There’s such a tremendous range of books available for children that we’re spoilt for choice. However, finding the best and most suitable books on our own isn’t always easy. We’ve asked our reviewers – professionals in the genre of children’s books – to give us some good leads. We hope you enjoy some of their suggested top reads. Happy reading!
These books are full of facts and true stories that will feed the individual interests of young readers.
By Ewa Solarz Illustrated by Alleksandra & Daniel Mizielinski Gecko Press 2011 Hardback $39.99 Sixty-nine well-designed household items from the last 150 years, each given the star treatment with its own spread featuring the designer and where it come from, where the product is made, what it’s made of and what it does, all boldly [...]
By Richard Dawkins Illustrated by Dave McKean Bantam Press, 2011 Hardback $54.99 If you are inquisitive about the world around you and how it works, this book will be a treasure trove. Open at any page and you’ll find factual information told in an easy style which makes complex ideas easier to understand, and illustrations [...]
By Kim McCosker & Rachael Bermingham Simon & Schuster, 2011 ISBN 978098062415 Paperback $24.99 The 4 Ingredients range has been popular with busy household cooks since the outset, now here’s one especially for the kids. Food that they (hopefully) will want to eat and be able to cook (with a little help at first) themselves. [...]
By Johanna Knox Illustrated by Sabrina Malcolm Hinterlands, 2011 Paperback $22 Kids are often fascinated with carnivorous plants and will enjoy this first volume in The Fly Papers mystery-adventure series. Spencer buys a Venus flytrap plant called Dion, but discovers it’s no ordinary plant; soon Dion is talking and planning his career as a horror [...]
By Dave Gunson New Holland, 2011 ISBN 9781869662905 Paperback $24.99 The latest in this series of excellent natural history guides, this is particularly useful as there are so many creatures that are part of our backyards and local waterways. From lizards, eels and frogs to well-known birds like pukeko and kingfishers, along with some less [...]
By Maria Gill Illustrated by Bruce Potter New Holland, 2011 ISBN 9781869663124 Hardback $34.99 We all need heroes and here’s a great selection of 50 famous New Zealanders divided into categories of adventurers, leaders, pioneers, scientists, inventors, artists (from film, art, literature, music and drama) and sportspeople. Each word portrait is matched with a passport [...]
By Masayuki Sebe Gecko Press, 2011 ISBN 9781877467813 Hardback $32.99 ISBN 9781877467820 Paperback $19.99 A colourful counting book full of collections of 100 things. But there is more – look for sets of 10, answer questions in each page, look for the little stories and jokes, and see how each page-spread leads on to the [...]
Edited by Jack Challoner Quintessence (Penguin) 2009 ISBN 9780143010852 Paperback with flaps $65 This is a big fat book packed with information about everyday items we see all around us, along with more unusual inventions, that have an impact on the way we live our lives, complete with heaps of colour photographs. Chronologically organised from [...]
By Gerard Bertolini and Claire Delalande Illustrated by Nicolas Hubesch Translated from French by Jen Craddock Gecko Press 2009 ISBN 9781877467301 Paperback with flaps $19.99 All about rubbish from past to present; different types of rubbish and what we should do with them; how to recycle and what happens to the rubbish we throw away. [...]
By Barbara Todd Illustrated by Helen Taylor New Holland 2009 ISBN 9781869662466 Paperback $15 Told in rhyme with a mixture of cartoon-style illustrations and photographs, this is a great introduction to the charming penguin. It includes information about physical features and development, what they eat, life-cycle, how they care for their young and where they [...]
