New Releases for the Next Generation
 

This is an interesting blend of New Zealand summer with the traditional Christmas story.  Each animal brings a gift with a distinctly New Zealand flavour to the cowshed.  Even the kune kunes’s ‘came oinking, oinking, oinking’ – with a hokey-pokey ice-cream and a chocolate fish.  And at the cowshed they find a very special guest.  Cowshed Christmas is a  good way of introducing the real story of Christmas in a kiwi context.

Don't kick up a fuss, Gus!   

If you are planning a long car trip these holidays you will be able to relate to this story.  There is a drought, and the zebras set out on a long journey.  Gus wants to stay at home and make dust clouds.  His family think up lots of diversions but he still kicks up a fuss.  Clever use of colour helps to capture the changing landscape and you can almost hear that holiday chorus from the back seat – “are we nearly there yet?”

 The Newton Tigers   
by Michael Wagner.  Illustrated by Gregory Rogers

The Tigers haven’t won a game all season.  Then, with victory in sight, the goalpost falls over and their win becomes a draw.  They must be the unluckiest team in the history of football.  But is it just bad luck?  When pint-sized Isabella becomes their coach they are forced to smarten up, with surprising results.  Another great book in the Aussie Nibbles series, designed for new chapter book readers.

The book of ghosts   
Selected and illustrated by Michael and Devon Hague

This haunting collection includes the work of the classic ghost story writers such as Saki and Edgar Allan Poe.  Their tales are sensitively adapted.  The language is challenging, but without a trace of the condescension sometimes shown in adaptations for children. Sleepy Hollow’s headless horseman remains my personal favourite but each story has its own ghastly atmosphere and its own dreadful twist.  Don’t read this if you’re home alone.

You must be skidding! : the biggest losers of the car world    by Tony Davis.  Illustrations by Shane Nagle

This is a catalogue of the gas-guzzling, the unreliable and the just plain ugly.  Many inspired ideas have hit the assembly lines as man attempts to make cars faster and cheaper.  Unfortunately some of these ideas don’t work. Tony Davis has given each vehicle a silliness score, with 1 being ‘a little bit odd’ and 10 described as ‘stupid as stupid can possibly be, plus a bit more.’ A good read for young petrol heads, but also for the designers of the future.

Things for girls to make and do
by Leonie Pratt, Rebecca Gilpin and Ruth Brocklehurst

The holidays are coming and this book has plenty of crafty ideas for those ‘what can I do now?’ moments.  Some last minute Christmas projects, dress-ups, accessories, and lots of bits and pieces for making a girls bedroom more glamorous – Things for girls to make and do will provide plenty of inspiration.  The boys aren’t forgotten either.  A companion book, Things for boys to make and do, is also available.

 The red necklace
by Sally Gardner

Step back to an era where kings were cruel and ordinary people starved. The time has come for this to end.  It is time for a revolution in Paris, France. Follow a young boy called Yann Margoza and his friend and mentor, a dwarf called Tetu, into the bowels of this festering city.  Into a world of magic, danger, love and suspense.

The awakening + The struggle
by L J Smith 

Meet Elena Gilbert, an all American popular ice queen of Robert E Lee High School, whose world gets turned upside down by Stefan Salvatore, an Italian exchange student.  Or is he? Can Stefan melt the ice queen and be her salvation or will his past come back to haunt him? Intense love or family feuding - which one will win in the end?