Book picks similar to
The Pōrangi Boy by Shilo Kino
new-zealand
ya
coming-of-age
kiwi
Pieces of You
Eileen Merriman - 2017
Lonely but trying to fit in, she goes to a party, but that's when things really fall apart. I couldn't tell anyone what had happened. Especially since I was the new girl in town. Who would want to believe me? Things look up when she meets gregarious sixteen-year-old Cory Marshall. 'You're funny, Becs,' Cory said. 'You have no idea,' I said, and clearly he didn't, but I was smiling anyway. And after that, he was all I could think about. Cory helps Rebecca believe in herself and piece her life back together; but that's before he shatters it all over again . . .
I Am Not Esther
Fleur Beale - 1998
Her name is changed to the biblical Esther, and she is forced to follow the severe set of social codes of the order. Soon, Esther begins to lose her own identity.
The Bone Tiki
David Hair - 2009
His father's important new client wants it. Badly. And he has some very nasty friends. When Mat is forced to flee for his life, an unexpected meeting with a girl called Pania sets his world spinning. Suddenly he's running through the bush with a girl-clown, a dog who is way too human, and a long-dead warrior. Fearful creatures from legend are rising up around him, and Mat faces a terrifying ordeal.
Bugs
Whiti Hereaka - 2013
Me and Jez, that’s how it has always been. So what did you expect? Did you think that maybe you’d find out what happened to us in the future, me and Jez, Jez and me? Have you been following along, ticking things off check, check, check, to find out who got their happy ending?Bugs is about the unfolding lives of three young people in their last year of school in small-town New Zealand. Life is slow, and it seems not much happens in town or in Jez and Bugs’s lives. But when Stone Cold arrives, the three come to different conclusions about how to deal with being trapped in a small town and at the bottom of the heap.
Mophead
Selina Tusitala Marsh - 2019
Kids call her ‘mophead’. She ties her hair up this way and that way and tries to fit in. Until one day – Sam Hunt plays a role – Selina gives up the game. She decides to let her hair out, to embrace her difference, to be WILD!Selina takes us through special moments in her extraordinary life. She becomes one of the first Pasifika women to hold a PhD. She reads for the Queen of England and Samoan royalty. She meets Barack Obama. And then she is named the New Zealand Poet Laureate. She picks up her special tokotoko, and notices something. It has wild hair coming out the end. It looks like a mop. A kid on the Waiheke ferry teases her about it. So she tells him a story . . .This is an inspirational graphic memoir, full of wry humour, that will appeal to young readers and adults alike. Illustrated with wit and verve by the author – NZ’s bestselling Poet Laureate – Mophead tells the true story of a New Zealand woman realising how her difference can make a difference.
Singing Home the Whale
Mandy Hager - 2014
After he discovers a young abandoned orca, his life is further thrown into chaos when he rallies to help protect it against hostile locals.The boy and the whale develop a special bond, linked by Will’s love of singing. With echoes of the classic book and film The Whale Rider, this is a strong, exciting and beautifully written story and a compelling exploration of many global concerns.
Into the River
Ted Dawe - 2012
The boy who struggles to the bank is not the same one who plunged in, moments earlier. He has brushed against the spirit world, and there is a price to be paid; an utu to be exacted. Years later, far from the protection of whanau and ancestral land he finds new enemies. This time, with no-one to save him, there is a decision to be made...he can wait on the bank, or leap forward into the river.A prequel to Thunder Road.
The 10 PM Question
Kate De Goldi - 2008
But then, it is Ma who is the cause of the most troubling question of all, the one Frankie can never bring himself to ask. When a new girl arrives at school — a daring free spirit with unavoidable questions of her own — Frankie’s carefully guarded world begins to unravel, leading him to a painful confrontation with the ultimate 10 p.m. question. Deftly told with humor, poignancy, and an endearing cast of characters, The 10 P.M. Question will touch everyone who has ever felt set apart.
Shooting Stars
Brian Falkner - 2016
Egan Tucker is fifteen and has been in hiding his entire life.He has never known television, the Internet or even electricity.He has never seen hot and cold running water or a flush toilet.His food comes from the forest or the stream, not from a supermarket.The boundaries of his world are the hills that surround the tiny valley he calls home.But Egan's life is about to change.Forced to leave his home, he must venture out into a world that is unlike anything he has ever known.He is not ready for this world.And the world is not ready for Egan.
Rain Fall
Ella West - 2018
Maybe that's why I look in the river, maybe that's why I stop when I see it. A dark-coloured raincoat, the arms spread wide, floating, hood-first down the river. And then it starts to rain.Fifteen-year-old Annie needs to get to her basketball match, but the police have cordoned off her road. Is her neighbour, who she grew up with, still alive? What has he done to have the police after him? A murder investigation brings new people to Annie's wild West Coast town, including a dark-haired boy riding the most amazing horse she has ever seen. But Annie is wary of strangers, especially as her world is beginning to crumble around her. In setting out to discover the truth Annie uncovers secrets that could rip the small community apart.
Iceland
Dominic Hoey - 2017
We drifted through neighbourhoods in small packs, clinging to each other, all but alone. Our parents had given up. Packed their photos and furniture and moved to the forest to live simpler lives. But we stayed because there was nowhere else to go. We sold everything for rent — time, dignity, self-respect. Beneath the shiny new paint jobs and streets paved with debt lay our home."Stuck in a dead-end office job, Zlata hopes for a record deal so she can escape Auckland city. Then at party she meets Hamish, a graffiti artist and part-time drug dealer. Each has their own ideas about the other’s life, and surrounded by a makeshift family of friends and ex-lovers, their dreams of music, art and travel take shape.But as quickly as things come together, they can be torn apart — unravelling relationships and lives.
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had
Kristin Levine - 2009
Proper -talking, brainy Emma doesn't play baseball or fish too well, but she sure makes Dit think, especially about the differences between black and white. But soon Dit is thinking about a whole lot more when the town barber, who is black, is put on trial for a terrible crime. Together Dit and Emma come up with a daring plan to save him from the unthinkable. Set in 1917 and inspired by the author's true family history, this is the poignant story of a remarkable friendship and the perils of small-town justice.
Flight of the Fantail
Steph Matuku - 2018
Only a few of the teenagers survive; they find their phones don’t work, there’s no food, and they’ve only got their wits to keep them alive. There’s also something strange happening here. Why are the teenagers having nosebleeds and behaving erratically, and why is the rescue effort slow to arrive? To make it out, they have to discover what’s really going on and who or what is behind it all.
Black Brother, Black Brother
Jewell Parker Rhodes - 2020
Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at Middlefield Prep, he feels as if he is constantly swimming in whiteness. Most of the students don't look like him. They don't like him either. Dubbed the "Black Brother," Donte's teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter skinned brother, Trey. Quiet, obedient. When an incident with "King" Alan leads to Donte's arrest and suspension, he knows the only way to get even is to beat the king of the school at his own game: fencing. With the help of a former Olympic fencer, Donte embarks on a journey to carve out a spot on Middlefield Prep's fencing team and maybe learn something about himself along the way.
Genesis Begins Again
Alicia D. Williams - 2019
She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. Like #95: Because her skin is so dark, people call her charcoal and eggplant—even her own family. And #61: Because her family is always being put out of their house, belongings laid out on the sidewalk for the world to see. When Genesis reaches #100 on the list of things she hates about herself, will she continue on, or can she find the strength to begin again?