Children's Books > NZ Children's > NZ Chapter Books

In the reign of Lady Gall (Provisional Monarch of Fontania), the word magic is forbidden... When 12 year old Jasper Ludlow's parents flee the city, he gets left behind. He finds refuge on The Travelling Restaurant, a sailing ship captained by old Dr Rocket and crewed by feisty Polly. Where is Jasper's baby sister? He journeys across seas and rivers, and faces whirlpools, storms and hungry pirates to find her. Who should he trust - his unreliable uncle, the mysterious journalist in black, or the gutsy, flute-playing orphan? Why ... read more

This attractive hardback anthology of the marvellous Margaret Mahy's stories brings together many classic childhood favourites. All eleven stories are presented with their original iconic illustrations and all will amuse, enthrall and delight. Finally The Man whose Mother was a Pirate, The Lion in the Meadow, The Great White Man Eating Shark, The Boy who was Followed Home, The Boy with two Shadows, The Three-Legged Cat, The Witch in the Cherry Tree, A Summery Saturday Morning, Jam and The Great Piratical Rumbustification are brou... read more

Wee Jack Baines is tired of living in his brother's shadow. Unlike his brother Robert, Jack is no good at sports or rabbit-shooting, and is not popular at school. Luckily for him, though, his Uncle Onslow notices that, as well as being short, Jack has a gift with horses: perfect for a jockey! And so he arranges an apprenticeship for Jack with a trainer in Napier. Determined to prove to his family that he can be as good as Robert, Jack sets out with high hopes and dreams of success - so at last he can be called just Jack. Instea... read more

THE SACRIFICE is a futuristic novel set in the top of the North Island and the Pacific. Decades earlier, eruptions around the Pacific 'ring of fire', and consequent devastating tsunami, had annihilated Western civilization and technology, along with most of the population. Those who survive revert to hunter-gatherer mode, both in the absence of technology and in the belief that technology and even crop cultivation were the cause of the catastrophe. There is a return to a belief in elemental gods; some exploiting this as a means of ... read more

Thrown hard on the bottom boards, I stared up at distorted mouths, faces so red I could feel their heat. They stank of rage and of something else; several frothed at the mouth; their howls drowned the clatter and shriek of gulls swerving and tilting above the mast … Banishment is the cruellest punishment, and one of the people driving out Selene is the person she loves. Calling the Gods is for older readers.

The Loblolly boy wants his old life back and his plight is all the more poignant for his searching.
In this stunning junior fiction fantasy sequel to The Loblolly Boy, Michael convinces the unhappy boy at the Great Hall to Exchange with him once again, and Michael begins a magical journey home. Complications, twists and stunts abound once the mischievous and perverse Sorcerer and the bumbling but well-meaning Gadget Man decide to assist in the bizarre turn of events. This is a poignant yet magical and inventive tale writte... read more

Juno and the Taris inhabitants must leave their dying island. The young people look forward to a wider life Outside, but Outside too has its problems. It is two-year-old Hera, with her uncanny ability to foresee events, who saves the Taris people from the injury and death prepared for them by an underground group of protestors. The people of Taris, though, have no choice but to try to live in this seemingly hostile place. The young people are entranced despite the hate campaign against them: there are the fashions, the technologie... read more

Jake's life is sweet. He's got no money and doesn't have a mobile, but he's got two best mates; Buzz and Robbie. Buzz is generous and doesn't mind buying stuff for his mates. Jake wouldn't change a thing. But then Robbie has the idea of the century: rescue the old wreck from the ditch and make it into a paddock basher. Yes! Buzz, however, puts a spanner in the works by saying he's not paying for it all. Even stevens or no deal. Robbie gets a job. Jake refuses. It's just not his style to work for a boss. But he desperatel... read more

Young Adult Fiction category winner in the 2004 NZ Post Children's Book awards.You find it in any city after the cops are in bed - Thunder Road.It's where the street racers go to test their machines, and their nerve. Trace is 19 and has grown out of small town ways. He's hungry for more. In Auckland he hooks up with Devon, a guy with the Midas touch, who introduces Trace to burn-offs, big city style. When Trace falls for a girl even Devon says is out of his league loyalties are stretched.Then Devon hits on a dangerous scheme for ha... read more

Michael's aunt, uncle and cousins are moving to his neighborhood and he can't wait. Wherever they go, adventure follows! They're the wacky Wild West Gang.

Matiu Douglas' father Tama is a defence lawyer, a job that has cost him the love of his wife. Mat is used to his father's job creating stress, but when Tama takes on a high-profile case in magical Aotearoa, the defence of Donna Kyle and her deadly father Asher Grieve, family tensions run high.Then Asher and Donna escape, and Mat and friends find themselves drawn into a manhunt; the consequences of which will be deadly. In lawless Russell, the Hell-hole of the Pacific, strange alliances will be forged, deadly rivalries emerge, and... read more

It's the 1930s. Our storyteller is crook in bed trying to get over a long sickness and wanting to go back to school, when Uncle Trev arrives to let Mum go out and do the shopping. Uncle Trev tells one story after another about the animals out on his farm, and about his neighbour Gotta Henry. He also goes through Mum's cupboards and helps himself to all her gingernut biscuits and Louise cake. If you think Mum should be grateful to get out of the house, she's not. When she comes home, she chases Uncle Trev and his dog, Old Tip, with ... read more

A flute that will only play one mysterious song? A strange old man in a wheel chair somehow rejuvenated by this music? A leap from a window into a strange and often frightening world where nobody can be trusted and from which there seems to be no escape? The Enchanted Flute sweeps Becky Pym and Johnny Cadman from the realities of modern day school and the suburbs into an ancient Arcadian world where an old battle is about to be reignited and where even older forces are preparing themselves. The flute Becky's mother bought at a paw... read more

Flashcard: Determination. Make that, flashcard: Friendship - Foolishness - Fear. Because they can all look the same to Marty. He might have trouble reading people, organizing things or pleasing his father, but he knows that when his mate Luke - Legless - attempts to involve him in another crazy venture, it's futile to resist. This time it's the Young Enterprise Scheme. Luke believes it will make them rich and popular - and along the way will capture the heart of his elusive love. Marty wonders if it should be, flashcard: Mad... read more

Reading age 10-13 years. The diary of Ivana Ivanovich. Ivana, the daughter of Dalmation immigrants, lives in a hard-working community focussed on improving their lot. Just as the demands of school and home loom large there is an outbreak of polio that changes everything.

Minna is a typical fourteen-year-old. She's urban, technologically savvy and has a strong peer group. She has a boyfriend who is the school hunk, and she is being encouraged to 'take the relationship to the next stage' by her friend Lizzie. Home is pretty much a non-event. Her mother seems distracted, her father breezes in and out but isn't really present, her brother is a stoner.Her life is turned upside down when Dad announces that he wants them to live on an off-shore island for a year and work to make it into a conservation isl... read more

When Mr Patel asks his class what they'd like to be when they grow up, Finn (most famous for getting in trouble and doing stupid things) chooses 'superhero'. With his friend Brain, the two boys make a list of things needed to be a superhero, including superpowers and saving someone's life. Can Finn use his superpowers to help save his World Vision sponsored child? Sometimes, despite the best intentions, things don't always work out as planned. Join the hilarity as the boys' money-making scheme comes unravelled. Look out, world.... read more

In The Bone Tiki, David Hair began a cycle of compelling action-packed fantasy novels, steeped in the mythology and history of New Zealand. The spine-chilling adventure continues in The Taniwha's Tear. Matiu Douglas has promised to help the storyteller's daughter, but there are a few problems. The daughter is dead - she's been petrified in stone for centuries. And she's no longer human - she's a taniwha. When Matiu Douglas and his friends defeated Puarata, the tohunga makutu, they thought they'd won the war. Instead they started on... read more

The legendary Nina of the Dark has come into her power and won a mighty kingdom - but her battle has just begun. The witchers, those dark lords of evil, still plague the land ...and seek Nina's death. Forsaking both daughter and kingdom, and armed only with her fabled sword Brightsong, Nina is flown across the mountains by Illyugi the dragon, at best an uncertain ally. She must quest the Broken Lands for the secrets of her destiny as Nina the Chosen. To discover what it is she has been chosen for. However, each step of the journey ... read more

Maryam fights for her life, freedom and love in this stunning finale to the Blood of the Lamb series. Maryam and Lazarus arrive back at Onewere and Maryam, in trying to loosen the Apostles' religious stranglehold by showing the people the miraculous remedy, is captured. The ruling elite decide to manipulate her return and Lazarus's so-called 'resurrection from the dead' by setting in motion a highly orchestrated pretence of embracing her as the new Messiah - right down to planning her eventual sacrifice and death by crucifixion bef... read more