Book picks similar to
Taming the Taniwha by Tim Tipene
digital-texts
picture-books
international-lit
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Landings
Jenny Pattrick - 2008
The people who have made it their home are a diverse collection, from Samuel Blencoe, trying to forget his past life as a convict, to the hoteliers at Pipiriki, the nuns at Jerusalem, the Maori families, the Chinese market gardener and the farmers, like Danny and Stella, trying to tame the wild bush. There's also Bridie, the strange, silent girl, who haunts the banks of the river where the accident occurred that robbed her of her mind. Like the tributaries that trickle down the mountains and join the mighty river, so the lives of these people come together in this vivid and moving tale of a stunningly unique place.
Fishing for Māui
Isa Pearl Ritchie - 2018
Valerie reads George Eliot to get to sleep – just to take her mind off worries over her patients, her children, their father and the next family dinner. Elena is so obsessed with health, traditional food, her pregnancy and her blog she doesn’t notice that her partner, Malcolm the ethicist, is getting himself into a moral dilemma of his own making. Evie wants to save the world one chicken at a time. Meanwhile her boyfriend, Michael is on a quest to reconnect with his Māori heritage and discover his own identity. Rosa is eight years old and lost in her own fantasy world, but she’s the only one who can tell something’s not right. Crisis has the power to bring this family together, but will it be too late?
The Office: A Day at Dunder Mifflin Elementary
Robb Pearlman - 2020
There's just one problem--Michael doesn't know how to lead the line. Filled with colorful, detailed illustrations and brimming with Easter eggs and nods to iconic moments from the show, this hilarious reimagining features a pint-sized cast.The story will introduce The Office to a whole new generation and will teach them that everyone needs to ask for help sometimes. Even Line Leaders.The Office is a trademark and copyright of Universal Content Productions LLC. Licensed by Universal Studios 2020. All Rights Reserved.
Access Road
Maurice Gee - 2009
Rowan too, otherwise safe in her 'upper crusty' suburb, is drawn more and more strongly 'out west'. The past is dangerously alive. Clyde Buckley - violent as a boy; enigmatic, subterranean as an old man - returns to his childhood territory. What does he want? What crimes does he hide? And how is Lionel involved? Rowan must abandon safety if she is to find out . . . Maurice Gee is a master storyteller. Access Road is at once a novel of chilling tension and expansive humanity; both a beautifully crafted work of literature and an effortlessly seductive family story.
Little Miss Shy Goes Online Dating
Roger Hargreaves - 2017
Men have been tickling children for generations with their funny and charming antics. The Mr Men for Grown-Ups series now gives adults the chance to laugh along as the Mr Men and Little Miss try to cope with the very grown-up world around them. Featuring Roger Hargreaves classic artwork alongside hilariously funny new text.Little Miss Shy likes being single and loves nothing more than staying in with a good book. But her mother feels quite differently and she reluctantly decides to give online dating a try. Will one of the Mr Men be her Mr Right?The perfect book for anyone who has ever been part of the dating pool, reluctantly or not.Also available in The Mr Men for Grown-Ups series:Mr Greedy Eats Clean to Get Lean, Little Miss Busy Surviving Motherhood and Mr Happy and the Office Party.
The Bright Side of My Condition
Charlotte Randall - 2013
After escaping from the Norfolk Island penal colony on a whaling ship, Bloodworth and his three fellow convicts are left on a remote southern island by a captain who promises to pick them up in a year's time.It will be many years before they see another ship.Durign that time four men, with nothing in common but a desire to escape and a need to survive, live together in cramped and freezing isolation. Slangam believes hard work will see them though, Toper puts his faith in the divine, Gargantua leans on his learning and Bloodworth watched – both his fellow felons and the inhospitable environment.Based on the true story of four convicts who spent more than nine years on the Snares Islands in the early years of the nineteenth century, Charlotte Randall's latest novel is a riveting, intelligent and powerful work of fiction.
TUNDRA: Two-Ply-Strength Humor
Chad Carpenter - 2019
This hilarious 233 page full-color book contains over 400 of cartoonist, Chad Carpenter's latest comic creations. Consisting of anything animal, vegetable or mineral, but with a decidedly outdoorsy slant, this award-winning comic strip takes an offbeat view of the woodsy side of life. Find out for yourself why TUNDRA is one of the fastest-growing comic strips on the planet!
The Dangerous Alphabet
Neil Gaiman - 2008
. .Two children, treasure map in hand, and their pet gazelle sneak past their father, out of their house, and into a world beneath the city, where monsters and pirates roam.Will they find the treasure? Will they make it out alive?The Dangerous Alphabet is a tale of adventure, piracy, danger, and heroism told in twenty-six alphabetical lines—although even the alphabet is not to be relied upon here. A delightfully dangerous journey from national bestselling author Neil Gaiman and the monstrously talented Gris Grimly, The Dangerous Alphabet is sure to captivate and chillyoung readers.
Big Box of Boynton Set 1!: Barnyard Dance! Pajama Time! Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!
Sandra Boynton - 2005
A box of pure read-aloud pleasure. Just the right gift. Perfect for baby showers. Irresistible for a newborn, or for a one-, two-, even a three-year-old’s birthday.
Loop Tracks
Sue Orr - 2021
It’s 2019: Charlie’s tightly contained Wellington life with her grandson Tommy is interrupted by the unexpected intrusions of Tommy’s first girlfriend, Jenna, and the father he has never known, Jim. The year turns, and everything changes again.Loop Tracks is a major New Zealand novel, written in real time against the progress of the Covid-19 pandemic and the New Zealand General Election and euthanasia referendum.‘Loop Tracks is an urgent and unexpected novel about freedom and responsibility – about a woman forced to wear her solitary and unsupported choice as a puzzling mistake, and about the very present past that she must face to help her family and herself.’ —Elizabeth Knox‘This fictional inter-generational story will speak to a wide readership about the choices that are important for our future.’ —Dame Margaret Sparrow
Julius and Macy: A Very Brave Night
Annelouise Mahoney - 2021
Julius pretends he’s the defender of the forest, while Macy has a quieter strength. When their snack disappears one night, they decide to track down the only one who could have taken it—the Night Goblin. They both have to be brave in their own ways, and they ultimately discover that the real thief isn’t anything like they imagined.
Cry of the Taniwha
Des Hunt - 2009
The empty eye sockets were scary enough . . .Matt Logan isn't looking forward to spending the school holidays with his grandmother and her new husband. He has to fly to Rotorua, where he doesn't know anybody, and he's a bit wary of his new step-grandfather. All Matt knows is that he's Maori and a bus driver.Along with his worries, Matt packs his pride and joy - a homemade metal detector, because, you never know, he might find something interesting.What he finds is Juzza, who lives over the back fence and wants to join a local gang. When the boys unearth a handcuffed skeleton, a chain of events begins to coil around them. together they are thrown into a deadly search for treasure when the local gang boss decides to exploit their find for himself.
Pooh Goes Visiting (Carousel Book)
A.A. Milne - 1899
The illustrations are three-dimensional.
2000ft Above Worry Level
Eamonn Marra - 2020
This episodic novel is piloted by a young, anhedonic, gentle, slightly disassociated man. He has no money. He has a supportive but disintegrating family. He is trying hard to be better. He is painting a never-ending fence.Eamonn Marra’s debut novel occupies the precarious spaces in which many twenty-somethings find themselves, forced as they are to live in the present moment as late capitalism presses in from all sides. Mortifying subjects – loserdom, depression, unemployment, cam sex – are surveyed with dignity and stoicism. Beneath Marra’s precise, unemotive language and his character’s steadfast grip on the surface of things, something is stirring.
East in Eden
Izabela Shopova - 2009
I never perceived our life in New Zealand as exile and emigration as martyrdom, as it is the custom (and pretty much a patriotic obligation) in the Bulgarian cultural and literary tradition. Our life in Aotearoa was a challenge and a lifetime adventure, a love affair and a hilarious comedy (with just the tiny bit of drama) in a land, regarded by the rest of the world as the last Eden on Earth. This book is my humble attempt to tell the story of our hardship and joy, suffering and fun, the mundane and the extraordinary, the adventurous and the banal, that we faced during our six years in New Zealand. It is about the friends we found. The clichés we wrestled. The wonders we witnessed. The people we met. The lessons we learned. The country we reluctantly, but helplessly fell in love with. About Aotearoa - The Land Of The Long White Cloud. About New Zealand - at the end of the world.