Children's Books > NZ Children's > NZ Picture Books

A delightful and joyous collection of illustrated short stories for reading aloud to young children.This is Joy Cowley at her child-friendly best! With illustrations by Gavin Bishop.

A zany story with over-the-top but endearing characters plus luscious, full page illustrations that need a long look to discover all their jokes and comments. A book that will appeal to a wide age group. There are lots of truly laugh-out-loud sequences and some memorable lines.

Melu decides to follow his dream, instead of the herd ...The mules had been clip-clopping around the sun-baked hills for generations. They always clip-clopped in the same direction: west towards the setting sun. And they never ventured down to the glittering green sea. But Melu was different. He was always out of step. When the herd clipped, Melu clopped. When the others clopped, Melu clipped. And one day, he decided he wanted to go down to the glittering green sea ...

Winner of the Children's Choice Award, New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2010. Craig Smith's song, The Wonky Donkey, won an APRA Silver Scroll Award in 2008 for Best Children's Song of the Year. This is a paperback book and CD set of the award-winning song The Wonky Donkey with hilarious illustrations that will have you laughing out loud! In the very funny, cumulative song, each page tells us something new about the donkey until we end up with a "spunky, hanky-panky cranky stinky dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey".... read more

Mrs Gimble's cat would love to prowl, but has only three legs. Mrs Gimble's brother, who prowls the world, comes to visit and mistakes the cat for his hat ...A gloriously funny picture book. First published 1993.

This is the story of Tiberius, a small brown field mouse who lives in the bush in an old kauri stump in Titirangi, with his companions, five hu-hu beetles. One day Tiberius meets a small white mouse who lives in the Big House, and together they enjoy some wonderful adventures.

Right there in the backyard Oscar and Bryn struck something hard. What they discover as they dig deeper will surprise everyone. Join these little adventurers and a whole parade of diggers as they uncover a VERY BIG FIND. A delightful story with a big surprise pop-up at the end.

A dinosaur follow-the-leader story! Follow Ruth Paul's colourful dinosaurs as they HOP, STOMP and ROAR their way through the pages of this beautifully illustrated book. On the outward journey the largest dinosaur leads, until they can go no further ...then on the way back, it's baby dinosaur who gets to lead the way!

Bruiser is a machine on a mission - a digger who's ploughing up hillsides, trampling down paddocks and crushing rocks in his plan to build a motorway. His motor roared like a dinosaur. His wheels squealed like an elephant. His sides rumbled like an earthquake. He shook his blade like an angry fist. Noise and energy abound! Until a little chick and a nest fall right in front of him - and Bruiser realises there's more to life than tearing up hillsides. He rescues the chick and builds the family a new nest. Bold, strong images... read more

Gavin Bishop illustrates an old English rhyme in a vertical board book for very young children. The illustrations bring in housekeeping into the rhyme, with the washerwoman in her basket, sweeping cobwebs from the sky.

Roadworks is made with machine-mad pre-school boys in mind, though girls will also love the exciting noise - words, rhythms and rhymes. Roadworks aims to differ from other machine books in that it shows an actual project being completed from start to finish, in this case, the building of a road. The format is simple and would lend itself to further books in a series.

Little Bug Blue has a wish. Little Bug Red has an appetite. Together they discover that getting what you always wanted is sometimes just the beginning.

Young soldier Jim McLeod waits in the trenches of World War I for the order to attack the enemy. With him are his friends, and Nipper, the messenger dog. When they charge across no-man's-land, Jim is shot and finds himself face to face with an enemy soldier.

Presents the story of Slinky Malinki who steals anything from a clothes peg, to a slipper, to a string of sausages, to a clock. This story also features the hero, a BAD cat.

Dawn McMillan and Bert Signal provide an answer to that age-old question - why exactly do dogs sniff bottoms?

Kakapo is lonely so Pukeko sets out to find him a friend. But perhaps Kakapo doesn't need Pukeko's help at all - the booming in the night seems to be attracting the right sort of company!

When Dad loses his car keys, toddler Mary suspects that they have ended up down the back of the chair, so Dad begins to search. But, what an odd assortments of objects are living down the back of the chair! This lively, eccentric verse story is a visual explosion of fun and imagination, featuring dragons, pirates, treasure, lions, elephants and many more. But, what will a troubled father win from down the back of the chair, and will it be enough to save the family from rack and ruin?

First, a heart-warming story - with lots of fun wordplay - about a grumpy farmer whose animals keep him awake at night singing and dancing by the light of the moon. Eventually he is won over by the moon and the animals and learns how to be happy. Classic Margaret Mahy!Secondly, marvellous illustrations that will delight children and their parents - and that take the story to another level. David Elliot returns to picture book illustration with a gem of a book.
Added to this are beautiful book production values with die cuts ... read more

This reworked version of the traditional tale of the hardworking, unaided Little Red Hen continues until her own baby chick befriends the offspring of the lazy cat, rat and pig and together they play. By the end of the day everyone learns a new lesson in forgiveness and sharing.

In this beautiful, evocative text, Isaac does his best to explain colour to his blind friend Luke using sensation and touch.