Information books, poetry and fairytales — Holiday Reading 2011

Giles Andreae Mad about minibeasts: From slugs and snails to bustling beetles and beautiful butterflies, these rhymes are full of humour and great to read aloud. Illustrated by David Wojtowycz.
Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos Sugar changed the world: Sugar has left a bloody trail through human history. Cane — not cotton or tobacco — drove the slave trade and took the lives of countless Africans who toiled on sugar plantations under cruel overseers. This book traces the history of sugar from its origins in New Guinea around 7000 B.C. to its use in the 21st century to produce ethanol.
Steve Bloom My favourite animal families: Each family is featured over four pages, with beautiful photographs. Entertaining and lively texts by David Henry Wilson accompany the entries and explain anything and everything of interest: why hippo families like to wallow in mud, and why you should always look at a zebra’s ears.
Sandra Boynton Amazing cows: A book of bovinely inspired misinformation. Jokes, humorous stories, poems and a comic book about cows.
Anthony Browne Playing the shape game: A fascinating insight into the life and work of Anthony Browne.
Betty Brownlie Life Cycle Series (New Zealand): New and revised titles in the comprehensive Life Cycle Of… series. This year’s titles include Kiwi, Monarch Butterfly, Tuatara and Frog.
Charlie Cantrell A Friend for Einstein: After searching for a new friend, Einstein, a very small horse, finds the perfect companion in a white boxer named Lilly.
Joel Chaffee How to build a prize-winning robot: Introduces robotics competitions that involve robots competing against one another, performing designated tasks to win a prize and explains that competitions are won by simple ideas that work and by skills that go beyond engineering and science such as teamwork and ability for testing.
Susan Copsey Our Children Aotearoa (New Zealand): Seventeen New Zealand children from diverse cultural backgrounds share their lives. Includes a short guide for children to do their own profile.
Nina Crews Jack and the beanstalk: Jack receives beans as pay for a job he completes and lo and behold, those beans lead him up a beanstalk and into the company of giants! In her innovative photo-collage style, Nina Crews freshens up a beloved children’s tale for today’s young readers.
Nicola Davies Talk Talk Squawk!: How does a stinkbug flirt, a bee give orders, or a panda say back off? A celebrated duo is back with a guide to messaging, animal-style. Illustrated by Neal Layton.
Adrian Dingle How to make a universe with 92 ingredients: Presents chemistry ‘experiments’ that show how the things are made from just 92 chemical elements — from tree to mobile phones, and from humans to the Sun.
DK Publishing How cool is this?: Discover the secret science behind the coolest inventions. How Cool is This? is an exciting introduction to inventions and technology. It’s packed with delights such as glow sticks and exploding bubbles, modern mysteries like e-ink and wind turbines and familiar objects from crash helmets to fireworks.
Elizabeth Dowsett Lego Harry Potter: Gives readers an up-close look at the bricks, constructions, and figures of the LEGO Harry Potter universe — from Hogwarts Castle to Hagrid’s hut.
Nick Dowson North: Traces the awe-inspiring spring migration of millions of creatures to the Arctic — the greatest journey on Earth. Illustrated by Patrick Benson.
Betsy Franco A Dazzling display of dogs: Presents a collection of thirty-four concrete poems about dogs and their canine behaviour. Concrete poems are poems where the spacing and layout of the poem contributes as much as the content.
Maria Gill Call of the kōkako (New Zealand): Tells the remarkable story of how the kōkako, New Zealand’s last remaining species of wattlebird, is being saved. A second part of the book tells a special story — this is the successful quest of one conservationist to save ten kōkako from a forest about to be felled.
Bruce Goldstone 100 ways to celebrate 100 days: It’s the 100th day of school — what can you do to celebrate? Here are 100 different ideas. From collecting to counting, baking to bouncing, reading to writing, every possible kind of activity is included.
Jen Green Earthquake: Find out how people react and rebuild their lives and the environment when an earthquake occurs and what communities and the emergency services do in response.
Adam Hutchinson When my home shook: Unedited and personal accounts of the Canterbury earthquake as told by primary and intermediate school children. From Whenmyhomeshook.co.nz.
Martin Jenkins Can we save the tiger?: he tiger is just one of thousands of animals — including the ground iguana and the partula snail — currently in danger of becoming extinct, joining the dodo, the marsupial wolf, and countless others we will never see again.
Steve Jenkins Bones: A guide to human and animal skeletons provides informative comparisons while sharing such facts as the number of bones in the human body and the ways that skeletal structures work.
Teruyuki Komiya Life-size aquarium: Introduces young readers to nineteen different marine animals.
Edward Lear His shoes were far too tight: Meet the Pobble with his chilly feet, the Owl and the Pussycat and a hive of silvery bees. Come inside this book and find poetry to feed your mind.
Alison Lester One small island: A picture book about the life and times of Macquarie Island, a sub-Antarctic Island and World Heritage Site. This book traces the history of the island and the story of how its precious ecosystem has been damaged over the years. It’s a story of hope and renewal, and Macquarie Island’s plight is a microcosm of the environmental issues facing us today.
David Macauley Built to last: Reveals the how and why behind some of the most fascinating and enduring structures humankind has ever created.
Fiona MacDonald A 19th century railway station: Step inside one of the marvels of the Victorian age! An exciting and superbly-illustrated look at developing transport during one of the most important periods of modern history. A Spectacular Visual Guide.
Patrick McDonnell Me … Jane: Holding her stuffed toy chimpanzee, young Jane Goodall observes nature, reads Tarzan books, and dreams of living in Africa and helping animals. Includes biographical information on the prominent zoologist.
Janice Marriott Yates young gardener : get your hands dirty (New Zealand): Packed full of ideas for outside fun and learning. With experiments like making shrunken heads, a butterfly feeding jar or fungus garden, or even designing a dream garden, this book is packed full of activities for you to do in your home garden.
Salley Mavor Pocketful of posies: This is a hand-picked collection of classic nursery rhymes, all delicately and painstakingly illustrated by Salley Mavor, who is renown for her incredibly detailed fabric and cloth scenes.
Michael Morpurgo The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A modern retelling of a classic children’s tale illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark weaves contemporary social and environmental themes into a gripping tale.
Manjula Padmanabhan I am different!: This clever picture book presents sixteen visual puzzles. On every page, readers must pick out the one item that is different from the rest — a different colour, a different shape, or just asleep when others are awake! Includes text in 16 languages.
Francisco Pittau Out of sight: More than 50 animals are hiding in this giant lift-the-flap book. Identify them using their hoof prints, silhouettes, horns and more.
Lila Prap Doggy Whys: Humorous answers to questions about dogs plus factual information about dog behaviour and dog breeds.
Jack Prelutsky The Carnival of the animals: America’s first Children’s Poet Laureate and the illustrator of the Harry Potter books (Mary GrandPré) team up in a volume of rollicking original verses set to Saint-Saëns’ classical composition that is complemented by a CD recording of the music and Prelutsky’s readings.
Alice Roberts Evolution : the human story: Travel back 8 million years and go on a fascinating journey to discover how our species has developed from tree-dwelling primates to modern humans. Staggeringly realistic CGI and model reconstructions from original fossils bring us face to face with our ancestors portraying them as never before.
Salvatore Rubbino A Walk in London: A child’s-eye view of London’s top attractions blends lively artwork with facts, and features a sweeping foldout of the city skyline.
David Schwartz What in the wild?: Uncover ten mysteries of the natural world in these riddles paired with mystifying images. Guess what creature made that pile of twigs, mass of leaves etc. And why? Answers are found by opening a fold and revealing full-colour photographs.
Masayuki Sebe 100 Things: There’s more to this book than you first think — you can look for sets of ten, discuss the different colours and animals, look for the little stories and jokes on each page, see how each spread leads on to the next, or just count to 100 over and over!
Shel Silverstein Every thing on it: The second original book to be published since Silverstein’s passing in 1999, this poetry collection includes more than one hundred and thirty never-before-seen poems and drawings selected by his family from his archives.
Marilyn Singer A full moon is rising: A poetic exploration of full moon science, celebrations, beliefs, and illusions. Along the way we visit Canada, Israel, Morocco, India, China, Australia, and more. With illustrations by Julia Cairns.
Chris Slane Nice day for a war (New Zealand): A young soldier from rural New Zealand lies about his age and heads off to fight in World War One. At first he and his mates are full of excitement, but then they encounter the horrors of the Western front. Based on the written recollections of Matt Elliotts’s grandfather, Cyril Elliott. Partly in graphic format.
Ewa Solarz, Aleksandra Mizielinski and Daniel Mizielinski D.E.S.I.G.N: A fascinating review of 69 of the most innovative household items from the past 150 years — from the classic to the most crazy. Through light and witty descriptions, colourful anecdotes and bold illustrations, D.E.S.I.G.N entertains, amazes and teaches us about the origins, aesthetics and form of objects that surround us.
Philip Steele Trains: Uncover the romance of train travel in this eye-catching, hands-on exploration of the Iron Horse. Amazing die-cuts, sliders, and see-through panels bring the details to life as readers see inside some of the world’s most iconic trains.
Roger Sutton A family of readers: A definitive guide to choosing books for children and young adults — and nurturing their love of reading.
Stephen Swinburne Whose shoes?: Simple text and colour photographs explore a variety of occupations and the shoes that are worn for the particular jobs.
Chris Van Allsburg Queen of the falls: The story of Annie Edson Taylor, who in 1901 decided to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
David Veart Digging up the past (New Zealand): Archaeologist David Veart introduces young and curious readers to the story of New Zealand — from Pacific voyagers to contemporary crime scenes — that archaeologists have discovered. You’ll even learn how to do a little archaeological research in your own rubbish bin.
Martin Waddell The Orchard Book of Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Martin Waddell has brought together nine favourite stories, skilfully retelling them for today’s children. Emma Chichester Clark’s glorious illustrations bring the tales vividly to life, making this book a joy to share.
Robert Winston Science experiments: These exciting hands-on experiments — from creating balloon rockets or glow-in-the-dark jelly to making metal detectors — will help you get to grips with science.
Sharon Werner Bugs by the numbers: Provides readers with facts about bugs and other creepy-crawlers while introducing the concept of numbers and counting.
Nadia Wheatley Playground : Listening to Stories from Country: With historical and contemporary photographs, artwork by leading Indigenous artists, and new colour illustrations throughout, this compilation of Indigenous stories gives a fascinating insight into Aboriginal childhood, both traditional and contemporary.
Jeanette Winter Biblioburro: After amassing piles of books, Luis dreams up a way to share his collection with faraway villages. Tough terrain and menacing bandits challenge him along the way, but at last he reaches a remote town, where he holds a story hour and loans titles to eager kids before returning home to his wife and reading late into the night.
Woop Studios A Zeal of Zebras: Each letter of the alphabet is illustrated by a different group of animals, each with its own descriptive name.
John Yeoman Quentin Blake’s amazing animal stories: Meet fearsome alligators, clever coyotes, a jittery leopard, a shell-less tortoise and all sorts of amazing animals in these wonderful stories.
Ed Young The House Baba Built: In Ed Young’s childhood home in Shanghai, all was not as it seemed: the house his father built transformed as needed into a place to play hide-and-seek, to eat bamboo shoots, and to be safe. For outside, China was at war. Soon the house held not only Ed and his four siblings but also friends, relatives, and even strangers who became family. Through it all, Ed’s childhood remained full of joy and imagination.