee, at the Santa Lucia rest home, but Gran never remembers them. 'Who is that man?' Honora Lee asks when Perry's father leaves the room. After movement class is abruptly cancelled, Perry is allowed to go to Santa Lucia on Thursday afternoons. She discovers her Gran has an unconventional interest in the alphabet, so Perry decides to make an alphabet book with the help of Honora and the others. Soon everyone is interested in Perry's book project. Kate De Goldi's The ACB with Honora Lee unfolds with characteristic warmth, quirky, surprising humour and a rich cast of 'residents'. The story is a meditation on kindness and patience and acceptance; that of the very young and the very old. It's a story that will resonate with echoes of recollection for many - from Perry's endearing perspective on the adult world to the embracing kindness of those who care for the elderly. A many-layered and playful novel with a crossover audience, it will delight both the young and the not so young. Shortlisted for the NZ Post Children's Book Awards 2013 and the LIANZA Award 2013.

The ACB with Honora Lee

Frankie Parsons is 12, going on old man. An apparently sensible boy, he carries a drumbeat of worrying questions that steadily gain volume in his head. Only Ma takes his catalogue of persistent anxieties seriously, but it is Ma herself who is the cause of the most worrying question of all.

The 10 p.m. question

Eddy, Eddy is a richly layered novel, deftly written with humour and pathos.

Eddy, Eddy

From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle

In Frankies Parsons Leben ist alles verlässlich. Konstant. Vorhersehbar. Sogar die ständige Ergänzung seiner sowieso schon langen Liste von Sorgen. Tageslauf, Wochenplan, Jahresrhythmus - nichts ändert sich. Das Morgenmiauen der Fettkontrolle. Der tägliche Zickzack-Weg zum Bus mit seinem besten Freund Gigs. Die schlechte Laune seiner großen Schwester. Sein Klassenlehrer Mr A und dessen liebste Waffe: das Wörterbuch. Die Klangwand-Abende von Onkel George und Louie. Die ausgelassenen Besuche der Tanten. Der Küchenduft bei der Heimkehr. Und die absolut zuverlässigen Antworten seiner Mutter - immer abends um zehn. Doch dieses Jahr ist alles anders. Das liegt an Sydney. An ihren liebevollen, neugierigen, taktlosen Fragen. Und Frankie Parsons Welt gerät aus den Fugen. Eine bittersüße Familiengeschichte über Angst und Mut und darüber, was das Leben ausmacht.

Abends um 10

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 where he lived, home to a cavalcade of interesting people, singular shops, and curious stories. He has written so he can remember the summer before he was injured, the last days of a vanished world. Above all, he has written so he can remember the inimitable Barney Kettle, filmmaker, part-time dictator, questing brain, theatrical friend; a boy who loved to invent stories but found a real one under his nose; a boy who explored his neighbourhood with camera in hand and stumbled on a mystery that changed everything ... A beautiful story: big-hearted, richly entertaining, powerful. 2016 Storylines Notable Junior Fiction Award and winner of the Esther Glen Award at the 2016 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

A prize-winning novel about friendship, family and an impossible love. 'What made March really significant, what seared it on both our brains, was that Westie met his birth mother, Vicky, for the first time, a secret assignation . . . and I met Meredith Robinson . . .' Max Jackson tells the story of his friendship with Westie, from its wild, head-smacking glory to its bitter misunderstandings. In just one tumultuous year, a volatile cocktail - two young men, two women, love and hate and the weight of the past - changes that friendship for ever. Winner of the Young Adult Fiction Honour Book Prize at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards

Closed, Stranger

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.

Susan Paris

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.

Poetry

Skinny Dip

A moving story of young - and old - love. 'He looks at me now, full face, and I can see how drawn, how much older that face is - dark pits under his eyes, lines of tiredness. He's not the warrior king I fell for eight months ago.' Christy is under siege. Her father is dangerously near losing it, her grandmother has lost it and Christy fears she has lost her boyfriend to a peacekeeping assignment in Bosnia. In an attempt to uncover an old family secret and sort out all her relationships, she plans a train journey to the West Coast . . .

Kate De Goldi

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